T-94 20.5 dated "roundback"

[mdmorrissey]

Just picked this up and wanted to get some opinions. When I first spotted it, I thought it was a normal late war T-94, but then I saw the 20.5 date and thought something wasn't "right" about it. In doing my research, it looks like the Japanese started using some of the earlier parts (i.e., rounded cocking knobs) to help increase production in May of 45. Per "Japanese Military Handguns", it says that these are fairly scarce guns. This one falls right in the serial number range of the observed examples. Does anyone have further info on these. Thanks in advance for your input!

[mouser]

Nice, all original gun with a scarce original holster..
I have a 20.5 and a 20.6 and both are squarebacks "short grip" variants.
Although your gun is less common(being a long grip, non-squareback variant), the squareback short grip guns bring more money...
Still, a nice catch...

[mdmorrissey]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like there are only about 5 or 6 of these reported, so it is a rare one. As the Derby/Brown book and you allude to, the rarity of this variant isn't reflected in the price. That is the thing about collecting these old military guns....sometimes the prices of items aren't dictated by rarity, but rather by popularity. If this was a common German gun, it would probably bring even more! Go figure I took it apart to verify that the numbers match and they do.

[marfen]

I like it. The holster is one sought after by collectors. Congrats!
Mark

[nambu-shiki]

I posted this earlier, but here is a 20.6 date T-94 with the holster it came with along with a late cleaning rod and an earlier nickel magazine.
G.I. put-together from a booty pile? Who knows. I bought this back in the early 80s at a great gun show in CT that ran several times a year but is now defunct.

[pdawg1911]

I agree that holster is a hard one to find. Could you post some more of just the holster?

Thanks
Pat

[milgunsguy]

IMG_0773 (640x480).jpg

md:

Have you disassembled your roundback 20.5 to verify that the round-back cocking piece's concealed three-digit serial number matches the last three digits of the frame's serial number?

My all-matching 20.4 roundback is pictured above.