peashooter85:Japanese Type 5 Rifle—- The Japanese GarandNear the end of  World War II the Japanese O

peashooter85:Japanese Type 5 Rifle—- The Japanese GarandNear the end of  World War II the Japanese Ordinance Ministry decided it needed a semi-automatic rifle to compete with the Americans.  The solution to this problem was simple, take the American M1 Garand and copy it.  Thus the Type 5 rifle was born.  An almost exact copy of the M1, the Type 5 did sport some improvements.  The magazine was expanded to hold 10, 7.7x58mm cartridges.  The gun was loaded with 5 round stripper clips which eliminated the tale tell “ping” that occured when a Garand’s clip was emptied and ejected.  Finally the Type 5 could be topped up with ammo at any time, whereas the Garand could not be reloaded mid clip.While the Japanese had successfully copied the form of the M1 Garand, they could not replicate its quality.  The rifle was never issued due to chronic reliability and fuctioning issues, and man if the Japanese Ordinance Ministry didn’t want it, it had to really suck!  Only 250 Type 5 rifles were ever produced, 100 coming in the form of unassembled parts.In 2008 a Japanese Type 5 rifle sold at auction for $21,850. Another can be found on display at the National Firearms museum, Fairfax, VA. -- source link

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