I picked up this one today for $125 from a neighbor who bought it in the 70s to convert to .45-70 but thankfully never got around to it. It has gathered dust in a closet for 30+ years. He said he put some 3-in-1 oil on it when the bought it but that was about it. Even the bore was linted up.

Correct me if I'm wrong but as best as I can tell it's a type 46 Siamese Mauser converted to the type 66 round.

The bore/crown is in good shape and with some TLC I think it will clean up just fine. Other than dings the stock is in nice shape. The blue looks good under the crud. No numbers on the bolt at all. No import mark. No rod.

From pics I have seen it looks to take a Mauser type of cleaning rod. Is that correct?

Did the Japanese or Siamese use Urushi varnish on the stock?

I know ammo is not available for it unless you roll your own but you just got to love the workmanship. I look forward to getting it up to snuff. The pics are taken in it's "as found" condition.

Some of the most unusual surplus military rifles you might encounter on the market is the Siamese (Thai) Type 46 Long Rifle and Type 47 Carbine, commonly called the Model 1903 Siamese Mauser that was used by Siamese/Thai military during the early and middle Twentieth century.

History
Siam (สยาม), later changing its name to the Kingdom of Thailand (ราชอาณาจักรไทย) in 1938 was one of the few independent South Eastern Asian states that was not under direct European rule in the late Nineteenth Century had decided to modernize their army under the rule of King Chulalongkorn (1853-1910) to be called King Rama V The Great (1868-1910), to discourage and hold on to the last of their territories that had not been seized by both the British in Burma/Malaya or the French in Vietnam/Laos/Kampuchea (Cambodia). As both of these nations particularly France were not willing to sell any number of modern arms to the Siamese as they were opponents of this type of modernization, the government of Siam decided to acquire weapons from their European rivals, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire by purchasing a substantial number of Gewehr 1871 Mausers from Germany and Gewehr 1888, 1888/90 and 1895 Mannlichers from Austria-Hungary. King Chulalongkorn had also admired Japan's growth, ability to remain and maintain its independence against the same problems faced by his nation looked to the ever expanding Japanese Armaments Industry to possibly help supply them with weapons. The Japanese sent a number of sale sample Murata Type 13,18 and 22 and Arisaka Type 30 and 35's to Siam hoping that they would purchase thier arms, which they never did, in return Japan was only too willing to offset its balance of payment situation, even partially, which lead to a long mutual beneficial association/relationship between these two nation which lasted to the end of World War II. Sometime during the period of late 1899 to 1901 the Siamese military quickly recognized the need to replace these firearms with a newer state of the art weapon and after successfully testing a number of arms looked to Germany with its new Gewehr 1898 Mauser as its new weapon of choice which must have been a blow to the Japanese. Siam then most likely had to obtained a manufacturing license from Deutsche Waffen Und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), who was very aggressive in defending its patents rights as the United States found out when it adopted the U.S. Magazine Rifle, Caliber .30, Model 1903 by bieng sued for patent infringments, for a bolt-action design which was adopted in 1903 as the Rattanakosinsok 121, abbreviated as Ror Sor 121, or most commonly called the Siamese Type 46 Long Rifle.

Design
The basic design of the weapon used a combination of two different Mauser's features on the market at the time, the Swedish Model 1896 (Kleinkalibriges-Versuchsgewehr 1896) and the German Model 1898 (Gewehr 1898) along with some Japanese features as found on the Type 30 and 35 Arisaka's making this a very unique, stand alone Mauser patented rifle. The front band, rear sight, handguard, and lack of recoil bolt in the stock was derived from the Model 1896 and the rest of the majority of parts are from the Gewehr 1898. This included items such as the one-piece, cock-on-opening bolt with dual frontal locking lugs and a "third" safety lug on the rear underside of the bolt body which lies in the recession in the inside of the receiver bridge in front of the bolt handle, along with the two large gas escape holes on the bottom of the bolt help to direct the gases down the left bolt lug way and out the thumb clearance cut out in the receiver in case of complete cartridge case failure or pierced primer. Other German features are a bolt face which completely surrounds the case of the cartridge head, a non-rotating extractor and a pistol grip contour in the stock.The Japanese features applied to the weapon include items such as, the majority of them had two piece wrist tangs in the top and bottom of the pistol grip in the stock to help reinforce it in the wrist area against breakage, a magazine floor plate that is easily removable by pressing a catch in the forward part of the trigger guard thus releasing the floor plate from the trigger guard housing, a sliding dust cover that was copied from the one used on the Japanese Type 35 Rifle. This cover sits on the top of receiver that was held in place by rails built into the receiver that had to be manually operated back and forth by lifting a pawl latch on the cover to disengage it from the notches that held in place in the receiver thus allowing it to be moved. The stocks on the weapons were of a fat-bellied design as found on the Japanese Type 30 and a few are sometimes found with Japanese style two piece stocks in which the bottom of the butt was a separate piece of wood that was dovetailed and glued to the upper part. Another strong Japanese characteristic was the bolt handle which had a thin shaft and an odd shaped grasping ball. Unlike a vast majority of military Mausers which were chambered for the rimless cartridges, this weapon was the only one that was chambered for a rimmed bottleneck cartridge so the magazine box had to be of a slanted, staggered column type to prevent the cartridge rims from catching each other. Mannlicher's influence on the weapon can be seen in the cartridge (described below) and the knife type bayonet which appears to be a copy of the one used by M95 Mannlicher Rifles. A really unique feature not found on any other Mauser was the butt-plate which had a sliding cover plate that held a brass two piece rotating front sight/muzzle cover in the stock when not being used. It is a common misconception that this held an oilier or cleaning equipment.
According to the Thai government the manufacturing of the weapon was to be acomplished at the Royal Siamese Arsenal in Bangkok but it did not have the facilities to manufacture the barrelled actions so they placed two orders for two batches of 20,000 each of rifles (400,00) and one contract for 10,000 carbines to thier Asian ally, Japan at the Imperial Japanese Army Arsenal called "Tokyo Artillery Arsenal" located in the Kowisikawa District of Tokyo for these parts with the remaining of the parts to be manufactured and final assembly be accomplished in Siam. As we do not have enough research in this area there are three different theories involved, the first is that it is quite possible that the Japanese furnished all the barreled actions and were completed by the Siamese as stated. The second is that the first 20,000 rifles were made in Japan without wrist tangs, had two-piece stocks with the typical Japanese wood and then the Siamese received the second batch of 20,000 barreled actions and completed them with single-piece stocks, wrist tangs and stocks made from native Siamese woods – teak or Philippine mahogany or it could simply be that all of the weapons were supplied complete and that by the time they were surplused most stocks had been replaced by the Siamese as Siamese labor was cheap and native forestry products were readily available. The final theory is that all Type 46 and Type 47's were made in Japan as the Japanese documents that were obtained from the archives in Japan which related to these contracts make no mention of anything but of complete weapons. These weapons were made of quality materials and showed signs of first-class workmanship. These weapons were made from 1903 until production ceased in 1908.

It is believed that perhaps the first 20,000 (or possibly all) were completely assembled in Japan and the rest were assembled there as stated.
According to the Thai Government they state that the complete weapons were assembled in Siam but its is believed that perhaps the first 20,000 (or possibly all) were completely assembled in Japan and the rest were assembled there as stated. The majority of them however are found with one piece stocks made of either Philippine mahogony or teakh and it is believed these were replacement stocks made by the National Armory in Bangkok at a later date.
These weapons were made of quality materials and showed signs of first-class workmanship. There were about 400,000 of these weapons made from 1903 until production ceased in 1908. The Siamese orders were. There was a small number of German made Model 1903 Siamese Mauser's that are marked 1901, along with the Siamese crest on the receiver bridge, that was made at Waffenfabrik Mauser but these were believed to be the prototype rifles that the Japanese could have used to copy and manufacture these weapons.


Stamped on the top of receiver ring is a circle surrounded by twelve objects, which represent flaming blades, called a "Sudarshana Charka" or commonly called as charka, pronounced as "chuck", meaning circle or loop which was an ancient mythical Thai/Khmer throwing weapon that was considered as a “weapon of the gods“. Within the charka markings is the stylized conical crown of the Siamese/Thai ruling dynasty highlighted by the sun's rays eminating from the top of the crown, below this, in Siamese script, it is inscribed R.S. 121or 123, which translated to Rattanakosinsok "Ror Sor" 121 or 123. To better understand these markings a little history is in order.
Prior to April 1, 1889 the Siamese did not have a formal government approved designation system for ordnance material so up to that date material was identified by the name of its supplier and physical characteristics, for example, the Mannlicher Model 1888 was simply referenced as "Infantry Rifle Type Mannlicher". This system was adequate until they began ordering material with unique features that addressed their specific needs. Between April 1, 1889 and March 31, 1913 Siam employed a system intended to identify ordnance material by the date of its adoption in terms of the year of the reign of the Royal family, known as the Rattanakosinsok or Charki Dynasty, which had started in the year 1782, so 1903 would have been the 121st year of the reign of this dynasty, so when the Long Rifle was adopted in that year it was simply called by the name "Ror Sor 121" , two years later the when the Carbine was adopted it was called "Ror Sor 123". On April 1, 1913 Siam then adopted the Buddhist calendar, which started with the birth of Buddha, caused a major change in all military ordnance and material designations and a new system had to be utilized to identify them. This new designation utilized the last two digits of the Buddhist year as the "Type" or "Model" number which can be found by adding 543 to Christian year in order to find the Buddist year of adoption, therefore 1903 bieng the year 2446. In order to avoid confusion with the previous designations, the new systems numbers were preceded by four Siamese characters which translate to as "Type". existing weapons were then re-designated, but not stamped with the new designations unless it underwent a major overhaul or rebuild that involved a complete re-blueing of the entire weapon as shown in the Type C and D markings. Just to keep the issue much more confused you will see in many different publications incorrect designations such as Type/Model/Ror Sor 45 or 66 bieng used as these designations stem from the Thais unofficial verbal usage of the cartridges that were used in them as both calibers remained in use until the late 1960s but still does not reflect the rifles true designation. We collectors sould refer to the Long Rifles as either Ror Sor 121 or Type 46 and the Carbine as Ror Sor 123 or Type 47.
On the receiver bridge are the numerals, in Siamese script, that make up the weapons serial number. Graduations for elevation on the rear sight base and leaf are also in Siamese scripted numerals.
๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙

On the left wall of the receiver just in front of the thumb clearance cut out is the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal symbol, three stacked cannonballs. To the left of this symbol appears the markings of the Siamese/Thai inspectors, as each rifle was to be examined and tested in the presence of the Royal Siamese Government Inspectors, namely, Lt.Col. M.Chatidej and Major M.C. Bovaradej. The Type A marking is the Siamese character that is equivelant to English letter B, it is believed that this symbol was of "Colonel" Prince Bavorady who was at the time the officer in charge of the initial delegation that visited Japan during the manufacturing of the weapons but no historical documents are found to confirm this. The Type B inspection marking is roughly translated to the word "division". It appears that the inpectors changed between serial numbers 19,837 and 20,535

If you disassemble the weapon you will find stamped underneath the receiver, and all other parts a one to three digit number and a Japanese Katakana symbol, which is the assembly number assigned that weapon by Tokyo Artillery Arsenal. Sometimes you will find weapons that have the Siamese markings, serial numbers and rear sights ground off and re-stamped with Arabic numberings on them.

Carbine
The Siamese government also made extensive modifications to the Model 1903 Siamese Mausers to obtain short rifles and carbines configurations at later dates and one of them is the Type 47 Carbine. This weapon was of a shorter length with a 20.5-inch barrel, side mounted sling swivels on the barrel band and left side of stock The barrel and muzzle bands on this particular weapon were very similar to those found on the Japanese Type 38 that in fact it used the standard Japanese Type 30 bayonet. Approximately 12,500 of these weapons were made.

Ammunition/Modification
The weapon was originally chambered for the 8x50Rmm Siamese Type 45 (2445) cartridge which was adopted in the year 1902 a full year before adopting the Type 46 Long Rifle, these were for used in the Steyr made Model 95 Mannlicher Rifle that was exported to Siam. The bullet was a round nosed, lead cored, cupro-nickel clad, full metal jacket design that weighed 237 grains and had a diameter of .321-inch with an approximate muzzle velocity of 2050 fps. The cartridge case was made of brass with a Berdan primer and on the bottom of the cartridge case it is marked with the numbers 45 in Siamese script. Only ball bullets were used. This cartridge was made in both Japan and was the first cartridge to be loaded at the National Arsenal in Bangkok. Note: The Siamese Type 45 is not interchangeable with the Austrian 8x50Rmm cartridge even though that round was used as a basis for the development of the Siamese Type 45 cartridge.
In the early 1920's the Siamese wanted to upgrade the Type 45 cartridge to a more powerful and pointed type of round for use in their Browning F.N., Vickers and Madsen Machine Guns and the Type 45 was not suitable for this, thus they developed the 8x52Rmm Siamese Type 66 cartridge. The 8x52Rmm Siamese Type 66 cartridge was adopted in 1923 (2466), using a spitzer boat-tail bullet, lead cored, a gilding-metal or copper-washed steel jacket design that weighed 181 grains and had a diameter of .323-inch with a muzzle velocity of 2250 fps. The cartridge case was made of brass with a Berdan and later Boxer primer and on the bottom of the cartridge case it is marked with the numbers 66 in Siamese script. Ammunition was also made in Tracer, Armor Piercing (AP) and Armor Piercing Incendiary (API). This cartridge was made at the National Arsenal in Bangkok until 1953, Japan, England (Kynoch), Denmark and Finland (Sako).

When the Type 66 cartridge was adopted, most 1903 Siamese Mausers were re-chambered and/or re-barreled to handle this cartridge. When the weapons were converted the rear sight base was cut down to give the correct elevation with the new ballistics of the Type 66 flatter trajectory, thus taking off some of the original sight graduations. This is the easiest way to tell that the weapon has been converted to the new round. It was also common practice for Japanese Arsenals to put a second assembly number on rifles that had to be rebuilt, thus you can find some of these converted weapons with two assembly number and Katakana symbols. This second assembly number is placed on the bottom of the receiver just above the original assembly assigned number. If the conversion took place at the National Armory in Bangkok it lacks the second assembly number. On some of weapons the trigger guard is usually marked with a 66 indicating that the magazine box has been converted to accept the longer Type 66 round and other parts of the weapon might also bear the 66 markings. It has been debated if the barrels on these conversions are re-chambered or re-barreled as most of the time the barrels look like they are newer to the weapon itself as the rear sight bases on them are usually pitted and the barrels are not.
These weapons remained standard issue with the Siamese (Thai) military from 1903 through to the early 1960’s when they were eventually replaced with small arms that were provided by the U.S. military. Most of these weapons were sold to the various U.S. importers in the middle 1960’s but some remained in Thailand were they were used by the National Police and were re-chambered to use the 30-06 cartridge and from what I understand some of these were in service until the late 1980’s.
These weapons were used in the Franco-Thai War of 1940-41 that took place in the Battambang province of Kampuchea (Cambodia) part of French Indochina during WWII. Siam was invaded by the Japanese on December 8, 1941 and in 1942 they also fought in the Shan States against the Chinese 98th Army located there.

Patrick

Hi 1srelluc,

It does not appear that you have a Type 46 rifle but rather a RS121 Siamese rifle, which is the original configuration. Check the rear sight, has it been ground down so that only part of the numbers are visable on the sides?
If so, it has been converted to the Type66, 8x52R caliber.
If the entire numbers are visable then it is in the original Type 45, 8x50R caliber.

I don't think that the cleaning rod is a regular Mauser rod, I will have to go pull mine to see. (I never thought to look before)

I am not sure about the varnish either but mine and most that I have seen appear to have a type of varnish on them. Don't know if that is original or maybe something the importers did.

BTW, the marking on the rear receiver bridge is the serial number, which appears to be 36035.

You have avery nice find there and at a great price! Congrats!

Walter

The sight base is ground so I figure it's a Type 46 re-chambered for the Type 66 8X52R round. I think the Type 66 rifle is a different bird altogether and looks like a Type 38 Japanese rifle.

When I disassembled the weapon I measured from the cleaning rod lug to the front sight base and it looks to take a regular GEW 98 rod of approx. 15.5 inches. The lug fit the threads in my K98 rods and the cleaning rod hole/channel is a perfect fit. As the Japanese used German rifles to base these rifles on it stands to reason that the cleaning rod might have been copied also. I'd be greatly interested in the length of yours.

I believe Urushi varnish was used when the Japanese first made the rifle because it is clearly visible in the stock channel. Hard to say what was put on it durning later refurbs but it looks to be some sort of varnish. I did a oil scrub on the stock and the areas with varnish still on it resisted the oil. Damn was it ever filthy!

I just finished cleaning and reassembling the rifle and like I thought it cleaned up nicely. It has a butter smooth action and I can see the appeal for those that did .45-70 and other rimmed cartridge conversions of it. Not that I would of course!

The original cleaning rod was 39,6 cm (15.59)
You can get a very nicely made reproduction from Don Schlickman
http://members.shaw.ca/tju/donspartslist.htm
You are correct in that the Type 66 Rifle is a different bird altogether and looks like a Type 38 Japanese rifle.
Patrick

Thanks for the rod link.

I'm going to a fun show in the morning and there is a guy always there that has several GEW 98 rods but I forget the price. I'll carry along a tape to measure. If he is not there or they are too expensive I'll go with the link. I hope he's there 'cause he sort of specializes in mil-surp accessories of all types and his prices are usually reasonable.

I wonder what kind of sling they used?

I put a well used but solid Austrian sling on my rifle just because it matches up well with the stock. From the size of the front and rear swivels it looks to have taken a variation of the GEW 98 sling without the attached swivel. The front swivel is about .25" narrower than the rear one.

The sling was black leather with black painted hardware, 1,9 cm (3/4") wide and 132,1 cm (52") long. These slings looked like the type used on the Japanese Type 38.
Patrick

Was the buckle stiched closed like a Swede or open with two retainers like a Jap sling?

Nice price and a nice find! definitely on my short list!

It was open with two retainers like a Japanese Type 38 sling
Patrick

I wasn't saying that your rifle is a Type 66, I was refering to the Type 66 round.
The nominclature of the Siamese weapons can get rather confusing as pointed out in Lebel excellent post above.

Yes the Type 66 rifle is based on the Japanese Type 38 rifle. Lets forget about the Type 66 rifle just to try to keep things less confusing

The original chambering was 8x50R designated the Type 45 round.
The later chambering was 8x52R designated the Type 66 round.

As I understand it, when the rifle were originally made they were designated as the model RS121 and used the Type 45 round.
When they were rechambered in the 1920's to the Type 66 round they were given the new model designation Type 46. (If I have this screwed up someone please correct me)

Obviously your rifle (and mine too) were both rechambered from 8x50R, Type 45 to the newer 8x52R, Type 66 round in the 1920's. However, this is rather confusing to me because your rifle still has the original model designation on the receiver ring of RS121, instead of having been scrubbed and restamped with new model designation Type 46.

I have included a picture to demonstrate the differences using a blow up of your crest compared to my crest and the appropriate drawings from Francis C. Allan's data sheet.


This raises a question that maybe someone here can answer.
Did your rifle just slip through the cracks and not get remarked or were some remarked and others weren't?

I took a look at my cleaning rod and to my surprise it doesn't have a siamese rod in it, it appears to be a 1908 Brazilian rod and it fits perfectly. I have had this rifle for 20 years and never noticed that before it measures 15 5/8".

Hope you find one that works.
Walter

As I understand it, when the rifle were originally made they were designated as the model RS121 and used the Type 45 round.
When they were rechambered in the 1920's to the Type 66 round they were given the new model designation Type 46. (If I have this screwed up someone please correct me) .... When Siam (Thailand) switched to the Buddish Calender in 1913 both Rattanakosinsok 121 and Type 46 was used for rifles chambered in both cartridges, it is a bit confusing but it was done.

The Type D marking was only done if the weapon went through a very complete overhaul as the Type 47 Carbines had, very few of these done as matter of fact only 1 at this time has this marking on it as per Frank Allen book, The Siamese Mauser, A Study of Siamese/Thai Type 46 Rifles and Type 47 Carbines. All of the Type 46 rifles I have seen all have the Type A markings on them in both calibres. The biggest problem with understanding these weapons is the lack of information on these weapons as alot of it is still in Thailand and is being 'guarded' by them, hopefully this will change one day. All we collectors can do right now is examine the weapons on hand and make observation based upon what we see.
Patrick

Thank you Patrick for clearing that up.

I always thought that I had just a run of the mill Siamese Mauser, I never really knew to much about it until I stumbled in here one evening last week. Since then I have learned more about my rifle than in the 20 years of owning it.

I have some other questions about my rifle so instead of hijacking 1srelluc's thread I will start another and I hope you will weigh in there too.

Thanks,
Walter

Whoo! It sounds like a "who's on first" type of thing trying to describe these weapons.

As an aside I was at a collector's show this past weekend and a fellow had both flavors on display. Don't you know we went all the way around Robin Hood's barn when he was telling me the difference too. They are confusing. I just went with the ground sight explanation as good enough.

His were not for sale but one had a rod and he said they are the same as the GEW 98 rod used in many rifles of that era. He had bayonets/sheaths for each and fancy placards made up with a simple description. Nice display.

I saw one about in the same condition as my rifle for sale at another table and the boy wanted $450 for it.

Thanks for the exchange guys...I learned a lot....I think.