Wow, a custom-built WF Vickery arisaka in 22-250

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gsbuickman

gsbuickman

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Hiya Guys :) ,

Believe it or not I actually found a Japanese arisaka that's affordable to shoot, only this isn't exactly your garden-variety arisaka either.

I just traded off one of my 12 gauge pumps for this beautiful custom built arisaka in 22-250 that was built by the legendary Master gunsmith WF Vickery right here in good ol' Boise. W.F. Vickery is a legend in Gunsmithing and Wildcat cartridge circles. Vickery wrote Advanced Gunsmithing in 1932, it went through many reprints and is still a valuable adition to anyones library. He also wrote Professional Gunsmithing as well.

This thing is absolutely beautiful and probably the 2nd or 3rd purdiest' rifle I own with the first being my Norwegian krag Jorgensen in 6.5 Swede. The guy I got this from said that he took it out and shot the middle out of a sticker on a watermelon at 250 yards, after reading about some of the rifles that WF Vickery built I believe it ;) ...

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Beautiful rifle, the workmanship looks excellent, and the history is cool too!
Id love to see more picture of it.

Ive got a t99 at ERshaw right now getting a new tube put on. Im actually rather a fan of the design.
 
gsbuickman

Nice custom rifle! I really like the quality of craftsmanship that went into building your rifle. The vintage Herter's scope is a nice touch for a beautifully customized rifle. Thanks for sharing.
 
Mornin' Guys :) .

It turns out that this belonged to the grandfather of the guy I got it from yesterday evening, and he apparently had it as a safe Queen for a long long time. He couldn't keep all of his grandfather's guns so he kept all the ones that they use to shoot together & this is one of the guns that he decided to let go.

I don't know what kind of wood the furniture is, I'm guessing that it might be beechwood, but it looks nice and it sure is shiny with the urethane treatment that was put on it. The stock was also inletted for the bolt like my Argentine Mauser. Idk what model but it's built on an arisaka mauser style receiver w/o a safety & a super light trigger (probably 2-2.5 lbs.). It has a 21.5" heavy barrel, don't know what the twist rate is. The barrel looks a little dark but I'm guessing that's from setting for who knows how many years o_O . I'll clean it because it probably hasn't been done in quite a while and see what it looks like then.

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Gordon said:
you know of course you depress the rear of bolt checkered cap and twist it to take safety on and off, the safety looks like it is there to me. These actions are very slick and ideal for the .22-250 .
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Thanks, I guess I miss stated that. I should have said that it may be a Mauser style receiver but it doesn't have the typical Mauser style safety and a really light trigger, rather than saying it has no safety. I realize the safety rotates similar to a Mosin
 
LoonWulf said:
Looks like a fajen stock, i have one on my other sporter t99. The one i have is oil finished and quite a bit darker.
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I'm not sure what the stock is but I'm pretty sure that it's Beechwood, which seems really strange to me. I'd expect to see something like Walnut on a stock like this, but not Beechwood
 
Beautiful gun.

Normally, being a collector, I would be inclined to crucify anyone who alters an historical mil-spec rifle. Against the side of a barn, upside down, using railroad spikes for nails. But THIS gun, having been modified by someone who very obviously is a highly skilled craftsman....Well I can't find fault. He has turned an old military rifle into a thing of beauty. And, what the hell, Arisakas aren't exactly rare

This one is a type 38 action, originally a 6.5 mm and perhaps the strongest bolt action ever made. The locking lugs on the bolt are noticeably larger than a Mauser's locking lugs, and the left lug is not slotted for the extractor, which means the entire surface of the lug bears against the receiver. P.O Ackley tried to blow one of these actions up....and gave up.

I can't help remembering Frank DeHass' summation of the Arisaka actions. "They can be re-chambered for anything that will feed through the magazine." He was referring to their enormous strength.

This is a beautiful gun. I suspect many individuals of the Phylum Rodentia have (or will) meet their maker because of this gun.

Treasure it...
 
I still don't know what the twist rate is but it turns out the bore was just Dusty from sitting for quite a while. I hit it with a little Hoppe's #9, ran a bronze brush through it, flushed it with some WD-40 and ran a squeegee through it, then switched to a little REM oil and ran the squeegee through it again and it came out bright and shiny with clean sharp rifling and a pretty tight twist rate. I'm guessing it's probably 1:6 - 1:7.
 
Interesting 1-6/7 would be unusual for an older .22/250. The long bullets that require that twist are a fairly recent development, and rarely expected to be used in that caliber.

It looks like your stock has the original plate on it could you grab a picture? Im guessing your stock IS Walnut, i had a bishop stock on a 1903 sporter, that was very light in color and even more so before i removed the urethane finish.
 
don't know when it was made but lot's of .22-250s were made in the 50s-60s and a little before until Remington made it a factory cartridge in 1965-66. Most of the older guns are 1 in 14" twist as long heavy bullets were as rare as hens teethe then with rare exceptions. 1 in 14" twist in a .22-250 should stabilize up to 60 grain bullets fine as the velocity is quite a bit more than say a .223.
 
LoonWulf said:
Interesting 1-6/7 would be unusual for an older .22/250. The long bullets that require that twist are a fairly recent development, and rarely expected to be used in that caliber.

It looks like your stock has the original plate on it could you grab a picture? Im guessing your stock IS Walnut, i had a bishop stock on a 1903 sporter, that was very light in color and even more so before i removed the urethane finish.
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I'm assuming you're referring to the butt plate, so here it is.

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Gordon said:
don't know when it was made but lot's of .22-250s were made in the 50s-60s and a little before until Remington made it a factory cartridge in 1965-66. Most of the older guns are 1 in 14" twist as long heavy bullets were as rare as hens teethe then with rare exceptions. 1 in 14" twist in a .22-250 should stabilize up to 60 grain bullets fine as the velocity is quite a bit more than say a .223.
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Thanks,, unfortunately this doesn't have a factory Barrel on it, it's a custom Barrel that Vickery turned @ his shop here in Boise, so who knows ? ;) ...
 
entropy said:
Sure looks like beech to me. The pic showing the barrel stampings shows it plain as day. The grain in that pic is definitely beech,
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I didnt notice that!

Still strikes me as kinda odd for it to be beech, it LOOKS lile my fajen stock, or a bishop. Granted that doesn't mean it IS.

Thought i posted that earlier........

Looks like it is a Fajen stock, or atleast a look alike with a fajen butt plate.
i know they did have a couple grades, i assumed the only real difference was grainage and stuff like the white spacers on mine, so seeing one in anything besides walnuts pretty cool. Anyway heres a few pictures of mine, which is still full length.
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Very nice sporter. It still has Weaver base and rings which were very popular back in the 50s and 60s. You also have a classic Herter's six power scope. Back in the day Herter's was one of the largest outfitters. They had everything, and everyone wanted Herter's World's Finest products.
 
GunnyUSMC said:
Very nice sporter. It still has Weaver base and rings which were very popular back in the 50s and 60s. You also have a classic Herter's six power scope. Back in the day Herter's was one of the largest outfitters. They had everything, and everyone wanted Herter's World's Finest products.
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Thanks :) .

Yes it does, unfortunately there isn't any room for adjustment on the scope bases or repositioning of the scope in the rings because the eye relief is off for me. If I could bring it back 1.5"' it would be great, but that's not gonna happen. I'll probably end up putting an LER scope on it.

As it sets it's set up for a right-handed shooter and if I could shoot this right-handed like I would love to do it would be perfect, unfortunately due to nerve damage I have to shoot this left handed and because of that the eye relief is off. I do have a nice vintage Weaver 4L-W 4x wide angle scope ( one of the ones with the rectangle I peas) that might have a better I really that would also work nicely on this vintage built carbine. Then again, then again maybe I can put some taller rings on it and bring the herders glass up just far enough to shoot right-handed and use my left eye for the glass like I do my SKS (maybe 1" - 1-1/4").

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Extension rings would bring it back 3/4" or so, but i believe they only come in high.....i actually have a set im not using if you want them.
 
LoonWulf said:
Extension rings would bring it back 3/4" or so, but i believe they only come in high.....i actually have a set im not using if you want them.
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Sure, not sure if I'm familiar with those but I'll try anything once , Thanks I sent you a PM :)
 
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