Type 99 Sniper rifle variants
To discuss the development and history of Type 99 snipers would be far beyond the reach of this website. As such, I suggest you seek out "Japanese Sniper Rifles of the Second World War" by Frank Allan, which will go much further into details on the topic. This page will focus more on how to identify a legitimate Type 99 sniper rifle.
As with the Type 38 platform, the Japanese decided to develop a sniper variant of the Type 99 after it was adopted by the Japanese military. Around 11,000 Type 99 sniper rifles in total are thought to have been produced, with roughly 1,000 from Kokura and the vast majority, around 10,000, from Nagoya.
Kokura rifles seem to have been more in the early war pattern of Type 99s and used a x2.5 power scope similar in style to the Type 97 scope. Due to the overall small number of these Kokura snipers produced, they may have been made more as a developmental pattern, with Nagoya later taking over full production. Later on Kokura gave much of their x2.5 scopes to use on Nagoya made rifles.
Nagoya made the vast majority of Type 99 sniper rifles. These rifles used both a special x4 scope made better suited for the 7.7 Japanese caliber, as well as surplus Kokura x2.5 power scopes given to Nagoya after Kokura ended their sniper production. These Nagoya snipers follow a mid war pattern similar to the 5th and 6th series rifles, without monopods and dust covers and mainly using short screw in cleaning rods.
The following pages will detail various patterns of these Type 99 snipes and how to identify them.
As with the Type 38 platform, the Japanese decided to develop a sniper variant of the Type 99 after it was adopted by the Japanese military. Around 11,000 Type 99 sniper rifles in total are thought to have been produced, with roughly 1,000 from Kokura and the vast majority, around 10,000, from Nagoya.
Kokura rifles seem to have been more in the early war pattern of Type 99s and used a x2.5 power scope similar in style to the Type 97 scope. Due to the overall small number of these Kokura snipers produced, they may have been made more as a developmental pattern, with Nagoya later taking over full production. Later on Kokura gave much of their x2.5 scopes to use on Nagoya made rifles.
Nagoya made the vast majority of Type 99 sniper rifles. These rifles used both a special x4 scope made better suited for the 7.7 Japanese caliber, as well as surplus Kokura x2.5 power scopes given to Nagoya after Kokura ended their sniper production. These Nagoya snipers follow a mid war pattern similar to the 5th and 6th series rifles, without monopods and dust covers and mainly using short screw in cleaning rods.
The following pages will detail various patterns of these Type 99 snipes and how to identify them.
- Kokura