Just picked up one from the gun show today. To my surprise it still had the mum on it. Any experts? Here are some pics. 

Nice.  How's the condition of the bore?

Anybody got ammo for one of these?  I have one in my collection also.

Just picked up one from the gun show today. To my surprise it still had the mum on it. Any experts? Here are some pics.

Congratulations on your find!!!    I am not an expert on the Arisaka, I don't own one. I do want one, however and have been cruising the online auctions looking for one at the right price. I have found that having an example with the mum still in tact is nice and harder to find one that has not been ground off. But they are not impossible to find and they do bring a small premium over the ground off mums. The key to this gun is to find one during the early production years as the ones built near the end of the war were built and machined very rough. To the extent that I would suggest if you have one that was built near the end of the war or looks like it was machined with a hack saw I would recommend you have a gunsmith look at it first. Also, finding one with a decent bore can be tough but again not impossible. Looking at the pics you uploaded I can't really see the condition. However, what little I can see looks to be a good example.

I don't know if WGS has ammo for it but I would think that if any LGS has ammo for it then it would be WGS. Everyone I know who has one reloads for it and I think it is due to being an oddball cartridge. The gun/cartridge combination is a pleasure to shoot. The recoil won't kill your shoulder like other rifles of the era will. And the Arisaka type 99 has a very strong action and can be quite accurate. One of my friends hunts locally with his occasionally when he isn't hunting during black powder season. I have shot a few of the Type 99 and Type 38's. All of them were accurate and pleasure to shoot.

That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge about these. I hope you can find some ammo for it.

not a bad looking piece, the series number can be found online, the mum is a nice touch but to me not required, id prefer it be matching numbered, and have all or most of its features. End of the war rifles have no issues, as crude as they look. Good luck checking headspace as arisakas were made with oversized chambers. They have some of the strongest actions around, ive bought and sold and built quite a few and have had no issues firing any of them. Bore condition shouldnt be to much of an issue as most of them had chrome lined bores and they survived quite well in high numbers.

I'm gonna go check out was this coming weekend.   It would be cool to see this thing fire.

i haven't got the time to check all the parts for matching and the barrel, maybe if I get off work on time today i'll check it out and post pics. 

Well from what you have pictures it an earlier gun. The sight are for shooting at air planes. it is made so you can lead the  plane like wing shooting at ducks, geese, I have a friend that reload these he has 2.Both shoot pretty good . I might get him to sell you a box of ammo. If not you'll be reloading. Not many people shoot these any more. Not much surplus ammo out there The Japs were no longer aloud to make ammo after WWII, My buddy shoots at Coco head all the time. he has these there a lot. What did you pay for this gun.The real prize is the paratrooper it comes apart in the middle. finding with matching numbers is really really rare. might be a 5,000.oo gun now days
davek42

davek 42

That would be cool if your buddy could spare some 7.7 rounds.  The last time I seen a paratrooper arisaka it was going for 2500 bucks, this is the gun the can be broken down right?

The story that I was told by the gentlemen was that his buddy was a Coast Guardsman during WW2.  He was tasked out to move destroyed or damaged landing boats off the beach or the reef.  After doing so he was able to go on shore, in which he meet a Marine that had some war trophies one of them was the Arisaka Type 99.  The gun has been with his buddy until his death and remained in a gun safe since he returned from the war.  I was not able to get any from of documentation of where the gun was brought back from.  Then again I think most guns that have the mum not grounded are war capture. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong. 

Surplus 7.7 ammo is a rare bird and quite valuable. I wouldnt recommend shooting any if you had some or found some. A gun with an unground mum would be a battlefield pick up, the soldier that used it gave his all for the empire. The Paratroop rifle is indeed a takedown, have to do your homework if you see one, theres a few floating around that have been faked.

Unfortunately 7.7 Jap is hard to find in commercially loaded ammo. I have a sporterized Type 99 that has served well as a hunting rifle. You will need to reload for it and the only cases I have been able to find are made by Norma. It  takes a .312 diameter bullet.  They are accurate enough as a Deer gun. I have a Weaver 6X on mine.

I just looked up the price for 7.7 round and was at 43 bucks for 20 rounds, that's about 2.20 bucks per round.  Reloading would be the best way.  Mahalo for all the input guys. 

Cpt. Englehorn: The type 38 was a different caliber right? But is it as common as the type 99?

Type 38 is 6.5.   Japanese Military kept type 38s and type 99s in service, fully realizing that they used different calibers, they also used various machine guns in 7.7 however the rounds werent interchangeable between rifle and machine gun except in the case of the Type 11, that fed off of stripper clips in a hopper. however that was in 6.5. The japanese military was a logistical nightmare. Theres alot of type 38s and 99s around, in various condition.