A couple years back I bought a nice clean Ty 99 at auction. It is what must be a Long Arisaka.
I've been fond of Arisaka's for years, but had only heard of these. The machining and finish can only be called smooth and bright. It still showed some cosmoline type grease on internal areas and did not look as if it had been fired very much...if at all. I know some of the earlier rifles had superb machining, especially in the lower series serial numbers. This one appears to be Series 35 from TOYO KOGYO, however all descriptions of 34 and 35 I've seen are rough, welded, missing this and that, wooden butt, i.e., Last Ditch. This gun is beautiful, has aircraft sights, mumed safety, protected front sights, good stock, steel butt plate. The only problem is that some jerk cut the stock just ahead of the monopod band. Oh, yeah. It is serial Nr 131 everywhere EXCEPT the receiver, which has 1035 where it ought to be and underneath it ALSO has 131 on both the barrel and receiver where they meet. I guess 1035 parts failed so the piece was finished with #131..parts, including the stock. The barrel is 31.5 inches long from the pressure hole. The hand guard is over a foot long, whereas my other "0" series SN 70021 Nagoya is 26 inches muzzle to hole and hand guard is only 6.5 inches long. Both guns are beautiful examples of machining, with the TOYO KOGYO being the finest. Any comments on either?

Brantman