(7,62 mm vintovka obr. 1895)

PICTURE: Russian contract Winchester M/1895 rifle. Notice stripper clip guide on top of receiver, the stripper clips used with rifle were the same five round design as with Mosin-Nagant rifles. Winchester referred in its own nomenclature M/1895 rifles with this rifle stock configuration as "musket". Photo source The National Museum of Finland (Suomen Kansallismuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (67 KB).

Winchester M/1895 was the last lever action rifle designed by John Moses Browning for Winchester factory. In addition to this it apparently was the last lever action acquired for military use in any real numbers. Its action was more stronger and simpler than the ones used in earlier Winchester rifles for a good reason, as it was originally designed mainly for new .30-03 US Army cartridge. The rifle was produced not only in .30-03 US Army and in .30-06, but also in .38-72, .40-72 and .303 British in 3 main versions: Hunting rifle, musket and carbine. Even with "Teddy" Roosevelt advertising the rifle as "Medicine gun for lions" Winchester M/1895 failed achieving real large-scale popularity before World War 1. Only some 70,000 or so were manufactured for private sales between 1895 - 1915. Then came the World War 1 and changed things.

PICTURE: Close-up of receiver and rear sight of 7,62 mm Winchester M/1895. Notice "ears" on top of the receiver, stripper clips used with these rifles were the same as with Mosin-Nagant rifles. (Photo taken in Viestimuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (15 KB).

When World War W 1 started in 1914 Russia did not have even nearly enough rifles for its troops. So Russian committee was sent to USA to look manufacturers for Mosin-Nagant M/91 infantry rifles and ammunition. However the committee also got interested about Winchester M/1895 rifles. The negotiations started in October of 1914 and resulted month later to signing of contact about Russia buying 100,000 M/1895. These rifles were basically musket version of M/1895 using Russian 7.62-mm service ammo and tangent-type rear sight. Structural changes allowing using of same ammunition clips as used in Mosin-Nagant rifles were added after signing of first contract but before starting of manufacturing. This change and argument about testing equipment used delayed starting of production. However after this manufacturing went quite well and the 100,000 rifles specified in the first contract were sent to Russia in between of June and November 1915. Second contact about 200,000 similar rifles was also signed and last of its rifles were sent to Russia in December of 1916. So, in between years 1915 - 1917 some 294,000 Winchester M/1895 rifles were shipped to Russia, where many of them ended up to Russian troops stationed in Finland.

The rifle proved even lesser commercial success after World War 1. The manufacturing of new rifles continued until year 1931 and small series were assembled all the way until 1940. But only about 50,000 were manufactured in those years. So the total production (including all versions) was about 420,000 rifles, from which almost three quarters had been delivered to Russia. The two Russian contracts did not prove to be huge financial success either. Due to Russian Revolution Winchester never received all the payments about them. During Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) Soviet Union delivered large number of Winchester m/1895 rifles to Republican Spain.

PICTURE: Soldiers of Helsinki Civil Guard. Photograph taken during or right after Civil War. All but one of the soldiers have Winchester m/1895 rifles. City of Helsinki was under control of Red Guard for almost whole duration for Civil War, hence its Civil Guard had was forced to work in secrecy and was not able to acquire proper uniforms, which is why they are wearing civilian clothes with striped insignias added into it. Photo source finna.fi - Museovirasto Musketti, used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (63 KB).

It is not terribly surprising, why Winchester M/1895 did not gain any other notable military sales beside Russia. In end of 19th century bolt-action rifles were becoming the de-facto standard type of military rifles. Even if M/1895 was chambered for many of the popular military cartridges of the era and stronger than its predecessors, its durability with new powerful smokeless powder military cartridges was probably suspect. Thanks to hindsight one can also just try to consider, how well this design worked in muddy trenches. Several sources note that lever action makes reloading the rifle in prone stance and especially staying low while doing it rather difficult. The tangent-type rear sight has settings for rather over-optimistic distances of 600 - 3200 arshin / archen (427 - 2300 meters). This rifle does not have any real safety unless the "half-way cocked" notch is counted as such. Hole in rifle butt was used to storage cleaning kit and tool.

PICTURE: Finnish White Army soldiers with Maxim M/09-09 machine gun and Winchester M/1895 rifle. Machinegunner also has holster for Nagant M/1895 revolver on his left hip. Probably photographed in year 1918. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (148 KB).

Those Winchester M/1895 that Russian military brought to Finland saw use soon. Year 1918 they ended up in hands of both sides fighting in Finnish Civil War. Winchester received reputation as elite status weapon in that war, unfortunately this led into large amount of them being taken home as "war souvenirs" by their war-time users. Immediately after 1918 the remaining rifles were issued to artillery and mine-thrower crews, but this did not last long as Mauser M/98a carbines replaced them in this use already in year 1919. Being ratherscarce and having shortage of spare parts they were mostly mothballed until 1939. During this time large amount of M/1895 were transferred to non-military authorities and small amounts were also sold to civilian market. During Winter War some were issued to artillery units and home-front troops. In summer of 1940 less than 1,700 remained. After this Winchester rifles were no longer used by Finnish military, last remaining 503 rifles were sold to Finnish military personnel in 1950. Among Finnish civilians Winchester M/1895 rifles gained reputation of a somewhat better quality hunting rifle. Unfortunately for collectors often the Finnish civilian owners of these rifles got them modified to new larger calibre (8.2 mm x 53R probably being the most popular). This was due to earlier Finnish hunting legislation (for quite some time hunting elk was forbidden with rifle of lesser calibre than 8-mm).

PICTURE: Squad of Helsinki White Guard (Helsingin Suojeluskunta) in the "uniforms" that they used during Battle of Helsinki. Due to Helsinki being under control of Finnish Red Guards, Helsinki White Guard had been work in clandestine manner. Only once German troops arrived to liberate Helsinki was its White Guard able to risk open battle. Due to being unable to acquire real uniforms, this White Guard used white armbands, white hat decorations and white jacket epaulets to separate friend from foe. All but three of the rifles in this photo appear to be Winchester M/1895, with two Mosin-Nagant (possibly Dragoon M/1891) and guardsman with a small pistol in hand has Japanese M/05 (Type 38) infantry rifle. Photographer Eric Sundstöm. Photo source Helsingin kaupunginmuseo (Helsinki City Museum), acquired via Finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (178 KB).

Author's personal (limited) shooting experiences with Winchester M/1895 rifle: If compared Mosin-Nagant rifles (the standard issue rifle of Russian military at the time when Winchester M/1895 was acquired), there is a world of difference between the two. The first hands on appearances of M/1895 are surprising and conflicting - heavy, long and yet somehow fragile. The lever action is pretty slow to use with its long movement and when operated the lever extends surprisingly far below the rifle. The sight picture is also quite unusual with the very narrow and high front sight post. Operating the lever action in such a way that it works reliably requires swift and determined movements. It also seems to be a good idea to tilt the rifle a bit while operating the action, since this seems to improve reliable extraction of cartridge cases. The magazine design does not resemble the one used in Mosin-Nagant in any way, but still seems to work surprisingly well keeping in mind the rimmed cartridge. The rear sight design does not impress too much and the whole design makes one wonder, if these rifles were reliable in the muddy fields of World War 1 or in snow-covered forests during Finnish Civil War.

(Pehotnaja vintovka Berdana No 2)

PICTURE: Berdan II infantry rifle (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (13 KB).

Main designer of Berdan rifles was American Colonel Hiram Berdan, who had gained quite a reputation with unit of his own during US Civil War. First version of his rifle was m/1868, which was accepted to Russian military use in 1870 but only about 46,600 were made. From those 46,600 rifles Colt manufactured 30,000 and the remaining 16,600 were manufactured in Russia by Tula and Sestroryetsk before Berdan II (aka model 1870) replaced this rifle in production in year 1874. As the name suggests the main designer was Hiram Berdan, but also Russian Colonel Gorlov and Lieutenant Hunnius played important role in planning, improving and introducing the design of Berdan m/1868 to use of Russian military. Locking mechanism of Berdan m/1868 was not yet bolt-action in modern sense and reloading it was much more complicated process.

PICTURE: Soldier of Finnish Grand Dutchy with Berdan M/1870 rifle. Photographed by Lars Bodnar in 1880's or 1890's. The 2 in the hat suggests that he may have belonged to 2^nd Battalion of Riflemen (2. Tarkka-ampujapataljoona) also known as Turku Battalion. Photo crop. This photo is public domain. Photo source Uusikaupunki City Museum (Uudenkaupungin kaupunginmuseo), acquired via Finna.fi.CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (114 KB).

Colonel Berdan continued developing the rifle also after the Russian military had adopted it. This development work led to new improved rifle, which Berdan presented to Russian officials during his visit to St. Peterburg in year 1869. Unlike Soviet literature (for sense of national pride?) used to claim all the main improvements of the new rifle model were designed by Hiram Berdan. The main difference to older m/1868 was bolt-action locking mechanism sliding in receiver - a real bolt-action rifle action in modern sense instead of hammerless trapdoor like design of Berdan M/1868. The Russians organised tests in which the new rifle proved so superior, that they decided to replace just recently adopted Berdan m/1868 with it. The main advantage of the new rifle was due to its bolt mechanism, which allowed much faster reloading and therefore considerably increased rate-of-fire. The improved rifle, also known as Berdan II, was approved to Russian use in year 1870 and some 3.2 million rifles of this type were manufactured. Early on Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) manufactured 30,000 rifles for Russia, but the Russians did not buy more rifles from BSA after this first delivery. Soon main Russian arsenals (Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroryetsk) started all manufacturing these rifles. All three Russian arsenals manufactured Berdan m/1870 rifles in 1874 - 1879 with their combined total production reaching about 1.68 million rifles. From these Tula manufactured about 553,000 rifles, Sestroryetsk about 525,000 rifles and Izhevsk about 602,000 rifles. Presumably also production of Cossack rifle, Dragoon rifle and carbine version is included to these numbers.

PICTURE: Berdan M/1870 action with experimental magazine prototype, presumably one of the many failed designs tested by Russian military for this rifle design. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto) / The National Museum of Finland (Kansallismuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (75 KB).

Russian Army used Berdan m/1870 rifle in Turkish War of 1877 - 1878. It presumably fared fairly well against Turkish Peabody-Martini rifles, but less so against Winchester M/1866 and M/1873 repeater rifles, which the Turkish military also had in its inventory. Even if Berdan m/1870 was much better than earlier Russian rifles, it was still just single shot. Basically this meant that after each shot the used cartridge case had to be removed and new cartridge had to be inserted to action by hand before closing the bolt mechanism. Firepower-wise it could not really compete with 15-shot lever-action rifle. Losses that the Russian infantry suffered in battles were simply appalling. While Russian use of already outdated tactics seems to have been a major factor for reasons that caused this, Berdan m/1870 became the scapegoat for poor military performance. Hence increasing rate-of-fire for the rifles became a matter of highest priority for Russian military. They first tried adding magazine to their Berdan m/1870 rifle, but none of the tested designs proved particularly successful. Only real solution was to get a new rifle repeater-rifle, that rifle was 7,62 mm Mosin-Nagant M/91, which replaced Berdan rifles in frontline use before World War 1. However as all major nations taking part World War 1, Russia underestimated the number they actually needed. Hence due to serious shortage of rifles during World War 1 Russian military was forced to reintroduce Berdan m/1870 rifles and carbines back into military use. Year 1918 many Russian military units stationed in Finland still had Berdan m/1870 rifles in their use.

PICTURE: At least seven of nine men of Finnish Red Guards seen in this photograph are armed with Berdan M/1870 rifles, which have bayonets attached. They have no insignia indicating their status as combatants beyond rifles and two of the men possibly having colorful (possibly red) piece of cloth attached to hat. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (1117 KB).

In Finnish Civil War of 1918 better rifles were not always available in needed numbers, so also old Berdans saw limited use on both sides. The battle of the era in which Berdan m/1870 rifles are best known for happened already in 17^th of November 1917 - over two months before the Civil War. That day Helsinki Red Guards attacked Saksanniemi School for Mounted Police, which Finnish Senate had established in hope of creating national police force. About 200 students of the police school had only about dozen of Berdan m/1870 rifles and equal number of Colt pistols, which in resulting skirmish were no match for 350 armed men of Helsinki Red Guards with modern rifles. It was noted that during the skirmish the Berdan rifles did not work reliably, which has been blamed on ammunition. But apparently the rifle design is also prone to be failure of worn-out striker spring, which cause light strikes and can be easily misidentified as ammunition-related problem. Either way, during Civil War Finnish White Army apparently did not normally issue these rifles to frontline use, although they seem to have seen some use as training rifles and having been used for guard duty further away from the frontline.

PICTURE: Two soldiers of Finnish White Army with Berdan M/1870 rifles. It is likely that either this photograph was taken early in the war or the Berdan rifles were provided for the photo session, since each soldier also have bayonet fitting for Japanese rifles hanging on their belt. Photographer unknown. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (102 KB).

Finnish military was not interested about these old rifles afrer the Civil War either, so in year 1919 some 2,500 Berdan m/1870 rifles among other mixed weaponry were transferred to Suojeluskunta (Finnish Civil Guard). As soon Suojeluskunta got better rifles also it started rejecting and returning these old rifles back to Armed Forces weapons depots. These rifles remained reserved for possible wartime use until removed from that status in year 1935. However when Winter War begun in year 1939 the situation changed, as both Finnish Army and Civil Guard found themselves in serious shortage of rifles. As Civil Guard transferred practically all of its weaponry to the Army in mobilisation, they found themselves with very little rifles left for home front duties. In this situation they had to scrape even old Berdan m/1870 from various sources in effort to try keep things going. Also Finnish Army had to start issuing these rifles, which it still had warehoused. At that time Finnish Army issued Berdan m/1870 rifles mostly to military training centres and other home front units. Typically units trained with them were re-equipped with more modern rifles before entering to frontline, but at least some unfortunate supplies units seemed to have used them also in combat area. However them to see actual combat use during Winter War was extremely rare. Even those units unfortunate to be issued these rifles did they best to gain more modern captured weaponry as replacements as soon as possible. After Winter War some 3.142 still remained in inventory of Finnish Army. It remains uncertain if they saw any actual combat use during Winter War, but what is certain is that they saw no use after it. They still remained stored for whole duration of Continuation War and Lapland War, but Finnish military no longer did even have plans of ever issuing Berdans anymore. It is worth noting that Berdan m/1870 was the only single shot rifle present in Finnish military inventory in any real numbers and at the same time the only rifle model, which still used black powder ammunition, while all other rifles were repeater rifles with smokeless power ammunition. For some crazy reason Berdan rifles were retained mothballed until scrapping them finally started in year 1951. Only year 1955 remaining 1,029 Berdan rifles were sold to Interarmco and shipped to United States the following year.

Also Dragoon rifle, Cossack rifle and Carbine version of Berdan m/1870 existed in Russian use. From these rifles the Dragoon rifle was for riding infantry, Cossack rifle (with its button-like trigger) for cavalry fighting from its horses and carbine for gendarme and units like light cavalry. From these carbines and Cossack rifles were declared obsolete already in 1920's, dragoon rifles got included to infantry rifles and received the same fate as them. Russians had three kind of 10.67 mm x 58 R Berdan cartridges, which can be identified from colour of the paper, in which bullet of each cartridge was wrapped. White paper indicated rifle-cartridge with normal gunpowder charge, pink paper indicates carbine-cartridge (with reduced gunpowder charge) for carbines and blue paper was used to mark ammunition (with increased gunpowder charge) for Gatling-Gorlov machinegun. As mentioned old Russian 10.67 x 58R ammunition had gained reputation of poor reliablity already during Finnish Civil War and no new ammunition was manufactured for these guns.

It is worth noting that shotguns with berdan m/1870 action also used be somewhat common in Finland. This due to Russia in 19^th century having industry, which built shotguns using Berdan action and Berdan rifles being modified as shotguns both in Russia and Finland. Unlike rifles these shotguns nowadays do not tend to have much financial value.

(6,50 mm Meiji 30th Year Type)

PICTURE: Japanesese infantry rifle M/97 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (12 KB).

The Meiji 30^th Year Type used in Japanese naming of this infantry rifle and carbine comes from Japanese calendar. They were introduced 30^th year of ruling Meiji-emperor - which translates as year 1897 in western calendar. The infantry rifle was approved to use of Japanese military that year, while carbine was approved two years later - year 1899. Roots of design used in these rifles has clearly ideas taken from Mauser-rifles (mainly Mauser model 1893, Mannlicher rifles and possibly Gewehr 88, which the Japanese faced in Sino-Japanese War of year 1894), but the basic appearance of the rifle seems to resemble later Mauser rifles of the era. The rifle bolt of Type 30 can be most easily recognised hook-shaped safety hook in bolt head. The cock on close bolt design seems to be mix of Mannlicher-design and Japanese development work - disassembly and re-assembly of which is somewhat complicated and requires a special tool. Rear sight is ladder sight, which needs to be raised up for use and appears rather vulnerable. As usual also with later Japanese rifles, the rifle stock is with semi pistol grip, with rifle butt being made from to pieces of wood dovetailed to another and has steel reinforcements in both sides of wrist plus steel heel plate with screws locking the two parts of wood to another. This sort of rifle stock design also found in later Type 35 and Type 38 rifles was made necessary by Japanese lacking ingenious wood better suited for the purpose, but still succeeded developing a good rifle stock design using inferior wood options available.

It seems likely that the introduction of these rifles was due to less than favourable experiences during this war with the rifles, which the Japanese used at the time - Murata infantry rifle and carbine. While both 8-mm Murata Meiji 22^nd year (model 1889) infantry rifle and 8-mm Murata Meiji 27^th Year (model 1894) cavalry carbine were basically brand new rifles during that war, the development of bolt-action magazine rifles and ammunition on that exact period of 1880's and 1890's was so rapid, that with its 8-mm black powder cartridge and tubular magazine Murata rifle and carbine were obsolescent practically the moment they were introduced.

PICTURE: Combatant of Helsinki Red Guard with infantry rifle M/97 and attached bayonet. Photographed by unknown photographer sometime during Finnish Civil War in year 1918. The armband has text "H:KI I II I", which translates as Helsinki Red Guard 1^st Regiment, 2^nd Battalion, 1^st Company. Notice two ammunition bandoliers - large variety of these were used by both sides in 1918. Photo source Helsinki City Museum (Helsingin kaupunginmuseo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (91 KB).

Type 30 rifle and carbine were designed by a committee, which was led by Colonel Nariakira Arisaka (1852 - 1915). These rifles saw use in Japanese-Russian war of 1904 - 1905. Wide-scale use in combat during the war revealed a lot of problems in rifles M/97 and led these the guns being replaced in production with new Meiji 38^th Year Type (mode 1905) rifle and carbine. The total production run of Type 30 infantry rifle seems to have been bit over 550,000 rifles, while the total production of carbine-version was estimated only around 45,000. What is known the apparently main user of the carbine was cavalry. At that time only Japanese factory manufacturing rifles was Koishikawa arsenal in Tokyo, so all of these rifles were manufactured there. In addition of Japanese Army and later on also other Japanese paramilitary organizations, these rifles also saw use with the Chinese, with likely about 31,000 rifles being supplied to Chinese government after year 1903. Japanese participation in actual fighting during World War 1 was basically limited to capturing of German Kiautschou protectorate in China, hence unlike its European allies Japan did not suffer from acute shortage of rifles in beginning of the war. So Japan during World War 1 Japan was able to sell rifles and carbines in large numbers to Great Britain and Russia. In Great Britain M/97 rifles were issued training units, Navy and Flying Corps and known in British service as Rifle, Magazine, .256 Pattern 1900. Suffering from even more disastrous shortage of rifles than United Kingdom the Russians could not afford to issue the Japanese rifles that they bought in such a limited scale. So they issued Japanese rifles for their Army as part of usual weaponry, although they likely tried to issue the rifles mainly to their non-frontline units - and this included their troops stationed in Finland.

(6,50 mm Meiji 35th Year Type)

PICTURE: Japanese rifle M/02 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (12 KB).

This rifle was developed for Japanese Navy and especially to its naval infantry, being improved rifle model clearly based to earlier Type 30 (Model 1897). Few years of use had already revealed some problems with Type 30 rifles and carbines, so this rifle designed by Captain Kijiro Nambu had several improvements introduced to solve them. Unlike earlier Japanese military rifles it has sliding dust cover on top of action, but its design was also still such, that the dust cover needed to be first pushed off manually before being able to cycle the rifle's action. While the rifle bolt seems to be based to that used in Type 30, it has some notable differences with cocking knob, extractor and ejector designs. Although the most visible difference is rather unusual well-protected ladder-type rear sight. Even with its improvements, this rifle was produced only few years before rifle Type 38 (model 1905) replaced also it in use of Japanese, which suggests that it also may have proved less than satisfactory - or more likely the Japanese just decided that they did not need two separate rifle models to service. What is known the main problems of Type 30 rifles were presumably related to reliability - more precisely problems in feeding ammunition and extracting cartridge cases - this is suggested by changes introduced with Type 35 to follower in the rifle's fixed magazine and extractor design. Also the bolt design of Type 35 is notably easier to disassemble and put back together for maintenance than that of Type 30. In addition rear sight design had been changed to much more sturdy quadrant sight design, which suggests Japanese Navy likely found unprotected ladder sight used in Type 30 to be too vulnerable.

PICTURE: Period photograph that shows group of soldiers from Finnish White Army's Uusikaupunki / Nystad White Guard. Four of the soldiers appear to have rifles M/02. Soldier (leader?) on the left appears to have Nagant m/1895 revolver in his hand. Photograph is likely from early Finnish Civil War, due to civilian rifles and soldiers only having narrow white arm-bands to indicate their status as soldiers. Photo source finna.fi - original photo provided by Uusikaupunki Museum (Uudenkaupungin Museo), used with CC BY-ND 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (137 KB).

Type 35 rifle was manufactured in Koishikawa arsenal in Tokyo and the total production has been estimated have been only around 35,000 - 36,000 rifles. It is rather interesting to note, that larger number of these rifles was manufactured for import. The Japanese sold some 43,000 to Siam (Thailand) in 1925 - 1928. After Japanese Navy had been equipped with Type 38 rifles, it no longer needed for old Type 35 rifles, so also much of these were sold to Russia during World War 1. Russian military, which had serious shortage of rifles, issued them in large part to their non-frontline units (such as the ones stationed in Finland). Year 1945 most of the Type 35 rifle receivers and barreled actions left behind in Japan were used to assemble about 15,000 rifles, which are nowadays referred as collectors as Type 02/45. Rear sight of this rifle is probably the easiest to spot characteristic for identifying it. Due to rather small production numbers, both Type 35 rifles and their bayonets are now quite highly priced collector's items.

(6,50 mm Meiji 38th Year Type)

PICTURE: Japanese infantry rifle M/05 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (11 KB).

PICTURE: Japanese carbine M/05 (Photo taken in Sotamuseo). CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (13 KB).

Infantry rifle and carbine Type 38 (model 1905) replaced infantry rifle Type 30 (model 97), carbine Type 30 (model 1897) and rifle Type 35 (model 1902) in Japanese use already before World War 1. The main designer for this rifle was (recently promoted to Major) Kijiro Nambu, who designed also earlier Type 35 rifle. The rifle bolt used in it was more clearly related to ones used in more recent Mauser designs than in earlier Japanese rifles. With old Type 30 and Type 35 rifles and carbines the Japanese being sold to Great Britain and Russia during World War 1 the Japanese also sold considerable number of new Type 38 rifles and carbines. Bolt structure with and metal dust cover plate moving with the bolt make separating Type 38 from other Japanese military rifles easy. Unlike in Type 35 the dust cover moves the bolt and had also new improved bolt design, which is very clearly based to Mauser bolt designs (m1893 and newer), but is actually better in several ways. Disassembly is even easier than with Mauser bolts and safety design also better, although it is still cock on close type bolt. The bolt and action design are also known to be quite likely the safest and strongest design used by military action rifle of the World War 1 and 2 era. Not only is the design so strong, that it would be safer to far more powerful cartridges than 6.5 mm x 50 Arisaka, but the design has numerous features intended to safely vent propellant gasses off from the shooter in case of ammunition related problems such as ruptured cartridge case.

Also unlike earlier Japanese military rifles Type 38 saw large-scale use with Japanese military during World War 2. Several arsenals manufactured it from year 1906 to 1940, at which point it replaced in production by Type 99 rifle. Estimated total production of this rifle was about 3 million infantry rifles and some 500,000 carbines. The arsenals manufacturing it included Koshikawa in Tokyo, Kokura, Nagoya, Jinsen (in Korea) and Mukden (in Manchuria). But the ones that ended up to Finland were obviously all made in Koishikawa, which before year 1923 was only manufacturer of Japanese military rifles. Like all Japanese 6.5-mm rifles also of Type 38 could be reloaded with 5-round chargers, which closely resemble the ones used in Mauser-rifles. British troops called Type 38 rifles Rifle, Magazine, .256 Pattern 1907. The total number of Japanese rifles sold to Great Britain during World War 1 was at least 150,000. The British issued these to their Navy, Flying Corps and training units to free more Lee-Enfield rifles to frontline units. But during the war the British also succeeded acquiring enough rifles in in their own standard calibre (.303 British), that they no longer had immediate need for all of the Japanese rifles that had acquired, hence from the 150,000 rifles that they had about 128,000 were sent from Britain to Russia circa 1916 - 1917. October 1921 British declared Japanese rifles still remaining in their use obsolete. The total number of rifles sold by Japan to Russia seems to have likely been around 600,000. Most if not all of these 600,000 rifles were delivered around 1914 - 1915. Supposedly among the Type 38 rifles sold to Russia were also some 30,000 rifles made in 7 mm x 57 Mauser calibre and originally intended for Mexico. In addition to these Russians probably had at least few thousand rifles captured from Russian - Japanese war of 1904 - 1905, which were issued along the newly acquired rifles. With Russian military the Japanese rifles saw bit more action and much of the rifles which survived Russian Civil War (1917 - 1922) were later shipped to Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939).

PICTURE: Period photo showing three men of Finnish White Guards (White Army) during Finnish Civil War. The two soldiers in the front are equipped with M/05 (Japanese Type 38) infantry rifles, while the one in the back has Austro-Hungarian M95 carbine. Photograph likely taken during early Civil War, since the soldiers have only armbands and Austro-Hungarian 8 mm x 50R ammunition was not commonly available, so ammunition supply for M95 carbine would have been difficult. Source of photograph Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto) via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (131 KB).

Japanese rifles and carbines were used in large numbers during Finnish Civil War in year 1918. There seem to have been numerous Russian military units stationed to Finland equipped with these rifles. In addition Russian Bolsheviks supplied large number of Japanese rifles to Finnish Red Guards for the war. As a result Finnish White Army captured them in large numbers. When the Civil War ended Finnish military had about 24,000 Japanese rifles and thousands more got turned over and added to military inventory during the years following Civil War. Considering the inventory reports it seems likely that as much as 10,000 rifles were added to inventory in few years after the war and the total number of Japanese rifles in Finnish use would have been around 34,000 - 36,000. The career of these rifles in large-scale use of Finnish Army was very short - basically just years 1918 - 1920.

PICTURE: Group of men from Orimattila Civil Guard photographed during Finnish Civil War. Four of the men have Japanese rifles with their bayonets, while guardsman on the right has infantry rifle m/1891. Notice ammunition bandoliers. Photographed by Victor Barsokevitsch. Photo source Kuopio Cultural History Museum (Kuopion kulttuurihistoriallinen museo), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (97 KB).

Early on Finnish military personnel had some problems identifying Japanese rifles and carbines, so a special naming system was developed and used until late 1920's. The names given in this naming system looked like this:

- "Japanese infantry rifle m. II" (infantry rifle M/97 / Meiji 30th Year Type).

- "Japanese carbine m. II" (carbine M/97 / Meiji 30th Year Type).

- "Japanese infantry rifle m. I" (rifle M/02 / Meiji 35th Year Type).

- "Japanese infantry rifle m. III" (infantry rifle M/05 / Meiji 38 Year Type).

- "Japanese carbine m. III" (carbine M/05 / Meiji 38th Year Type).

Year 1919 Finland sold some 10,000 Japanese rifles to Estonia, where they were used by Estonian troops in their War of Independence (1919 - 1920). After the war in Estonia the rifles remained in use of Kaitseliit (Estonian Civil Guard), who got them modified to calibre .303 British before World War 2 and seems to have renamed them KL .303. Back in Finland around 1919 - 1920 some 15,000 Japanese rifles were transferred to Suojeluskunta (Finnish Civil Guard). This was part of the re-organizing in which Finnish Army transferred its mixed weaponry to Civil Guard and de facto adopted Mosin-Nagant M/1891 as its standard infantry rifle. But not all Japanese were transferred to Civil Guard, since about 8,000 rifles still remained storage in Army Depots.

PICTURE: Guardsmen of Oulu White Guard with their rifles stacked up in front of formation. The rifles appear to be mix of Japanese M/97 (Type 30) and M/05 (Type 38) infantry rifles. Below the rifles in snow also appear to be some captured Russian Russian shasha swords. Second soldier from the left appears to have Russian m1893 ammunition pouch. Photo crop. Photographed by unknown photographer in 23^rd of February 1918, when the particular unit was about to be sent to frontlines in south. Photo source Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), acquired via finna.fi and used with CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons license. CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (159 KB).

Finnish Civil Guard organization was such that the country was divided into Civil Guard districts, roughly comparable to provinces or military districts. The Japanese rifles transferred to Civil Guard were concentrated to four Civil Guard Districts, which were basically completely equipped with Japanese 6.50 x 50 calibre rifles and carbines. Those four civil guard districts were Jyväskylä District, Mikkeli District, Kuopio District and Joensuu District. The active career of these rifles with Civil Guard proved to rather short-lives as well, since Civil Guard got its Japanese rifles little by little replaced with Mosin-Nagant rifles in mid-late 1920's. The standard Mosin-Nagant model that replaced the Japanese rifles at that time was infantry rifle M/91. Year 1924 Kuopio District became the first to have its Japanese rifles replaced with Mosin-Nagants and year 1925 Joensuu District followed suit. Year 1926 only two of the four Civil Guard districts were still equipped with Japanese rifles - Mikkeli District and Jyväskylä Distict. December of 1926 Civil Guard still had in 7,332 Japanese rifles and 314 carbines total in its inventory and grand majority of them were concentrated to the last two districts. Also Mikkeli District and Jyväskylä Distict got their Japanese rifles replaced apparently in year 1928, which was also the year in which Civil Guard decided to get rid of Japanese rifles completely and make Mosin-Nagant the standard rifle model for its whole organization. Once replaced Japanese rifles that had been used by Civil Guard were placed on storage and mothballed. It is worth noting that Suojeluskunta had ordered 500 new rifle barrels for its Japanese rifles from Swiss manufacturer S.I.G (Schweitzerische Industrie-Gesellschaft) in April of 1923. Nowadays Civil Guard's former Japanese rifles equipped with the S.I.G. rifle barrels are extremely rare collector's items. Japanese rifles that served with Finnish Civil Guard can usually be identified from having Civil Guard district number ("S"-prefix followed by series of numbers) marked into their rifle butt - which is where Civil Guard added the marking early on, before starting to mark it in side of receiver.

PICTURE: Finnish soldier photographed with Japanese infantry rifle M/05 in October of 1919. The greatcoat may be former German Army M15 or Finnish-made coat based on it. Pistol holster is for Nagant m/95 revolver. (Photograph part of Jaeger Platoon Website photo collection. Unlicensed use of photograph prohibited) CLICK THUMBNAIL TO SEE LARGER PIC (66 KB).

About 8,000 rifles that had remained in Army Depots were sold to Albania in year 1928. All remaining Japanese rifles originating from Civil Guard (about 15,000 total ) were sold with spare-parts and ammo to Oy Transbaltic Ab in exchange for Mosin-Nagant M/1891 rifle parts and dial sights used in field guns and howitzers. Transbaltic exported the particular batch of about 15,000 Japanese rifles around 1932 - 1934. The last few hundred Japanese rifles, which still remained in Finland in year 1939 were issued to Finnish merchant navy and home front units during World War 2 and presumably saw no real combat action. Those rifles, which survived the war were sold to civilian market soon after it and got usually modified as hunting rifles. Ammunition (6.5 mm x 50 Arisaka) used with these rifles was never manufactured in Finland. All ammunition used with them was either World War 1 era or older and had been manufactured either in Japan or United Kingdom. As typical to most rifles of that era their ammunition came in five round stripper clips to allow fast loading of fixed magazine.