The Type 97 was manufactured at the Nagoya Arsenal and Kokura Arsenal, with the bulk of them made in Nagoya.Īfter fighting German-trained Chinese snipers, the Japanese Army decided to develop snipers for themselves. The rifle can be loaded with either a 5-round stripper clip, or single rounds.
Like other Mauser pattern rifles, it has a five-round box magazine.
The scope was offset to the left, to allow stripper clip loading. The lack of flash and smoke comes from the length of the barrel a 797 millimetres (31.4 in) long barrel allows cartridge propellant to fully burn and attain the optimum combination of accuracy and bullet velocity. When fired, the mild 6.5x50mm Arisaka cartridge gave off little flash or smoke and made counter-sniper activity difficult. The only difference between this rifle and the original Type 38 is that it had a lightened stock, a 2.5 power telescopic sight and a mid-band setup for a monopod, although later models had this deleted.
Following the standard practice of the time, it was adapted from an existing infantry rifle. The Type 97 Sniper Rifle ( 九七式狙撃銃, Kyū-nana-shiki sogekijū) is a Japanese bolt-action rifle, based on the Type 38 rifle. 5-round internal magazine, stripper clip loaded
