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Thread: Mystery Air Rifle

  1. #1
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    Mystery Air Rifle

    Hi,

    Just picked up this air rifle and I have no idea what it is or who manufactured it.
    It looks to be a pre war either Chinese or Japanese under lever repeating lead ball firer.
    It would have had a spring loaded magazine which fitted onto the top of the cylinder and when the rifle was cocked a lead ball was pushed into a receiver which lowered to line up with the breech. The magazine is no longer with the rifle. It does however still cock and fire.
    It has serial number 160 and has a makers stamp 'IS' or 'SI' on the top of the rifle.
    There is Japanese or Chinese text within a half moon shape on the under lever.
    The barrel is made if brass set within the steel outer 'shroud'
    Front sight is a Pre War BSA type/style.

    Any information would be appreciated.

    hope the link below works.

    Regards

    Tim

    https://imgur.com/a/APmOr

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by erichtfisherman View Post
    Hi,

    Just picked up this air rifle and I have no idea what it is or who manufactured it.
    It looks to be a pre war either Chinese or Japanese under lever repeating lead ball firer.
    It would have had a spring loaded magazine which fitted onto the top of the cylinder and when the rifle was cocked a lead ball was pushed into a receiver which lowered to line up with the breech. The magazine is no longer with the rifle. It does however still cock and fire.
    It has serial number 160 and has a makers stamp 'IS' or 'SI' on the top of the rifle.
    There is Japanese or Chinese text within a half moon shape on the under lever.
    The barrel is made if brass set within the steel outer 'shroud'
    Front sight is a Pre War BSA type/style.

    Any information would be appreciated.

    hope the link below works.

    Regards

    Tim

    https://imgur.com/a/APmOr
    Bizarre, Tim! I've never seen anything like it. Can I put it under 'unknown' guns in my gallery, please?

    PS the Japanese (?) writing in the half-round looks vaguely familiar.
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  3. #3
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    Hi Danny,

    Yes of course.

    Yep its a bit unusual I saw it a few months ago but only got chance to buy it today.

    Hopefully someone may be able to help.

    Regards

    Tim

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by erichtfisherman View Post
    Hi Danny,

    Yes of course.

    Yep its a bit unusual I saw it a few months ago but only got chance to buy it today.

    Hopefully someone may be able to help.

    Regards

    Tim
    Take a photo of the writing down your local take away, then you will know if its Chinese or Japanese.
    You could try google translator!

  5. #5
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    I have never seen anything like it it looks very well made though I would lean towards Japanese mike

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by erichtfisherman View Post
    Hi Danny,

    Yes of course.

    Yep its a bit unusual I saw it a few months ago but only got chance to buy it today.

    Hopefully someone may be able to help.

    Regards

    Tim
    Thanks, Tim. I would guess Japanese because I think that semi-circle logo is a 'rising sun' thing...
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  7. #7
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    Mystery Air Rifle

    Very interesting, i see it has an airsporter type cocking mechanism.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jenny Dipple View Post
    Take a photo of the writing down your local take away, then you will know if its Chinese or Japanese.
    You could try google translator!


    .......Even if his local take away is an "Indian"?

  9. #9
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    Never seen the like Tim.

    Keep us informed if you do discover its origins though.

    Kind regards,

    John

  10. #10
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    Will do John. Still scratching my head on this one.

  11. #11
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    The first vibe i got from the rifle is that it is a early Japanese attempt at the old BSA under lever design.

    Looks cool though and might be one of a kind!

  12. #12
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    Early Howa ?


    Baz
    BE AN INDEPENDENT THINKER, DON'T FOLLOW THE CROWD

  13. #13
    micky2 is offline The collector formerly known as micky
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    Hi Tim, could it be an early attempt by Sharp Industries at a spring powered air rifle.

  14. #14
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    Just a thought...have you tried running a good clear picture of the Chinese/Japanese characters through an OCR engine/software?

    http://www.i2ocr.com/free-online-chinese-traditional-ocr


    Edit: I have just done this with the Chinese OCR and it only recognised two characters which translated as something about one hundred and eleven sheep...so, something is screwing up somewhere. Think we'll need a better, clearer picture of the Chinese or Japanese or whatever character set/language it is
    Last edited by DCL_dave; 25-01-2018 at 07:08 AM.
    blah blah

  15. #15
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    Mystery

    Hi, re: mystery air rifle.
    my first impression, Japanese, why? brass barrel liner & characters seem to me to be Japanese rather than Chinese? Perhaps you could do a "brass rubbing" of the stamping, it may make it easier to decipher? My other observations are : when I look at stock from butt to including trigger block it reminds me of a single barrel 12 gauge shotgun, could it be a "bitsa"? As previously noted the cocking action is similar to BSA airsporter, which I think did not appear until about 1948? [please tell if you know different]. so does that mean it was copied later? or did BSA copy? I am interested as to how the auto loading mechanism worked, I suggest it was probably gravity fed [like Garandoni]? What is the calibre? & is the barrel rifled? I love a good mystery, best regards Al.

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