POTD: Rare WWII Japanese Type 99 Pressure Test Rifle
Sam.S 08.02.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to check out the Cody Firearms Museum and they had some cool old cartridge testing guns. Those specific ones were made to test for pressures as well as recoil. This is a Japanese Type 99 pressure test rifle. These would be used at ammunition factories just like gun factories use proofing rounds. Rock Island Auction Company goes further in-depth below.
“This is a very rare original WWII Japanese Type 99 pressure test rifle. These rifles were produced on a very limited basis by both the major rifle factories and were used by the Japanese ammunition factories to test or check rifle cartridge chamber pressures. The general process was to insert a copper cylinder or disc between the upper and lower pistons which would compress during firing. Based on the amount of resultant deformity of the copper crusher (how much it flattened out) that reading would translate to a pressure level on a triage table that would indicate if the rifle ammunition was being produced to the correct pressure and velocity levels. This model has the original reinforced chamber with truncated cone at the forward end of the receiver that still has the original pressure test pistons and assembly on top. “
Lot 241: Rare WWII Japanese Type 99 Pressure Test Rifle [Photograph found in Auction Catalog #50, Rock Island Auction Company]. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/50/241/rare-wwii-japanese-type-99-pressure-test-rifle
