I love the Chinese stuff very obscure and hardly any info on them although I believe the Qing Dynasty originally ordered tooling for Mauser 71/84’s and upgraded before the process was done through Ludwig Lowe but don’t quote me on that I think that’s what it said in either arming the dragon or weapons of the second sino Japanese war.

German sold the manufacturing equipment plus X number of finished rifles to China. China also hired German to help them to manufacturing that rifles plus making the ammo. At that time China simply didn't have the manufacturing capability to copy a modern rifle design and had to totally rely on foreign expertise. China was very glad to purchase the manufacturing facility and started the process of learning how to make modern rifles. This formed the manufacturing base of rifle making, and later on used the knowledge learned from making Hanyang 88 rifles to copy the Mauser 98K rifles. At least that is what I was told. This makes sense though.

I’ve been waiting to hear more about this rifle! There isn’t really much footage of these firing on KZfaq, so it’s insanely cool to see one in action. Keep up the good work, Thomas! 🙏

Nice video! You are probably the only guy that has actually shot these rifles (and filmed themselves too)!

"Obscure one?" That's one I'd never heard of before!

Cool piece of history

I'm interested seeing another rifle with 民兵 stamped into the stock, I have Japanese Type 38 that was a Chinese import and I was confused with the hole drilled into the stock and the marking in the same spot so its interesting to see that it was a more widespread thing

The hole in the stock isn't for a sling (there is a sling swivel after all :P) it's actually for a bipod. It's something sorta traditionally done in Tibet and in western China. If you google "Tibet rifle bipod" you can get the idea what it looks like. There was a thread on gunboards about this subject a couple months back. Not sure if the comment will allow me to link the thread tho.

Nice. I got one but the bore is a goner. Gun jesus said that majority of those were licensed to be produced (by the Germans) to the chinese. Specifically by 1895, production was licensed out to the Chinese by Ludwig Loewe. Which the Germans sold the obsolete toolings from their gew88. Since they don’t need them anymore. I would assume the Germans made most out of it by selling it to them. I also have one that the Turks converted their gew88 to that same modification. But theirs is way better quality.

The Q in Qing is ch, so you are correct. Bear in mind I know how to pronounce some Chinese but I don’t speak or read Mandarin.

It helped China during war in 1935 to 1945

Btw… why is the ammo smokey?

民兵 on the stock is People's Militia, min-bing, not People's Army. The older bolt actions were given to them in the 50s and 60s and then used and abused for another 30 years before being imported. I'm surprised your rifle is in such good shape. Most of the time they are not.

Necessary video. Not one I have in my collection. I love the history. I have a 1903 Springfield with the same marking on the stock. Presumably supplied as military aid to the Chinese against the Japanese during WWII then stayed in service after the communist takeover.

This is interesting that your Hanyang 88 rifle shoots low. Mine shoots high -- like 8" too high at 50 yards -- at least it is very consistent. I suspect that mine shoots high because it was calibrated to shoot at 200 yards (the rear iron sight starts at 200 yards). I have no idea why yours shoots low. Any idea? Having said this, I have to add that the wood stock in your rifle looks very decent. There are not that many chips and dents, much prettier than mine.

😊 bonjour J'habite en France je parle pas beaucoup car je sais pas si vous trouvez quelqu'un pour la traduction 😢 Je possède un arisaka Siam en 8x52 r ...je ne sais pas si vous savez comment connaître la date de fabrication 😢toutes mes recherches sont restés sans suite.merci Beaucoup.eric 😊

Obviously, the reason why the gun stock is engraved with [民兵minbing] (militia) is that after the Communist Party established power in mainland China in 1949, the regular army eliminated a large number of bolt-action rifles (instead of using Soviet-style weapons) and then used them for the militia.

Great Mate 👍 New learning experience for me.

民兵 = people army I am Taiwanese I have this rifles bayonet 😂