Mixed serial number on Type 99 LMG, is it common or rare ?

[angelmonk]

I just picked up a Type 99 from someone who brought it from Ohio Ordnance  and it has been converted to 7.62/.308 with three different main serial numbers among the three major components. 

The upper receiver has serial # 13065,  Kokura Hitachi in April 1944

The barrel is Serial # 3108, made in Dec, 1941

The lower receiver and the bolt carrier group have the same serial # of 9343

The rest of the components like the charging handle, dust cover, bolt carrier locking block, and scope all have different serial numbers.

Is this common or rare for a mix party like this one ?  It also has this marking on the receiver "HR Guns, P C FL" .   Is it an import mark ?

Pictures  https://postimg.cc/gallery/ms4qFHxF

Edited March 13 by angelmonk

[Mongo]

Most likely it was a reg dewat that was reactivated by HR guns. Most likely all the parts came from some attic find Type 99 guns.

[angelmonk]

That is quite likely it was a deactivated dewat.  I did not think being how rare Type 99 supposed to be that there are enough part kits to put a functional gun together.  As this gun has parts that come from at least 6 different "original guns". 

[DWTX]

The vast majority of Type 96 and Type 99 Japanese machineguns were registered as DEWATs. They were allwall hangers at the time, but REWATed at some time in the future when the value came up. You can find guns that were never DEWATed but these are the exceptions.

[GEJ]

I have no doubt that some of those parts from your gun were most likely put on in the Field by the Japanese, but I do agree with most above that most of the parts were put on by HR to make a functional 99 LMG. Given the many mixed serial numbers. The Japanese Were known to do this but what they do is they would take anything and everything off one gun for cannabilization, then fit it on to the one they were trying to make a running gun out of. Espically when being cut off on the Islands by US Army, Marine, and Naval Personal. I have a 96 that is a mixed gun, but was able to track the history on it and confirm it being a Guadalcanal bringback and be a gun that had three different guns used to make it Run!

 

 

[angelmonk]

Do Dewat guns usually have the receivers cut and "REWAT" guns usually have sign of wielding?  Attached are two pictures for your opinion on whether the receiver has been re-wielded.  GEJ, how did you manage to track the history of your Type 96 ?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20 by angelmonk

[GEJ]

Angel monk. I bought it from a friend who had paperwork stating it was from guadalcanal and captured there in 1942. I was fourtnatne to find the Vets family and track down the vet that indeed did send it home!

[MS Collector]

I'm in a similar situation with a documented USMC bring-back Type 96 (see attached paperwork).  What is immediately of interest with the paperwork is the date when the Marine's C.O. authorzed the bring back: March 15, 1944.  This date being about 1.5 years before the war ended in the PTO, we immdiately know the gun is not a much more common post-war pickup out of a pile of surrendered weapons by US forces on Occupation Duty in Japan.  Rather, the war was very much 100% "on" at the time this Marine was mailing his war trophies home.   If you then do some research of his unit (part of the Second Marine Division) and look at the unit's history, you quickly see that the only logical place the gun could originate from is the battle of Tarawa.  Additional research will show that a small contingent of the Second Marine Division got left on Tarawa for post-battle "cleanup" and "security detail" type work, while the majority of the Division got shipped back to Hawaii for R&R.  So, Corporal Wilbur McCarter (the Marine who shipped the Type 96 back home to his wife in Phoenix, AZ) was apparently one of the unlucky few who were ordered to stay on Tarawa post-battle.  Lucky for us history buffs, however, is that Corporal McCarter salvaged this Type 96 from the post-battle mess; got it lawfully shipped home; and that the paperwork has survived with the gun so that we are able to figure out the gun's history.  In my experience it is highly unusual to have this sort of history kept together with a PTO bring-back NFA item.  Corporal McCarter got recalled for Korea; he is in the middle of the attached photo.

[angelmonk]

Amazing, both MS and and GEJ, thanks for sharing.