Shooting a Type 99 Arisaka

[Roadkill]

Went to the rage again today, brought a couple of old guns. Just for fun I decided to see how a Type 99 Arisaka would hold up next to a 1903 Springfield.

The Type 99 is an early war gun, the Springfield was rebarreled
in 1942. Both are in as issued condition.

Appearance wise they are more similar than not. Close to same caliber and performance.

Both have excellent sights - target is 75 yds.

Using my reloads I loaded up five rounds of 150g fmj with 46g of WC 844 for each gun. Only difference is the diameter of the bullets and the case length. Many loaders use shortened and resized 30-06 cases in their 7.7 rifles. Cold barrels on each.

First was the Springfield.

Then the Type 99

First round was a flyer - not like I shoot this thing every day and I really had trouble getting a hold with the short stock.

Not bad - both guns are more than capable of the job intended. Now, enough of the old stuff - got some other toys to play with (Romanian Draganov 7.62x54 in a carbine conversion)

 

[FMJMIKE]

Nice looking rifles !!!

 

[madcratebuilder]

The Arisaka Type 99 can be a very accurate rifle. The last ditch models can be very crude but early models are very well made with excellent chrome bores. Both the 1903 and Type 99 are based on the Mauser.

Nice rifles.

 

[WardenWolf]

The early-production Type 99's were very good guns. No country made better in terms of bolt-action rifles. Most soldiers discarded the dust cover it came with, as it caused some problems, but the design itself was more than sound.

The 7.7x58 cartridge was not the most powerful round of the war, being functionally identical to the British .303 (the bullet design was copied from the .303, with the only real difference being a rimless case); that honor goes to the 8mm Mauser. The action and ammunition could have handled a much hotter load, but I suspect it was dialed back to make it more manageable for the Japanese riflemen, who at the time averaged about 5-foot flat and would not have coped well with heavier recoil.

I have seen some impressive feats of accuracy with these guns, such as this guy repeatedly hitting the target at 420 yards with the standard sights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwU6NUltkdQ

In other news, that carbine PSL looks cool, but I'd think that wire stock would bend or otherwise not take the recoil well.

 

[Ken70]

My Arisaka is one my Dad brought back from Sesabo Japan. He said there was a huge warehouse they were rummaging through, and he picked up two of these. Had the chrysanthemum ground off, per MacArthur.

I let a friend shoot it off a bench, with 50 year old eyes and 55 year old ammo, he put three shots like this


* --- * --- *

at 100 yards. I'd say it is accurate....I don't know how he did it. I never got anywhere near that kind of group. He could shoot rifles but couldn't hit anything with a pistol.

 

[WardenWolf]

My early-production Arisaka 99 came to me by way of my grandfather. He got it on Okinawa. Bought it off another soldier for $10. The army wouldn't let him ship it back without rendering it inoperable, and they removed the striker and bolt back. I sourced the parts on the Internet and got it operational again. It's mechanically perfect, with even the antiaircraft sights intact. The stock is beat to hell, though, but not cracked.