[Trez]

I cant find any stories to that effect..
If you do in fact have a explosive laden Arisaka, its the only one in existence and worth a mint, Id imagine.....

I have read that guns, swords, etc were used in booby traps, IE: tied to explosives or other traps, but not being the trap itself...

[gunsmoke11]

My father fought in the Pacific and it was a common practice for the enemy to leave swords on the ground, which were booby trapped, knowing that the Americans wouldn't hesitate snatching them up.

This might sound a little heartless and I am getting older having less scruples, but I'd just bring the rifle over to a gunsmith and ask him to fix it and leave him my phone number. After all he's the expert and please don't plant any scarey thoughts in his head.

[Sonic82]

Originally Posted by mountainman13

BOOM!

Glocks are a lot like that.

[mountainman13]

If I have it xrayed I will post pics. It may not be worth it depending on cost. If it is trapped I will jb weld the screws in and hang it on my wall. If not I will fix and sell it.

[Coyotenator]

My dad picked up an Arisaka infantry rifle and a sniper rifle when he went into Japan at wars end.
He got them at the garbage dump.
There were thousands of weapons in piles where they had just thrown them away.I never heard of one blowing up, but I can see someone who was bitter about losing the war doing something like that to his weapon before tossing it.

[hmh]

We had a similar story about the ak battle field pick ups. They came down and gave free no consequence inspections. It was something about holes being drilled in the barrel that would when shot allow the gasses to explode the wood hand guard.

[Trez]

Originally Posted by mountainman13

If I have it xrayed I will post pics. It may not be worth it depending on cost. If it is trapped I will jb weld the screws in and hang it on my wall. If not I will fix and sell it.

You could send it to me... Im not scared!

[OldEagleEars]

My dad brought an Arisaka back from the Pacific and as a kid I disassembled that thing two or three times (and got it back together...except for two tiny springs from the anti-aircraft deflection wings of the ladder sight) and nothing went "boom". You might note if the chrysanthemum emblem on the receiver is still intact or has been ground off. The grinding of the emblem was done by the allies to "de-militarize" the rifles and many (like mine) had the firing pin broken off short to further make them "safe". Arisaka's also have a butt-plate held on by screws without an access door for a cleaning kit so it would be extremely difficult for them to be sabotaged in the manner you describe. But your's might just be the exception that proves the legend, so take all precautions you believe necessary. Good luck with it.

[nitestalker]

These stories have been around going back to WWII. Most of these yarns were that. The rifles were made to only fire so many rounds and then they would blow up. Yea, did I shoot 100 rounds or 101 rounds Oh, Sh*t!! The Nambu Pistols would explode and blow people up! Hell that little .380 sized cap would not kill a butterfly.

It was great for my kid brother and I. We were given old Jap rifles and pistols for free to only a few bucks. We rechambered them to 30-06 had no idea of the oversized bores. Any way I have never seen one of these James Hashimoto .007 super secret exploding Jap rifles.

[TWMIM]

Originally Posted by Trez

I cant find any stories to that effect..
If you do in fact have a explosive laden Arisaka, its the only one in existence and worth a mint, Id imagine.....

I have read that guns, swords, etc were used in booby traps, IE: tied to explosives or other traps, but not being the trap itself...

I concur that it was not uncommon to use weapons to trigger a booby trap.

I've not heard of the weapon itself made into one, but I'd err on the side of safety/