I'm over the moon right now. Only 29,000 Japanese Type 11s were made over a period of 20 years, and almost all were destroyed obviously. There are sadly estimated to only be about 100 left and on the NFA registry for civilian ownership.  A hundred!  That's it!  It's a funky machine gun with an odd, but VERY cool feeding system, and was designed in 1922, when guns were skillfully machined with tight tolerances, because countries still had the time and resources needed to build guns that way. I have wanted one for years but finding one was hard, and finding one that was nice and matching was seeming to be impossible.

Yes, my MG42 is a better gun, and more fun, but there were half a million of them made.  When I decided I wanted one, it took a week to find one.  And yes my Colt Thompson is also rare and a better gun as well, but while there were only 15,000 of them made, many have survived.  Around 1,800 are on the NFA registry here in the sates.  Not a ton, but still that's a high percentage from what was made 97 years ago, and finding one for sale is not hard at all.  And yes there are many many better machine guns, but there is something about the Japanese Type 11 that has always made me always want one.  Perhaps it is a combination of the machine work, the weirdness, and the fact it's a Japanese made machine gun?  Who knows.  I just know I have wanted one, and it took me 6 years to find one in a complete package like this.

So after 6 years of looking, here it is!!  It's a 100% internally and externally matching and original nearly mint condition example from the Kokura, Tokyo factory, and was made in April of 1942.  Just as good as finding the gun itself, are all of the parts and spare parts included with it! Original sling, muzzle cover, spare bolts, springs, barrel, pins, etc. You just DO NOT find spare parts for these guns!  Or the slings, muzzle covers, etc. The seller is a super nice guy and I feel lucky to have found this package deal, as I probably would have never found a package like this one ever again.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the pictures and my rambling.  I am excited!

Very cool gun congratulations. Are you loading your own or is there a caliber conversion done.
wish I would have picked one of those up back in the day.
I did machine gun shoots for over 10 years I needed a Workhorse so I got the 1919 belt fed.

Hope you have many rounds of trouble free fun you picked a nice gun.

Awesome!  Congrats.

Now give us a Forgotten Weapons type rundown of it, as I'm not all that familiar with them.

Or let Ian have access to it for a show.  How cool would that be?  

very nice!

Holy Moly! That gun looks pristine bud! Grats!!!
Please please make a video on that beauty.

Ooooh. I remember he let Hickok45 play with some of his MGs and that went well. I would much rather see Ian of Forgotten Weapons do a collaboration though... wishful thinking perhaps. But AZ isn't that far of a flight from TX!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/JH9VQGht8CU[/youtube]

I prefer to keep guns in their original calibers.  I have 300 6.5x50mm rounds loaded up from the seller, and I also order 1000 brass and 2000 projectiles to reload for it with his recipie.  I won't shoot it much, but I like to have more than I will ever need.

Wow, great find. The Japanese firearms from that era are some truly fine pieces of craftsmanship.

Cool!  Thanks.  I've been watching FW for years and must have missed that episode.

That is so cool looking.    Do those cooling fins spiral up the barrel covers?

I think you made a great choice over the 42.
Call me crazy but I always wanted a chauchat.
It would be  hard to keep that one in the safe and be a wall hanger

Hey, that look like the AR15 non-assault pistol grip stocks!!

And do these rounds have to be oiled first or does the hopper do the oiling automatically?

Oh, I have an MG42 also.  Probably my favorite machine gun I own.  It's just plain ridiculous!

That little tank looking thing on the top of the receiver is what you fill up with oil and it automatically oils the rounds.  It's messy though over time (the whole thing was a dumb idea lets be honest), so what people do is roll the rounds in some carnauba wax so it gets a light coat on it, before shooting it.