Mauser with chinese or japanese stamp......

[jimdoe2you]

Hello everyone,

I am a milsurp collector and just joined the forum. I really enjoy reading threads here and now find myself in need of some assistance. I have a czech mauser VZ 24 that I believe is a battlefield pickup that has NEVER been cleaned. Sadly, it is too far gone to fix up but I wanted to clean it up a bit just for the sake of it. This mauser has three large, either chinese or japanese stamps on the stock. On one side the oval stamp is now too faint to see, and on the other side is what I believe to be a chinese triangular arsenal stamp that has been overstamped by a large japanese stamp. There is almost no information regarding the details of the mauser rifles the japanese captured from the chinese, so if anyone here can point me in the right direction for some answers I will be incredibly grateful. Thank you in advance, Jim

**I am trying to upload some photos, however these are about 3MB in size and the limit here is 97kb, so I will post again once I resize the photos

[jimdoe2you]

Ok, managed to get this pic up. If anyone needs or wants more, please ask.

[bodes]

Seems I just read something about these on Gunboards….I believe the Japanese contracted some of these Vz24 rifles.....If I can find the thread, I will post it...Bodes

[bodes]

Seems I just read something about these on Gunboards….I believe the Japanese contracted some of these Vz24 rifles.....If I can find the thread, I will post it...Bodes

https://forums.gunboards.com/showthr...apanese+mauser

[chen]

That triangular stamp looks like a Japanese stamp .
However, I think a thick stamp (with 2 kanji writing) is stamped on top of it.
That 2 Kanji ( red pointer) means "Practice" so this rifle may be used for practice purpose.

[bodes]

That triangular stamp looks like a Japanese stamp .
However, I think a thick stamp (with 2 kanji writing) is stamped on top of it.
That 2 Kanji ( red pointer) means "Practice" so this rifle may be used for practice purpose.

Definitely a training rifle....Contracted rifles from Germany and Czechoslovakia were generally not used as battle rifles by the Japanese....Bodes

[jimdoe2you]

All this info is definately helpful! Thank you guys, and as I learn more about it I will post back!!

[HAF]

i read one time some czechoslovakian contract vz24 ended in Japan as war booty taken from China ,and later captured by Gi's maybe that the case here .

[HAF]

can you please post a photo of reciver?

[jimdoe2you]

Here are a few additional pics. I previously wrote this gun had never been cleaned. Getting it apart was tough since in the past 82 years (the barrel is dated 1938) or so the mud and rust became almost a glue of sorts. One thing I had never seen before was how areas on the bottom of the barrel that have been protected by grease from the factory were flawless. Absolutely perfect bluing on perfect metal, and yet an inch away an unprotected area with some of the worst rust and pitting I have ever seen.

Since I started this post I have decided to do a light restoration on it rather than my original decision to just clean it up a bit. I am motivated to save it due to the stamps on the stock, otherwise it is just too far gone. The receiver is badly pitted. The barrel is badly pitted, with a bore that is very dark with weak rifling, and shortened to 21". The bolt doesn't match. Most of the remaining metal parts score low in rank of condition. Yet when I am done I will take it to the range and post some pics here.