Japanese Mosin?

[Aggressive Perfector]

I'm kind of having myself a slight dilemma. I picked up a Mosin rifle (not sure which variant, there are several) about an hour ago at a gun shop. The stampings on the rifle are definitely Asian. The guy runnin' the shop (pretty sure he owns it) told me that it was a Russian arm, picked up and retrofitted by the Japanese during their war with the Russians. I think it's much more likely to be Chinese, but does appear that the Japs have picked up Russian Mosins and used them, and this one has definitely seen some use. Bore looks clean, and I see no rust at all, the stock just looks a little beat up, but no visible cracks. It's also quite a bit shorter than the Mosins I'm used to seeing. I can't make head or tail of Chinese or Japanese writing. Anybody who would be abled to help me out with identifying this once I get pictures up?

[silentkilla]

pretty sure its going to be a japanese Ariaska 99. i think that how you spell it. do some research on that and see if they are similar.

[Aggressive Perfector]

No, it's a definitely a Mosin. It has the standard rear leaf sight with adjustment for elevation, rather than the Arisaka's rear sight which flipped up completely vertical for elevation adjustment. Also, it has the standard Mosin straight bolt, rather than the curved bolt of the Arisaka. Plus the right hand side bayonet mount.
Also, upon further reading, most Japanese captured Mosins kept the Russian stampings on them. Which reinforces my opinion that this rifle was Chinese made.

[silentkilla]

yeah man gets some pics up i would like to see this gun. never seen a mosin with jap/chinese markings on it.

[TEN-32]

There is an extensive rifle identification guide at this link. Hope it helps;

http://7.62x54r.net/

[smittylite]

short like a Mosin M44??? If so it's probably a Chinese type 53.

[raxar]

yeah, chinese m-44 copy, there are a ton of them on the commercial market these days and they are all beat to hell.

if it were a russo-japanese war rifle it would be an m-91, which does not have a "standard" rear leaf sight or bayonet mount, and long as hell.

gunshop guy is full of shit.

[Aggressive Perfector]

There is an extensive rifle identification guide at this link. Hope it helps;

http://7.62x54r.net/
Found and identified mine using this link, thanks for the info. :) It's a Chinese (big surprise) Type 53. It also appears to be one of the more common variants, which surprised me as I've never seen a Mosin this short before. Still, for $140, I ain't bitchin'. Got 440 rounds of Surplus x54R for $80, get to see how it shoots tomorrow I hope.

[TEN-32]

Found and identified mine using this link, thanks for the info. :) It's a Chinese (big surprise) Type 53. It also appears to be one of the more common variants, which surprised me as I've never seen a Mosin this short before. Still, for $140, I ain't bitchin'. Got 440 rounds of Surplus x54R for $80, get to see how it shoots tomorrow I hope.

Excellent. Let us know how it shoots. Maybe put up a pic or two. I only have Russians, so I'd be interested...

[Aggressive Perfector]

Sorry for the long wait, but here's the pictures I have. Not the best camera in the world, and I'm a little shaky tonight.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/t88ertot/DSCN0175.jpg
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/t88ertot/DSCN0176.jpg
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/t88ertot/DSCN0171.jpg

Receiver, magazine, and butt plate numbers match, but the bolt does not and the bayonet is missing with the cleaning rod. I'd assume this is almost as good as you'll get with recently imported milsurp rifles.

It's shooting a little high and left at 100 m. But it's manageable until I work this brass rod to fit the sight notch and rework the height of the sight post just a tad. This Mosin being shorter and lighter also has a good bit of recoil, but it's actually kind of fun IMO. But the bolt was... Well... Terrible. It liked to stick, and damn was it rough to cycle! But I watched some youtube vids on how to take the bolt down (probably the most complex bolt I've ever disassembled and reassembled), and let it soak in kerosene for a couple hours before cleaning all of the cosmoline out of it. I then started looking at the roughly machined contact surfaces on the bolt... Damn was it rough! Made the rough tooling marks on my Romanian WASR look like a highly specialized professional had done it! But I grabbed my polishing stones and some oil and got to work. Cleaned the bolt pieces again, this time using Hoppes #9, and then gave it a coating of Remoil. Dry cycled it a few times (using the "decocker", not dry firing), and wiped up excessive oil. It is MUCH better now than it was, but I think I'll start looking at polishing attachments for my dremel and see if I can't carefully buff the tooling marks out a little better. It's an ok rifle. Not great, and not bad. But for the price of the rifle and cheap readily available milsurp ammo, I'd buy it again. Actually, I'm going to buy another one. Because this one is now going to be a gift (brother in law spent too much money on a power wheels Dodge Cummins look alike for my daughter for Christmas and doesn't have any guns yet. But he handled my AK and shotgun like a champ and seemed to like them, so here's his first).

[Schuetzenman]

Improving a C&R historical military arm is to degrade its value. My advice is to not go buffing out tool marks on the steel. Otherwise nice score and most generous of you to buy one for a relative. Lastly, invest in a 20 buck tripod. They really help out getting a sharp photo in available light.

[Aggressive Perfector]

Only polished the rough tooling marks on the contact surfaces inside the bolt to make it manageable to operate. I literally had to beat it open and slam it down to operate it. The rifle shooting too high is due to the front post being too short. Rather than doing any welding on it and potentially ruining it I just kept putting coffee stirrers on it and cutting them until the point of impact was where I was aiming. The front sight is adjustable for windage on this model, but it does require you to beat the piss out of it. I used a brass rod that I made into a "T" shape to avoid marring the finish too bad. Also set a block of pine underneath it so as not to damage it on the work surface. So I don't think I harmed the value of it too bad. I'm not going to "bubba" it. Just sighted it in, and made the bolt useable. :smiley09:

[raxar]

Something to consider


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXRFBNbTl9I&list=SPoagig7ANyXONhKngPiMykylF3sawzUx6

[Aggressive Perfector]

Rax, I will definitely take a look into this. Thanks for the vid. But the bolt was almost every bit as stiff closing on an empty chamber, so it wasn't just the rim of the bolt face.