Type 38 Rifle

Type 38 Rifle
Type 38 Rifle. From the collections of the Swedish Army Museum.
Type	Service/Bolt-action rifle
Place of origin	Empire of Japan
Service history
In service	1906–1945 (Japan)
Used by	See Users
Wars	Russian Civil War, World War I, Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, Chinese Civil War, Indonesian National Revolution Korean War, First Indochina War, Vietnam War
Production history
Designed	1906
Number built	3,400,000
Variants	Carbine & Cavalry Carbine
Specifications
Weight	4.19 kg (9.2 pounds)
Length	1,275 mm (50.2 in)
Barrel length	800 mm (31.5 inches)
Cartridge	6.5×50mm Arisaka
Caliber	6.5 mm
Action	Bolt action
Rate of fire	10-15 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	762 m/s (2,500 ft/s) Type 38 cartridge
Effective firing range	366–457 m (400–500 yd)
Maximum firing range	2,377 m (2,600 yd)
Feed system	5-round magazine

The Type 38 rifle Arisaka (三八式歩兵銃, san-hachi-shiki hoheijū^?) was a bolt-action rifle that supplemented the Type 99 Japanese standard infantry rifle during the Second World War. The design was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905 (the 38th year of the Meiji period, hence "Type 38") and served from then until the end of 1945.

The Imperial Japanese Army introduced the Type 30 rifle in 1897. However, the weapon had numerous shortcomings, which were highlighted by combat experience in the early stages of the Russo-Japanese War. These included bursting cartridges, a poorly designed lock in which excess gunpowder tended to accumulate, burning the face of the shooter, frequent misfires, jamming, difficulty in cleaning, and cartridge extraction. Major Kijiro Nambu undertook a redesign of the Type 30 rifle, which was introduced in 1906. Nambu reduced the number of parts making up the Type 30's bolt from nine to six and at that same time simplified manufacture and disassembly of the bolt without the need of tools. A dust cover was added because of experiences in the Russo-Japanese War that left rifles inoperable from dust. The weapon was produced in several locations:

By 1940 more than three million Type 38s had been issued to the Imperial Japanese Army. However, shortcomings in the Type 38 design during the Second Sino-Japanese War led to the introduction of a further generation of rifles, designated the Type 99 rifle from 1939. This new rifle used the more powerful 7.7×58mm Arisaka cartridge already in use with the Type 92 heavy machine gun and the Type 97 light machine gun. However, not all units received the new weapon, and the mixture of types with incompatible cartridges led to considerable logistics issues during World War II.