New (to me) Japanese toy today

Excellent - post pics when you can please!

Actually, $160 isn't a bad price for an Arisaka in that condition - all bits intact, even the 'mum. That last feature adds quite a bit to the value, given how many Arisaka's were defaced after WW2.

That sounds like a pretty good buy to me.
I also came across a little Japanese treasure yesterday. I traded a guy a S&W Model 10 Heavy Barrel, and a S&W Model 36 with a big blemish on the cylinder and no stocks for a Japanese NCO sword captured on the Phillapines (sp ?) complete with a letter detailing the story of how the guy aquired it.
I am not really into swords, but it was so cool I had to have it.

After we got done trading a half dozen items each we retired to a restraunt for dinner. We started talking history and the Battan (sp ?) Death March was brought up. I told him, that one of the guys guarding those troops may have been carrying that sword and he regreted trading it to me.

Nice buy! Matching early rifles like that aren't too common.

Suggest you pick up some 7.7 Jap new reloadable cases from Midway to keep with it. As I remember, price is about $16/20, and they will get scarcer.

I used to shoot mine quite a bit. At the time I was casting a lot of Lyman #311291 bullets in an undersize mold, sizing them to .308 for .30-06, and found that unsized they were perfect for .303 Brit and 7.7 Jap. They have Metford rifling and are good shooters. Mine is still used by my son for deer and boar. A pristine 6.5 Arisaka still resides in my gun safe.

The actions were found to be stronger than the Springfield, Mauser, and Enfield actions, but were never popular as a sporting rifle due to the clumsy heel-of=the-hand operated safety, which prevented easy scope mounting. Timney made a replacement trigger with side safety for them.

I've owned a couple over twenty years ago....

One was origional, except for the Mum. The other was a very well done sporter with the barrel set back and rechambered to .300 Savage. If my aging memery serves me right It cost me around 55.00 with dies and components.....A very sturdy, good looking sporter done by a smith in Newport, N.H. Have also seen some fancy ones years ago,............Essex

Did quite well on the price for the condition you discribe and with the mum intact. Finding a mum example non messed with and non sporterized with all the goodies can be tough. Ammo runs high though. I believe your gun has a chrome lined bore too and I think it was among the first firearms to have that feature. Arisaka has a extremely strong action too.

These guns have been climbing in price too it seems as well as their bayonets.
www.gunboards.com has a Japanese firearms board that has some people whom are extremely knowledgeable on Arisakas. Check it out.

Not a bad price at all. I got its cousin, the Type 38. Brought back from Okinawa by a friend's dad. Its too rough to shoot, though, been looking for a shooter.

I have one of the two my father acquired. Mine was the one "too rough to shoot" (non-matching numbers and excessive head-space). Changing the case length in reloading solved the head-space and reforming .30-06 brass solved the brass availability problem.

My rifle prefers the 123 gr bullets used in the 7.62x39 for some reason, but will shoot a 3/4" group with them, so I don't complain.

I think they're great rifles.

If it's all matching, with intact Mum, then $160 is great.

Post pics and range report soon.

hillbilly

20cows - The 7.7mm Japanese catridge uses .311" bullets, as do AKs and Enfields. Using .308" bullets would almost certainly work, but wouldn't give very good accuracy I bet.

Mine was a training model, one that was pulled out of service because it didn't meet standards. It then was shot with blanks, and not taken care of.

Must have handed out every last rifle when the Americans hit the beach, though.

Ian

The rifling on those guns is incredibly deep (four lands and four grooves, basically a rotating square). I slugged my bore once and the greatest measurement was like .314 and the smallest ~.308 (I don't really recall the smaller size). I never had any luck with 150 to 180 gr. bullets (3" at best), but the fist time I loaded a 123gr bullet @.311 we got it down to 3/4" groups. Those bullets are now sized .310 and it hasn't made any difference in my gun.

Later, I rechambered it to 7.7-06, still having good results. Just for fun I clocked .30-06 acceleraters through it @ 3800 fps and less than a 2" group. I took a deer at 276 yds. before the rechamber. I like this gun.

20cows - Interesting. I wonder if the 123-grainers are expanding at the base to fit the rifling better?

Probably not. I think the shorter bullets are just easier to stabilize.

I had to drill out a screw last night. A butt-stock screw on an old, chewed up winchester stock that held a butt-plate I needed was so tight, it broke the tip of a screw driver off and still didn't budge. Just be CAREFUL.

Of course I was removing a screw from a wooden stock (didn't damage the stock). In metal, you might need to use an ease-out after drilling a pilot hole. If I'm remembering right, the screw your talking about goes into wood also.

Campergeek -- very nice rifle! You did real good.

Beautiful rifle, most definitely a deal at $160.

Nice!

Very sweet and lot's of history there. Unbelivable condition, that is one I do not have but am still looking for. Hope I do as well as you.

I had a chance to get a couple Arisakas at a local auction years ago, but some guy I pissed off earlier that day out bid me on everthing. The guy was looking at the Arisaka type 99s and was telling anybody that would listen that the Arisakas were POS and that the fold downs were because the 7.7 was so inaccurate they needed HUGE windage adjustments if the shot was more than 150yds. Well me and my big mouth says "Yes their for windage, but their AA sights so you could lead a fast flying aircraft". He just blows me off as just a kid that doesn't know any better. But the owner overheard the whole thing and tells the guy I'm right and he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I lost two good Arisakas and a GEW43 to that guys ego, he never paid for those rifles, just outbid me and left after we did. Auctioneer told us at a later auction if we'd stayed till the end of the auction like we normally did the owner would have given me the Arisakas and GEW43 at a good price, said I knew what I was talking about, and thought they'd be with a good owner, but the guy pulled stakes and left 2 weeks after the auction. :banghead:

7.7 arisaka

I'm new and the reason I signed up was because I read some of your excellent discussion material.

I was searching online for info on a 7.7-06 wildcat..based on the Type 99 Arisaka cartridge. I picked up a series 34 Toyo Kogyo last Dec. I guess its what they call transitional, almost but not quite a last ditch issue. The stock has been cut down and there's an almost funny attempt at a refinish, including adding a butpad that does not fit. The barrel was not cut down. It is crude as anything I've ever seen.

I have a soft spot in my heart for old beater guns, providing they are safe to shoot. I gave 69 bucks for it. But it had at least been drilled and tapped for a weaver side mount, the base was still there.

I discovered that someone had run a 30/06 reamer through the chamber. I fired the Hornady Ammo through it I got a 7.7 case blown out to the shoulder dimension of a 30/06...with an id in the area of .311. A 303 british jacketed bullet will slip into it with little resistance. The cases show no signs of distress. I've shown the cases to several people with experience in reloading blown out cases. They all say the cases are ok. A 7.7 improved?

A 30/06 will not chamber...it's too long the bolt will not close.

The bolt is bent downward but there is no sign of it ever being heated. I've read only sniper rifles had factory bent bolts. The stock was notched to allow the add on weaver side mount. The bolt serial number matches the rifle. If it were originally a sniper rifle does anyone know how to tell?

Bought the rest of the scope mount on E-BAY and picked up a Jap made NATO scope at a 2nd hand store. Less than $100 bucks in it total and with the missmatch chamber and the 2nd hand side mount scope..it still grouped 1.5 inches at 40 yards. It might do better but the trigger is very heavy.

I was curious if 20 cows could tell us more about what he done to rechamber his Arisaka to 7.7/06.

I located Hornady Ammo in stock at a local gun shop but had to shell out
$29.00 for it. I gladly done so since they were kind enough to stock it.

I want to reload these blow outs. I have done no reloading so I will start with a basic lee hand loader for my 30/06. Any ideas on what combination of lee loader components it would take to hand load these 7.7 blow outs?

When I deer hunt I like to show up with these old relics, my friends will outfit themselves with the newest short magnum and a $300 scope. I bring my 1898 Krag or 1918 SMLE, sporterized maybe 50-60 years ago..sighted in on a 2nd hand scope. Good to go!!! We hunt where shots are seldom over 100 yards and most of the time under 50. My old guns bring the meat home, the deer drop in their tracks. They kill just as clean as those new rifles and they have more character. You sit looking at all those proof marks and wonder where they've been, was it used in combat? The storys that could be told.

This year I'm hunting with an Interarms Virginia Dragoon 44mag pistol.
Open sights. If you can take em with a bow why not a pistol?
Sorry about the long post for my 1st time.
JR

Just be careful with shooting cut-down, fireformed .30-06 cases in the 7.7 Arisaka...the Arisaka cartridge is wider at the rear than the .30-06, so you wind up with much thinner cases in that critical area. Suggest you keep the velocities and pressure down...say 2400 fps max?..., leaving the high pressure loads to Norma 7.7-Jap cases. That said, I never had any problems with gas-checked 170-gr cast bullets, with about a dozen loadings in fire-formed .30-06 cases. Also, the Arisakas have an excellent gas relief system if a case should rupture.

graf

I'll stick to the graf/hornady blow outs since I can get them.
jr