I had to go to fairbanks the other day to drop off a trailer I had sold. The roads are super crappy out, so the wife had no interest in tagging along for the 100 mile ride at 35-40 mph. I got done with dropping off the trailer, and really had nothing else to do in town, and as unsupervised men do, I had to go to the toy store.
At my favorite stop, I was browsing and came across a rifle I had seen in there a few times before, which was this nicely sporterized type 99 Japanese Arisaka rifle. The rifle had been cut down to 19 inches, nicely blued, and fit with a left handed full length stock. I like weird, oddball things, and this one jsut kind of called to me. I had already walked away from it a couple times since I don't need it, just a cool gun I wanted, but I decided to make him a offer of $350 and he accepted it.
The rifle is built on a 4 digit series 3 action from the Nagoya arsenal, so its a fairly early type 99. The mum is not fully ground off as common with most surplus rifles, just crossed out. it still has the military barrel chambered for 7.7x58 jap.
It's a very neat little rifle. Its set up with a williams reciever sight, and weights in at 6.6lb with the 19" barrel. The stock fits me very well. I haven't seen many sporterized Arisaka rifles, and this is by far the nicest I've ever seen. I was able to get my hands on a few boxes of factory ammo, and while I havent put it on a bench yet, I was able toshoot 2" groups offhand at 60 yards, so it shows promise.
I've got dies on the way. Im really looking forward to starting to play with this rifle.