Firearms Friday: My new Arisaka Type 38 Carbine

This rifle began its service in the Japanese military sometime during World War II, but what makes it unique is its story after the war. It, along with about 5000 other rifles were given to Thailand in order to arm the Thai police. The Thai government scrubbed all Japanese markings off of the rifles and replaced them with their own (including replacing the Japanese Imperial chrysanthemum symbol with the Thai Royal Chakka symbol). They also modified the stock to mimic the handling of a US M1 Carbine as well as outfitted the rifle with a turned-down bolt handle. Lastly, the magazine follower, floor plate, trigger gaurd, and butt plate were replaced with chrome-plated parts. This was to protect the gun from corrosion, as well as to jazz it up for use in parades and demonstrations.

Thai markings including the Royal Chakka symbol

This rifle fires 6.5x50mmSR (semi-rimmed) ammunition, more commonly referred to as "6.5 Jap" or "6.5 Arisaka" today. There is no surplus ammunition available for this rifle. The story goes that it was all dumped into Tokyo Harbor at the end of the war. Luckily, the round is becoming popular again as a new generation of collectors (like me) are getting their hands on old Arisakas. Slowly, companies like Norma and Hornady are beginning to produce small batches of ammo for these rifles

All in all this rifle is very unique as far as bolt-actions go, and it is a considerably rare piece of military history.

I hope those of you who enjoy this kind of stuff found this album interesting. For those of you who didn't, have a picture of OP's cat as tax: http://imgur.com/Gy2IU0G

TL;DR: OP got a new gun, and it's pretty neat. He wants to show it to people, but doesn't know whether he should take it to a movie theater or a church... so he just posted it on imgur