1584

Exceptionally Rare Pre-World War II Japanese Experimental/Pedersen Semi Automatic Carbine Serial Num

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:10,000.00 USD Estimated At:27,500.00 - 37,500.00 USD
Exceptionally Rare Pre-World War II Japanese Experimental/Pedersen Semi Automatic Carbine Serial Num
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Estimate: $27500 - 37500
Manufacturer: Japanese Model: Semi auto
What a find this is, a rare pre-WWII Japanese experiential semi-automatic carbine that was based on the early semi-automatic rifle design by J.D. Pederson. These are an extremely rare experiential carbine that is rarely if ever seen or encountered in extremely advance WWII Japanese rifle collections. In the 1931/32 time frame the Japanese embarked on an experiential rifle program, intended to develop a semi-auto rifle for the Japanese Army and Marines, using several rifle designs that were available on the world market at that time. The development program ran for over seven year until sometime in 1937 when it was dropped due the inability of the Japanese Government to manufacture complicated rifle designs that required critical/close toleranced parts with the available machinery and work force available in Japan. One of those designs that the Japanese heavily experimented with was the original "Pedersen" rifle developed by J.D. Pedersen. As you recall the Pedersen rifle was developed in the mid to late 1920s and eventually competed, with, but lost out to the M1 Garand rifle. His design was eventually adapted and put into production in England, being manufactured by the Vickers Ltd. Company. After his success in England, he traveled to Japan in the early 1930s to present his design to the Japanese Government for review and adaptation. Lucky for the U.S., the Japanese never succeeded in developing a suitable semi-automatic rifle, as if they had some of us might not be here today! Back to this example, which was manufactured by the Koishikawa Army Arsenal as serial number "5". And as noted is the carbine version of the Pedersen design (yes there was also a rifle version developed by the Japanese that we also have for sale in this auction). It is estimated that 10-15 prototypes of each design were actually ever produced, with only a handful even seen today. This excellent carbine is a faithful copy of the original Pedersen design, except that it has a modified magazine design that conforms to the underside of the stock and receiver versus the Pedersen rifle that had an extended box magazine. This carbine is accompanied by a signed affidavit from the WWII veteran who actually liberated this rifle from Mindanao, Philippines at the end of the war. He retained this super rare carbine until it was sold to the current consignor. This design uses a swing-breech bolt mechanism that actually pivots in the center during the cycling operation. The entire design was revolutionary for the time, but was difficult and complicated to manufacture and had a lot of individual parts. The actual carbine here, has the serial number "5" stamped on top of the receiver as well as the other visibly numbered parts. It employs the same swing breech mechanism with a rather unique gear driven rear sight with a blade front sight, both offset to the left. As noted this model was developed with a rotatory box magazine very similar in design to the Johnson rifles also being developed during this same time frame. It has a full length stock and handguards and both the stock and handguards have cooling vents. This rare carbine is complete with an original cleaning rod.
BBL: 22 1/2 inch round
Stock: hardwood
Gauge: 6.5 mm Japanese
Finish: blue
Grips:
Serial Number: 5
Condition:
Very fine with 95% of the original blue finish remaining overall with most of the exposed metal surfaces turning a dull brown patina, with the swing-bolt mechanism remaining in the dulled polished white finish from the factory. The stock and handguards all original and very fine with 85% of the original arsenal finish overall showing numerous light handling marks and pressure dents. Just from the outward appearance of this rifle is was probably one of the candidates that was lightly used in some of the testing noted above. This is actually one of the rarest and probably the most difficult Japanese carbines to ever obtain.