cheap at the stores around but ive heard some things i want to clear up
are late manufactures really unsafe to fire or is it mostly bs?
and can you really keep your brass and load a .303 british bullet in it? cause reloading for an arisaka and an enfield with same bullets would be cool
Late-manufactured Arisakas MAY be dangerous to shoot, and you should always have a gunsmith inspect one before you use it. However, I have talked to many people who say they will shoot these Last Ditch rifles. One person said, "They may look like crap but shoot great, or they may look great but shoot like s***."
Most Last Ditch examples surviving today are perfectly safe, although if you use one you should inspect it regularly for wear. To determine what you are looking at, you should compare it to these samples:
http://oldrifles.com/japanese.htm
Notice, on the early series, the hole in the stock that is just above and behind the crossbar, just rear of the indentation in the stock. All rifles made until at least mid-war had this hole (which has no discernable purpose).
If the rifle you are looking at has this hole, it is an early war Arisaka. If it lacks this hole, but otherwise looks good and has all of the core features (such as the flip-up peep sight and a steel buttplate), it is most likely mid-war. If it looks crude, has a wooden buttplate, and just general poor construction, it is late war.
Any early to mid-war Arisaka should be perfectly safe to shoot as long as it has not suffered damage. There are various places online where you can still source Arisaka parts, which is how I repaired my early-war Series 21 Kokura (the military removed some parts before they let my grandfather ship it home). Late-war Arisakas should be examined carefully. If the action seems sound, ask about a return policy and tell them you would like to have a gunsmith check it out.
The Arisaka does use a .311 bullet. You can buy loaded Hornady ammunition for about $21 a box of 20, shoot and enjoy them, then reload them with either 150-grain or other-weight bullets. The early-war Arisakas are extremely strong; indeed they had one of the strongest receivers of any military rifle produced up until that time, comparable or superior to even Germany's Mausers in terms of the pressures they could take. With a good barrel and the right bullets, they're also very accurate. Because of this, a good Arisaka is something of value, and can be a quite serviceable shooting or hunting rifle even today.
When reloading, be aware that some people like to load them a bit hotter than the Japanese originally did. I have seen Arisaka 99 loads that have a fairly mild kick that's not at all uncomfortable, and I have seen them that will kick like a Mosin Nagant with heavy ball. You should stay within the recommended loads. I actually recommend the 150-grain bullets. That will reduce your recoil to a very comfortable amount, while still giving you a lot of stopping power.
