What is wrong with Arisaka?

My main gripe with the Arisakas are:
1-Parts availability,
2-Ammo availability, especially for the 6.5mm,
3-(and worst) Bubba wuz here before me.

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those were my main gripes when I first got into arisakas as well. I didn't want the 6.5 but I got an offer I couldn't refuse so I went ahead and got it only to search for weeks to find ammo, would you believe that I found it at cabelas? hornady ammo is pretty good and no more expensive than most other quality, reloadable, hunting ammo. as for parts, numrich arms has everything you'll ever need for the arisaka minus wood.

and Arisaka's were cheaper than cheap. Most had been deliberately defaced, many in ways that made mounting scope bases difficult on the ground off receivers. They were considered to be junk as compared to a Mauser. From fit and finish and mechanical design and ergonomics standpoints they are junk. Historical, interesting, accurate, strong, collectable junk. Just like a Mosin.

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I completely disagree with you on that. first of all, the difficulty mounting scopes has nothing to do with the mums being ground off, it has to do with the split bridge. you have to find mounts that bolt to the side of the receiver rather than the top, something that in no way is inhibited by mum removal. considering that much of early japanese design is based off early mauser designs I find it laughable that you could compare any arisaka to a mosin nagant and refer to it as junk in comparison to the mauser. they are very smooth, very simplistic designs and I have seen no poor fitting or finish on any of my jap made arisakas. the italian made arisaka I just picked up is complete junk in comparison in terms of fit and finish. in terms of ergonomics they feel like every single other military rifle with a metal buttplate from that era. perhaps the straight bolt may mess with some people but need I remind you that a number of mausers also had straight bolts?

I had one that I sold, but I don't recall it being cock on closing. My enfields cock on closing and I much prefer it.

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with the exception of the type I which was made in Italy, all arisakas that I'm aware of are cock on closing.

I think they had a reputation for having manufacturing flaws which could cause failures. I thought I read once though that in actual laboratory destructive pressure testing, they turned out to be one of the stronger bolt action designs of WWII. I can't find the article though, so maybe I imagined it.

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PO Ackley Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders, Vol II. You are correct, the 6.5 Arisaka was found to be the strongest of all the military actions tested. Ackley was only able to blow it up by rechambering it into .270 Ackley Mag and using 60 grains of 3031 plus 10 grains of 2400.

Two 38s, sporterized not bubba'ed. Stocks and triggers replaced, one rechambered to 6.5X257 and the other rebarreled to 7X57 Ackley. The 6.5 is almost a one-holer with 140gr Sierras. Don't mind the safeties 'cause I don't use them anyway.
Granted they've had some $$$ rubbed on them but hey, if the wife doesn't yell at me for that then no one else should either!

I thought that I had found a good Type 99 - until I had it in my hands. It was advertised as original except that it had been drilled for a Williams aperature sight.

Hah.

The front sight mount had been ground down to a "sportier" profile, the rear sight had been messed with to take the AA wings off and to lower it out of the way (even though it was already well below the peep sight's line-of-sight.
Finally (and worst), the sear catch had been ground down to where it would fire on closing about half of the time.
Cost of replacement parts would exceed the price of the rifle.

Every Arisaka that I've seen in this area has either been neglected to death or Bubba'd to death. I've had to buy a Nambu 7/8 scale student gun to fill the Japan slot in my collection.

Anybody need a Williams 5D-JEMS sight?

I have two good shooters. Very easy to reload for them so cheap to shoot.

Not like, hate? Never heard anyone say that before about them.

What is wrong with Arisaka? .... Is it the safety or just hate?

Any "hate" for the Arisaka I remember was dislike for the 90 degree bolt handle, but those were disliked on Mausers as well.

The big reason for unpopularity of the Arisaka for hunting in the 1950s and 1960s was the unavailabilty of suitable ammunition in either 6.5x50mm or 7.7x58mm. They were however common war trophies often owned w/o any ammo at all. Lee Enfields were popular for hunting because .303 Brit hunting ammo had been around for generations; as had 8mm Mauser for the 1898 Mausers.

The lack of suitable 6.5x51mm Carcano ammo also accounts for a lot of the contempt for the Italian rifles when they showed up on the surplus market back in the day. I paid $25 for a M1941 Carcano and $39.95 for a box of 20 Norma of Sweden hunting rounds.

The father of a childhood friend had an Ariska as a sometime deer rifle (he used his .22 rifle and 12ga shotgun more). We were not allowed to target practice with it due to ammo being scarce.

A coworker had his 7.7 Arisaka "rechambered" to fire .30-06 (that only really works if you reload the fireformed cases with 7.7mm (.311" to .312") bullets). I believed he used it as a single shot.

so, 30-06, 308 etc fit both the magazine and the bolt face of the 7.7mm arisakas, it seems like all theyd need would be a new, decent quality barrel to be a decent rifle one could shoot often.. that said, .311 bullets arent that common but they are available.. couldnt the 7.7mm round be made in a sizing die starting off with .30-06 brass?

I have two Arisaka rifles and I don't love or hate either of them, they are what they are and I only have them because they are part of my every increasing milsurp collection. I didn't really buy them as shooters I got them because they are just historical relics.

Here's my Arisaka Type 99 Izawa Jyuko 4th series....




I just recently picked up this Arisaka Type 99 Toyo Kogyo 32nd Series for $50 a couple weeks ago...

My wife's father brought one back from the South Pacific. It is different. But I have shot it with Prvi made ammo sold by Hornady and it is accurate and reliable. Brother in law reloads for it and it shoots well with those too. It would make a decent deer rifle for sure. Not sure yet of a practical use for those anti-aircraft sights, but what the heck.

Those anti-aircraft sights will be good for Amazon Drones.

You should be able to get all kinds of free stuff!

rc

jason41987 said:

so, 30-06, 308 etc fit both the magazine and the bolt face of the 7.7mm arisakas

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The .30-06 rounds I've bought (Winchester hunting rounds from Walmart) certainly fit in my T99's magazine. However, the U.S. military rechambered a pant-load of T99's in .30-06 for our allies to use and I've read that when they did that they milled a notch in the receiver where the tip of the bullet would pass by. Maybe some .30-06 is slightly longer and doesn't fit? Or milling that notch made it less fiddly to load? Dunno, but mine works fine without that notch.

There are some T38's rebarreled for .30-06. That's a pretty sweet combo.

i wonder how many people will kidnap those drones when they land to drop something off?.. drop a box lined with a copper mesh (faraday cage) over top of it and itll block all signals of its location

Haha. I like your way of thinking, Willie.

jason41987 said:

so, 30-06, 308 etc fit both the magazine and the bolt face of the 7.7mm arisakas, it seems like all theyd need would be a new, decent quality barrel to be a decent rifle one could shoot often.. that said, .311 bullets arent that common but they are available

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They already have a good quality barrel (in most cases) and the only thing you need to do is buy bullets....I prefer .312 150grn Hornadys. I also salvage 7.62x54r ammo (heavy ball) to make "milsurp" 7.7mm jap ammo. Shooting ~182grn FMJs at ~2500fps.

.. couldnt the 7.7mm round be made in a sizing die starting off with .30-06 brass?

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Just buy the correct die instead of taking shortcuts...it's not that expensive. Also 7.7mm brass is available and will last a long time. 30-06 can be used but the 7.7 is wider at the head than .30-06 and you will get a "bulge" when firing. For the first shot with .30cal brass wrap ONE turn of 1/4" masking tape at the head to "center" the brass in the chamber. When fired there will be almost on no bulge...compared to one WITHOUT tape on the first shot.

But again 7.7mm brass can be found.....

There really isn't an excuse to NOT shoot Arisakas....as components ARE available...

this is the type 99 japanese rifle in 7.7 that i will be hunting doe with this week. i know the rifle is up to it if the deer and i are. eastbank.

"I like your way of thinking, Willie"



^^ Yeah.... well... <shrugs>... all rifles ain't great ones. This one isn't. Historical? You bet. Priceless to the family of a soldier who brought it home as a war trophy? Most definately. Interesting to students of military small arms? Of course. GREAT? Uhh... no.

But:

I should have been a bit more reflective, I was just having coffee when I wrote that.

So:

Like the Mosin's, unaltered examples of these are interesting as military collectables, if you are so inclined. After WW-II the guys who could afford to collect other things did exactly that, and like today with the Mosins, Japanese small arms were collected by guys who could not afford to collect German and US stuff. The Japanese stuff was considered the bottom of the surplus barrel. Not because they are intrinsically bad, but because by comparison with other products on the market they were crude, and the army that used them was one we despised.

Added to that the fact that they make awkward sporters and you have a perfect storm of lack of contemporary collector interest (at the time) and loads of cheap-bubbas literally hacksawing them up into deer rifles. Nowadays they are collectable if unaltered, and almost valueless if Bubba got there first. I wouldn't even take a "sporterized" one as a gift if it were offered to me. I would, however, like a few clean examples of unaltered rifles to add to my WW-II general rifle collection. I'd demand unaltered and unground examples if I were to spend for any of them.

So... "many" are junk, the design itself is <insert yawn here>, and "who really cares" is the general answer unless they are pristine or rare military examples. And yea, they took and can still take deer reliably even when badly cut down by Bubba, but nobody would ever call them classy, elegent, or pretty, no matter what. Just like a Mosin.


And Eastbank, that's a beauty. I'd be proud to have it in my collection.


Willie

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when i said used a quality .30-06 barrel for a rebarrel job, i didnt mean that the original barrels were low quality, just stating if youre going through the effort, might as well make sure its not just the cheapest .30-06 barrel you could get, but a decent one

as for the arisaka vs mosin nagant.. i dont have an arisaka, never fired one but i do have my mosin nagant.. the safety does suck, i dont use it, i carry my rifle with an empty chamber instead and the arisaka safety really doesnt sound any worst than the nagant safety.. bullets are literally the same between the two but those rims on the 7.62x54R can make it a pain in the rear to feed from stripper clips and brass cant be made from anything else.. however, it would appear that with the arisaka, atleast new brass could be made from fairly common .30-06 brass.. and i hate the nagants straight comb stock

that all said it sounds like id probably like an arisaka more than my mosin nagant.. however, id still rather have a K98K rifle in its full issued configuration, but it does sound like the arisaka is distinctively better than the nagant

^^

I think it's about time we all chip in and give out some copies of Jim Carmicheal's "Book of the Rifle" and Steven Bodio's "Good Guns" to the next generation. Of the two the former is an essential read to further one's taste in rifles.


Willie

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I think it has more to do with the cost of ammo than anything else.

I had one of these in the 50's. My uncle who was in the 2nd world war gave it to me (Supposed to have been found in a cave somewhere?) then later ask for it back. There was some ammo with it so one day I ask my dad if it would be ok to shoot it? He said shoot it so I did a few rounds without it blowing up then gave back to uncle Danny.

jason41987 said:

when i said used a quality .30-06 barrel for a rebarrel job, i didnt mean that the original barrels were low quality, just stating if youre going through the effort, might as well make sure its not just the cheapest .30-06 barrel you could get, but a decent one

as for the arisaka vs mosin nagant.. i dont have an arisaka, never fired one but i do have my mosin nagant.. the safety does suck, i dont use it, i carry my rifle with an empty chamber instead and the arisaka safety really doesnt sound any worst than the nagant safety.. bullets are literally the same between the two but those rims on the 7.62x54R can make it a pain in the rear to feed from stripper clips and brass cant be made from anything else.. however, it would appear that with the arisaka, atleast new brass could be made from fairly common .30-06 brass.. and i hate the nagants straight comb stock

that all said it sounds like id probably like an arisaka more than my mosin nagant.. however, id still rather have a K98K rifle in its full issued configuration, but it does sound like the arisaka is distinctively better than the nagant

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If you are having trouble feeding a mosin from the clip you either have repo clips that don't work or the rifles "interruptor/ejector" is not working correctly.

Just squeeze them down and bam you're done..

Jeremy2171 said:

If you are having trouble feeding a mosin from the clip you either have repo clips that don't work or the rifles "interruptor/ejector" is not working correctly.

Just squeeze them down and bam you're done..

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doesnt help that its an M38 which werent intended for front line use, therefor not really fired much so the action isnt worked in at all, very rough.. i did some polishing of internal parts and took some tension off the ejector spring that also retains the ammunition in the magazine and it helped a lot for loading.. that said rimmed cartridge still a bit of a pain in the rear because when you push them in you dont really get the body of one cartridge pushing on the other.. its just not as fluid and smooth as other rifles with strippers

as for the type 38 and type 99 arisakas, which one was actually better in your opinions and why? im kind of curious.. i like shorter rifles like the type 38 carbine and to my knowledge the type 99 was never made in a carbine, also it seems the 7.7x58 would be easier to reload for using resized .30-06 brass and .311 bullets, wasnt the 6.5 semi-rimmed? how would someone make brass for that?

I own a Koishikowa arsenal prewar type 38 in full military condition. Its expensive to shoot, since I can only ever find Hornady ammo, about $38 a box. But its accurate as heck, shoots laser flat, etc.

The iron sights aren't the greatest, bit they are not horrendous. The lack of available and affordable ammo is really the biggest fault to these rifles. I really like mine, though. It was brought back by my step-grandfather, a B-17 tail gunner who served in the ETO, was shot down, recovered on a hospital ship, and was reassigned to the PTO to finish out the war.

Its the one rifle I will never give up.