WW2 Japanese snipers

[Miller Tyme]

The 1st sniper rifle I ever owned was a Christmas present I recieved in 1974. It was a scopless 1944 Type 99 my dad bought back in 1968 for the princely sum of $15.60. It took me 47 years to finally acquire a scope for it. The following year I came upon a scopless 1938 Type 97 and right away found a correct mfg scope for it.

The top rifle is the Kokura Type 97 with a Kokura 2.5x scope about 80 off of the s/n of the rifle.

The bottom rifle is the Nagoya Type 99 with a NTC Kogaku 4x scope. This rifles s/n places it within 60-70 rifles of the end of production of Type99 snipers.

I have never shot these with there scopes as the Japanese 'tuned' each scope to the rifle it was mounted on and most with mismatched scopes shoot HOA, and the scopes tend to speckle up there lenses due to flaking of the black paint they used inside there scope tubes.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Yes, but all that is both restorable and tunable!!!

Very cool and very worth getting to shoot right.

Rare birds.. are the chrysanthemums intact?

Sirhr

 

[Miller Tyme]

The Type 99's is ground and the Type 97's has a minimal chisel strike across it.

 

[Random Guy]

Thanks for the pics and story. Its difficult to get a good pic, but any chance to show pics of the two reticles of those scopes? I have read that one of them had a range estimation type reticle, which might have been a first for a WWII scope. Years ago I once looked thru what I think was the Type 97, little 2.5X scope with the odd-ball reticle, and I think others might find that aspect interesting - if a picture could be presented on this thread. Regardless, thanks for the post.

 

[achancesw]

I have a 99 I need to see about restoring

 

[Miller Tyme]

Here are pics of the 2 reticles, the 1st one is on the 2.5x Type 97 sniper scope. Some of these scopes where also modified to fit early Type 99 snipers and are referred to as Type 99 cutbacks.

The 2nd pic is of the 4x Type 99 scope. There was an additional scope used on some late production Type 99 that where an adjustable 4x scope, be these are rare and very pricey.

 

[Random Guy]

Thanks for the pics(!). So, is the vertical holdover pattern on the scopes based on trajectory drop out to 1400 meters?! If so, that is very advanced for WWII technology. Thanks again for the pics of what I suspect was the most advanced reticle pattern used in a WWII era shoulder-fired sniper rifle optic.

 

[IrishWind]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

1400m is optimistic for the rifle and cartridge. But since a lot of rifles had irons that went out to 1k, and some 'artillery' model pisols were 200m+, I think there were many Armies with high optimistism in the power of smokeless powder and spitzer bullets. And the fact the Japanese also made AA sights standard on their Arisakas.... A lot of optimism in design!

 

[Miller Tyme]

Both the Type 97 2.5x scope and the Type99 4x scope where not adjustable with both elevation (100-1500m) and windage markings set on the reticle for use by the sniper. The scopes where Zeroed to 300m ( as seen in the pics of the reticle)