[prebans]

One of my regular clients said that he was cleaning out his safe and wanted to be rid of his oddball rifles. One of them was this Japanese Type 99 rifle. He said that he bought it from his history teacher in the early 1970s who was also a SOT! Apparently the teacher brought him along shooting- he remembered shooting a MP-38, a STG-44, and a few other NFA oddities in an old quarry. Man, I wish my teachers were like that!

He originally said that the mum was intact, but closer inspection shows that there's some sort of Japanese character stamped over the mum. There are three horizontal lines and one vertical line connecting the three horizontal lines. Think a capital letter I with a dash through its center. I don't have any grease pencils or chalk, so these are the best photos that I've got. Having seen truly ground/disfigured mums, this just doesn't look like the standard post-war haphazard disfigurement. The marks are also blued over versus left with shiny metal. Aside from one good ding on the bottom of the stock approximately 2" from the toe, the wood is some of the best I've seen.

Photos are available at http://imageshack.us/g/109/dsc06131ty.jpg/.

The serial number has been over-stamped in two different areas. It's 27_1_. The blanks look to all originally be the number 8 with a 9 stamped over the 8.

Anyhow, I did buy it. Hopefully I didn't buy a standard ground mum rifle! Any idea of what this is?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[BIG ED]

I can tell you it's a Toyo Kogyo with a defaced mum. Need better pics to go further.

 

[Rick N.]

Nice looking rifle, you really should ditch the couch though !!!! Do bolt #'s match ? Bore good ?

 

[prebans]

Okay, I found a wax pencil. Frankly, I don't think that this is going to help much either.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9569/dsc06139mg.jpg
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2162/dsc06137z.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/269/dsc06135y.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/813/dsc06134b.jpg/
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4768/dsc06133i.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2042/dsc06132ei.jpg
http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/9500/dsc06140c.jpg

Rick N, free couches are free couches. The bolt does match; 919 on everything. It matches the receiver if we're not considering the overstamping. The bore is in beautiful, crisp shape.

Mike

 

[prebans]

Okay, I rubbed some more on the wax and took one last shot. I also used MS Paint to show the markings if you're having trouble making them out. The markings are much more sharp and definitive than I could do on MS Paint, but hopefully this helps you identify where the markings are and what they look like.

Wax pencil: http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4948/dsc06141gy.jpg

MS Paint altered for clarity: http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/607/dsc06141al.jpg

Mike

 

[BIG ED]

I don't see anything unusual. defaced mums where done in many ways.

 

[prebans]

I don't see anything unusual. defaced mums where done in many ways.

Well, I just send an email of the photos to a native speaker. He replied back in about 30 seconds saying that the character is kanji for "king."

If it's truly just a ground mum, it's truly just a ground mum. But why would someone carve "king" over the mum to deface the rifle?

Mike

 

[Rick N.]

It likely belonged to the secret King of Japan, the honorable Sam U. Rai, a very elusive character.

 

[prebans]

It likely belonged to the secret King of Japan, the honorable Sam U. Rai, a very elusive character.

Yeeeeeah.

Ah, well. If it's nothing more than a standard defaced mum, it's a defaced mum. Any thoughts on value?

Mike

 

[Rick N.]

Not good at values here prebans, I have several, many variations, have no clue what they are worth. I just keep buying them.

 

[ThirtycalGB]

Early-to-mid series 32 Toyo Kogyo. No mum; missing dust cover, monopod, and cleaning rod. Correct wood, very good condition. About $300 - $340.

Thirtycal

 

[prebans]

Early-to-mid series 32 Toyo Kogyo. No mum; missing dust cover, monopod, and cleaning rod. Correct wood, very good condition. About $300 - $340.

Thirtycal

Thank you very much!

Mike

 

[03man]

With no "goodies" closer to $200, or less in todays market.

 

[smzeigler]

Agree with Don. Stick a Mum on it and folks get all frothy, but still missing all of the goodies. It is still a good piece regardless, just not the cat meow.