[JIMMY C]

I had never seen one of these in person until saw this rifle. Interesting these have been attributed to the North China Army and Northwest Army of General Feng Yu-Hsiang. The stock is almost black. It's also interesting to see a backwards swastika as a proof mark.

 

[Firearms]

Please don't listen to that nonsense.
The first of this type of gun didn't go into production in China until 1935, way past the Warlord era.
General Feng was out of power by that time. Actually his troops used more Mosin & T38 than anything else back then.
This particular one was made in 1948 in Chungking.
The "reverse swastika" is a lucky symbol and it was the arsenal mark of the 21st Arsenal.
Great find, congratulation.

 

[ryg]

This appears to be an above average example of the type. This type was used during WW2, although yours was made later. The "37" stands for the 37th year of the Chinese Republic, which was 1948, as mentioned above.

1948 was the critical year of the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists which decided the fate of the country. The Chinese Civil War was one of the largest wars of the 20th Century in terms of number of troops involved and the extent of territory covered - perhaps only exceeded by the world wars.

 

[JIMMY C]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the "37" and how that correlated to it's year of production.