Tales of the Gun - Japanese Guns of WW2 (Video)

The classic History Channel documentary series.
This episode: Japanese Guns of WWII.

Yep, that describes the last-ditch Type 99. Most of them had a 10mm hole drilled through the buttstock to take a cord. This was knotted off on one side, and the other end was tied to the foreend to make a "sling". It's not the crudeness that kills, though. It's the metallurgy. Most last-ditches were made with "wartime" steel, which meant that the steel melt was "stretched" with silica or some other inert material. This makes a more brittle final product, but it is still satisfactory-to a point. Some lots of steel contained far too high a proportion of filler. Guns made from this stuff can fail rather spectacularly as it has a tendency to break like glass. There wasn't much quality checking in 44/45, so some of these bombs got issued to the troops, and some of them ended up as bringbacks. My dad knew a fellow who was blinded by one. The lugs sheared right off of the bolt when he fired it.

Just to be honest, I wouldn't shoot one, either. There is really no way to know for 100% sure if you have a "bad" gun.

Back then Japanese made = CRAP.

Contrary to popular belief, both the Carcano and the Arisaka rifle were good quality weapons. The problem in both the Japanese and Italian armies was logistics, not quality. Among other things both nations were transitioning to a new rifle cartridge at the outbreak of the war, and in both cases the transition was never completed. Italy eventually weeded almost all the 7.5 mm Carcanos out of the supply chain, but Japan never really tried and the Type 38 and Type 99 remained in tandem service until the end.

***By the mid-fifties those rounds were hand grenades waiting to go off in your face.***

Too bad a certain commie did not use military issue junk on Nov 22, 1963. Think of how different history would be if it had blown up in his face.

Correct about 03s & Mausers being closley related. Mauser
sued the United States Government for patent infringment. The U.S. Government paid royalties to Mauser until the first world war.

I know a couple of guys who were trying to fire a powder charge sans ball in a musket and got no action.

After trying several times the guy holding it tells the other, “put your finger over the hole and see if you sense any pressure”. BOOM! Blew the end the finger off.

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