Japanese Type 38 rifles captured by the Chinese during World War II and later converted to 7.62x39At

Japanese Type 38 rifles captured by the Chinese during World War II and later converted to 7.62x39At the end of World War II China found itself in possession of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of small arms captured from or surrendered by the Japanese.  Most of these arms were placed in storage to be used a second line weapons for the next big war.  After the Chinese Revolution in 1949 and the installation of a Communist government, most weapons field by the Chinese Army were of Soviet design.  By the late 1950′s and 1960′s, the Chinese Army had adopted both imported and indigenous models of the Soviet SKS and the AK-47/AKM, both of which were chambered for 7.62x39mm.In the meantime captured Japanese arms remained in armories across the country, used to arm secondary units who were not expected to see frontline combat but might need to defend themselves. These would include supply units, guards, medical units, clerks, and peasant militias.  Chambered for cartridges such as the 6x50mm and 7.7x58mm, these weapons proved to be a quartermaster’s nightmare as they needed ammunition that was no longer manufactured and thus becoming scarce.In the late 1950′ and 1960′s the Chinese government began a program to convert captured arms to the standard caliber of 7.62x39mm.  One of the most popular rifles converted was the Japanese Type 38 rifle and carbine which was originally chambered for 6x50mm.  Most of these conversions were not a high organized affair, but were done in small workshops across the country.  The result was that there were many different kinds of conversions, with quality varying from rifle to rifles. However there were two main conversion types.  The first involved reboring the barrel and rechambering the chamber to fit the new cartridge.  The magazine needed to be modified to fit the new cartridge, however the extractor and bolt needed no modification as it was found that it could still successfully extract the new cartridge (sometimes). The other conversion involved completely replacing the barrel, most commonly with a spare barrel from an SKS (with folding bayonet), as shown belowIt is unknown how many of these conversions were made, the Chinese most likely didn’t keep records on them. Most were once again placed into arsenal storage to be used as a second line rifle. By now I would assume that most have been decommissioned and scrapped at this point, being too old and outdated to be used even as a second line rifle. But who knows? There could still be many thousands of such rifles still in storage. Many others were donated by the Chinese to arm the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Most surviving examples surviving today, which are very rare, were captured trophies from Vietnam brought back to the United States by American GI’s.  -- source link

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