Of course, we don't really know what it is, as a purely technical matter - in that no one's come up with (and by that I mean in the collector community at large) anything other than the same kind of speculation you guys indulged in. It *is* a Japanese rifle based on the overall look and markings, and since it's a single-shot, one assumes it was built for training. But it's one that most of us (including myself) were unfamiliar with, being based on a German M88 rifle. The markings on the receiver have been mostly obliterated, but there are enough scattered remnants to confirm it is a German-built rifle, vice one of the Chinese Hanyang copies, but it probably had a Chinese provenance to the Japanese.
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2011/08/the_whatziss_re_12.html
Posted
Aug 16 2011, 05:34 AM
by
Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys..