But the older 6.5mm Arisaka remained in widespread service until very late in the conflict, and was never completely replaced. The new Type 99 did not really get into service in large numbers until the second half of the war, 1942 or later, although by 1944 it was the main rifle in the hands of the troops facing the Americans in the Marianas and the Philippines, and was also being encountered frequently by the British in Burma. Otherwise there was not much difference between the Type 99 and the earlier rifle. Another distinguishing feature was a thin metal rod which fitted under the barrel, and could be extended to brace the rifle against the ground like a flimsy monopod. 303-inch round, which the Japanese were already using in some of their machineguns. The Type 99 was chambered to fire a much more potent 7.7mm cartridge, which had in the initial stages of its design been copied directly from the British. It was pretty much the old Arisaka, with one major difference. The limitations in range and hitting power resulting from the 6.5mm ammunition were supposedly noted during the China campaign, with the result that a new variant, the Type 99, was introduced in 1939.

A sniper version, known as the Type 97, was also made in small numbers, fitted with a low-powered scope sight. The smaller calibre employed made for no real savings in length or weight, as the Arisaka weighed in at over nine and a half pounds. It used a five-shot charger clip, like virtually all straight Mauser designs (ironically, the US soldiers and Marines who opposed the Japanese throughout the first year of the Pacific war were almost all armed with their own straight copy of the 1898 Mauser, the вЂ™03 Springfield, which did however fire a much more powerful. The Arisaka was known neither for its power nor its reliability, as declining standards of manufacture resulted in a slow, sticky action and other maladies.

Intended to keep dirt out of the mechanism, this was not a successful innovation, as the cover made a great deal of noise when the bolt was operated, and the Japanese soldiers tended to discard it in the field whenever possible. ArisakaвЂ™s bureau had copied this rifle more or less exactly from the 1898 Mauser, except for the use of the smaller calibre, their one major contribution to the design being the addition of a sliding metal bolt cover. In December 1941 the typical Japanese foot soldier carried a 6.5mm Arisaka Type 38 bolt-action rifle.

Type 99 arisaka fixed rear sight