Japanese Spencer New Model rifle...

[Len]

.

[Herbert]

That is a very good find with a great history ,not many can be pined down for use as this one can,the Navey bayonet for the Spencer rifle is the corect bayonet.The S&S or BACO centerfire block and a centerfire follower will turn this rifle into a great BP shooter as well as a very colectable Spencer.By the look of the photos the butt stock nut has come loose,you can tighten it by removing the butt plate and you will see the nut that goes around the magizine tube,you may have to make a special tool from a peice of pipe to tighten this

[Two Flints]

Len,

This is a similar thread to one already started a few posts below this one . .  ."Anyone familiar with a Japanese Spencer."

[Len]

Thanks for the advice about tightening the butt stock nut and correct bayonet  Herbert. Two Flints I posted that a few days ago on Jouster , didn't get much feedback though.

Len

[Snakeeater]

While it is certainly possible that the rifle was given to arm the Samurai of Saga Perfecture, as its people were among those who had supported the Meiji Restoration, and the name Saga Prefecture only dates after the return to Imperial rule of the teenage Emperor Meiji (1853-1912), beginning 3 February 1867. One thing to bear in mind was that Emperor Meiji was the ruler who also initialized the modernization and industrialization of Japan, and another significance of the date "Meiji 27" corresponds to the year the First Sino-Japanese War began, culminating in the Port Arthur (Lushunkou) massacre in 1894 when the Imperial Japanese Army slaughtered 20,000 Chinese civilians over four days. This New Model Spencer Navy rifle may have been one of the rifles carried into that conflict, more so than the Boshin War of 1868-69?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(China)