The Japanese Murata Type 22 Rifle,Adopted in 1880. the Japanese Murata rifle was a single shot bolt

The Japanese Murata Type 22 Rifle,Adopted in 1880. the Japanese Murata rifle was a single shot bolt action breechloader which fired an 11x60R blackpowder metallic cartridge.  Essentially the Murata was the first modern firearm indigenous produced by Japan.  The first two models of the Murata, the Type 13, 16 and Type 18, where both single shot, requiring the user to insert a new cartridge by hand after firing.  While in the 1870’s and 1880’s this type of technology was on par with most Western nations, by the late 1880’s the development of repeating bolt action rifles in France and Germany.  Many of these new rifles fired a smaller caliber conical shaped bullet called a “Spitzer bullet”, which while smaller in caliber, resulted in better accuracy, velocity, and power.To update the Murata design, an eight round tube magazine was added below the barrel.  To load the user simply inserted cartridges into the magazine through a loading port located directly below the chamber.  The Murata’s caliber was also switched from 11x60R to the smaller 8x57R which used the new Spitzer bullet.  Introduced in 1889, it was called the Murata Type 22 because it was introduced in the 22nd year of Emperor Meiji’s reign.  Between 1889 and 1897 100,000 were produced at the Tokyo Arsenal.  A number of shorter carbine versions called the “Type 22 Marauder” were also produced and issued to cavalry and artilleryman.  The rifle saw action mostly in the Russo-Japanese War, but by then they being phased out for a new smokeless powder rifle called the Arisaka. -- source link

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