Finnish rifles

[Gunplummer]

Where is the Guggmeister, I have a question. I was crusin' the net and went on a military surplus site in Canada. They REALLY had some choice rifles on there. Unfortunately, they will not ship to the US. Anyway, there was an Arisaka that was issued to the Finnish Civil Guard, or something like that. I never heard of that. Where did they come from?

 

[tahunua001]

I've never heard of such a thing and would be extremely surprised if it were true. prior to WWI Japan sold a number of Arisaka type 30s to Great Britain but if I recall correctly they were never actually fielded and GB might have neglected to pay Japan completely but it's been so long I don't recall the particulars. GB has a tendency of destroying guns they don't use rather than selling them to other nations and that little exchange probably made Japan leery of selling to other nations. I know china captured a bunch of them and around korea time frame converted them to x39mm, some were really neat looking rifles, others looked scary. those are the only instances I'm aware of, with nations other than japan using arisakas.

 

[tahunua001]

a little more google-foo
apparently the rifles sold to GB were type 38s, not type 30s, they should have the mum with the kokura arsenal stamp over the top of it to signify that it no longer belongs to the emporer, and then supposedly when they got to GB, they may or may not have been converted to 303 brit and then may or may not have been shipped to russia, then from russia to finland and then from finland to estonia where they may or may not have been chambered in 6.5x50, 303, or 7.62x54R

 

[Gunplummer]

There have been a lot of countries that used the Arisakas. Russia wanted to buy Arisakas, but could not come up with enough money. There are existing photos of Russian troops with Arisakas. Mexico did buy Arisakas and then ran out of money. Any country that was liberated by the Japanese and had rifles left there at the end of the war used them or sold them. Even the Viets were using them. I would bet the English did use them. I had about 40 rounds of 6.5 Kynoch ball ammo. The rifles in question may have been taken from the Russians. This was a high end Dealer, not SAMCO or SOG.

 

[Gunplummer]

If you look everything up on google, you will be surprised what is true. I converted two T-99's to Russian rimmed. One in standard 7.62x54R, and one in 8MMx54R (Finnish sporter round). Let me tell you, no country would think of converting them to save money. The .303 would be easier, but you still have a lot to change. Both need barrels bored or replaced to start with.