[boo586]

Got the 7.7 Jap this weekend from my dad's house and brought it back with me. I haven't had a chance to realy give a good cleaning yet, but my dad had cleaned it up some and had lubed the bolt and oiled the metal parts recently.

It is defenitely an early production 7.7 Jap. It has the mum intact, the anti-aircraft sights, cleaning rod, bayonet and sheath, leather sling and five original rounds on a stripper clip. The bore looks really good at first glance. The rifling runs the entire length of the barrel all the way to the chamber, no smooth reduced area near the chamber. I was told by a gunsmith to look at this area because the primers of the time were corrosive and this would be the area where the damage would be done if the bore was bad. But there was none!!

I also talked with my grandma this weekend (it was my grandfather that brought the gun back from WWII) and she told me that he did indeed farm on one of the islands during the war growing food for the troops. She told me that even though he wasn't in any big gun battleshe was in some and that they mostly worried about Japanese snipers. So it definitely sounds like the gun was a battlefield pickup and why the gun has an intact mum. My dad also told me that he remember dry firing the gun when he was a kid. He said that he and his brother had to clean some of the grease off of it just to handle it. My dad said that the grease was everywhere in the action just like the bayonet was still packed in grease. I am thinking that my grandfather cleaned the gun and packed it in cosmoline for the trip home. I am defenitely going to be shooting this gun, hopefully soon.

BY the way, I measured the bullets in the original rounds and my calipers read 0.308 to 0.310 on all of them.

I will try and figure out how to post pics soon and get some loaded up here for all to see.

Boo586

[WhoKnowsWho]

Since I am half Japanese, I believe you need to pass it to me to give it a proper home...

[doger5]

I got ya beat! :neener: I'm full Japanese and I had an Uncle who was an interrogator for the M.I.S. for the American Army. And a cousin who was in the Japanese Army during the war!

Get this, my uncle ended up interrogating his own cousin, in the Philippines during the war!:D

[scotjute]

My father used to have one (it was stolen). I've seen him knock deer down several times at about 100-150 yds with it.

[boo586]

Sorry Who and Doger,

The gun is going to stay with the grandson of the navy vet that brought it home!!

I ran a boresnake through the barrel at lunch today and the bore is mint!!! Nice, shiny and crisp rifling!!

How do I go about doing a detailed cleaning of the gun and its workings?

I can not find headspace gauges for 7.7 Jap, so should I just clamp the thing to a shooting bench and tie a string to the trigger and trying shooting a few of the Norma rounds through it and measuring the cases before and after firing checking for extreme case stretch?

Thanks,

Boo586

[diyj98]

Check to see if the serial numbers on the bolt, safety, firingpin, extractor, bayolug, etc match the number on the receiver. It will definately help the value if they all match.

Plus if your bolt DOESN'T match the receiver, you'll definately want to have the headspace checked before firing it.

[BHP9]

Congratulations. I hope you keep the rifle in the family and never sell it. You will find this weapon to be super accurate and it will even fire cast bullet loads with phenominal accuracy. I do it all the time in my 7.7 Japenese rifle. Contrary to old wives tales that appear daily on the internet this type of rifling will shoot cast bullets very accurately. Although it cannot be correctly called poly-gonnal rifling the rifling was in my opinion the forerunner of the modern day poly-gonnal rifling. I personally cannot see the difference between it and modern poly-gonnal rifling. Both shoot cast bullets with amazing accuracy. Just be sure to clean any accumulation of lead out of the barrel. If very hard bullets of the proper diameter to match the bore are used along with a good lube and gas checks are used you will probably experience no leading at all.

You have one of the strongest if not the strongest miltary bolt action rifle ever made. P.O. Ackley actually failed to blow up the Arisakas when he easily blew up all the other famous military rifles. The Japanese Arisaka was actually that good.

For years people shunned collecting these guns until they finally found out how good they really were. Now prices have started to rise quite a bit with some of the paratrooper rifles bringing very big money.

These guns, although made over 50 years ago take a back seat in accuracy to no other military rifle being made even today if apples are compared to apples, in other words, the same weight barrel and same type of sights and same quality ammunition.

I own or have owned all of the military bolt action rifles and if I would have had to make a choice about which military bolt action rifle to use in battle the Arisaka would have won hands down.

[Bainx]

Roger what BHP9 said. Plus, you can ge the bolt completely apart in about 3 seconds, no kidding. Lot to be said about a peep sight.
I still have my fingers crossed about somebody making some affordable 7.7 ammo!
The bayonets alone are worth doing research on to collect.:cool:

[Ian]

Obligatory book plug: Check out Japanese Rifles of World War II (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1880677113/qid=1052266037/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-7337729-4839109?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by my dad. :)

For cheap 7.7, reloading is probably the best plan. The bullets for 7.7 Japanese are the same as .303 British uses; .311 inch.

[W.Va.Glassman]

Is the ammo you have Jap?If it is save it and the stripper clip,it's very collectible.