Arisaka Success Finally!

[bruce drake]

Well, after having this rifle for nearly three years and never being able to find a decent group for it (I even bought a second Arisaka just to have a rifle that actually hit what I aimed for) I have come up with a load to fit this ugly rifle.

For ever shooting this rifle to get to improve I would try jacketed as well as cast. .308-.312 sized 150-185gr bullets; they all shot all over the target and sometimes keyholed the 50 yard target.

I finally got tired of it and sized down some of Lee's 8mm (.323) 170gr roundnoses through a .314 sizing die. It made the driving bands pretty fat and the grooves pretty shallow but since I lubed them with Liquid Alox and did again after the sizing I wasn't concerned with a lack of bullet lube. (Honestly, I was resizing the bullets for my 88 Commission Rifle but I had some extra bullets and figured I give it a shot)

Loaded them with 12gr of Red Dot in some reformed 8mm cases (to 7.7 JAP) with standard winchester Large Rifle Primers. Seated the bullet at the first driving band and loaded up my first five for 50 yards. Not expecting to see any major change in the quality of the load (The rifle was going to be regulated to parts for the second Arisaka if it didn't work this time) I just quickly shot the five offhand and was surpised to find not only were all five on the target with no keyholes but that two actually cut the 9 and 10 rings respectively while the remaining three were strung out horizontally from the first two shot's at the three oclock position. Five quick offhand shots at fifty yards were all in the black!

So basically, in exception for the jerk behind the trigger who jerked off the five shots (Trigger squeeze :???: ), this rifle finally has a bullet that it likes!

Bruce

[sundog]

Bruce, jolly good show! My Jap has about a 26 pound trigger pull that one of these days I'll work over a little. But it does shoot a group at a hunert (not real small but still a group) with Ly 314299s which would be much better with a lighter trigger. My biggest problem is the ever so short stock. Got it for almost nothing at a garage sale because the feller what had it and brought in back from Okinawa had passed away and no one else in the family knew what to do with it and couldn't find ammo. I have some Norma 7.7 brass that I got years ago on sale from Black Hills and some '06 that I reformed. Can't tell the difference in performance. Yea, understand "jerk behind the trigger" REAL WELL. sundog

[jethrow strait]

Dang. I was hoping you'd be yakkin about that mostly pre-war production Arisaka 38, not the 99, that ugly brute of the East Asian mainland war. Got one of the former, with .257 stamped on top of the 31" long barrel. Course it's war booty, with the chamber reamed out to 6.5X.257 Roberts from the issue 6.5 X50. Rivals the Swedes for accuracy, but with it's slower twist of c.1:10 likes the medium weight Lyman 266469 rather than the heavier boolits preferred by the Swede.

6.5 was the predominant Japanese infantry rifle of the South Pacific, and oddly, very effective as a defensive weapon in jungle warfare---small caliber and much superior "smokeless" than our own(c'mon Dupont!). Guess we should be happy that they were only superior to us material-wise in two things for the duration---smokeless powder and optics! By the way, some excellent insights into the 'small world' of battle in Touched with Fire: The Land War in the Pacific.---------------jethrow

[StarMetal]

jethrow strait

I too like the Arisaka's and admire the Japanese for what they DID accomplish in the war. Being that Japan is an island, the Japanese were stupid in many ways about island warfare. One, they went onto those hot hummid jungled islands with canvas equipment, such as slings, belts, etc. only to find out they rotted. Then they came out with rubberized canvas. Two, ever wonder why you don't or haven't seen alot of surplus Jap ammo from WWII? Well another one of their failings, they didn't seal the bullet or the primer from moisture and alot of their ammo didn't even fire back in WWII.

The early 7.7's weren't too bad. I mean the workmanship was ok, definately a far cry from that later war ones. Now the 6.5's they had time to make and some of those are very nice indeed. Just to show you what I think of the Jap actions I have a custom 260 Remington made up on a 6.5 Arisaka.

Joe

[NVcurmudgeon]

Jethro, To be more complete, your list needs the addition of the A6M (Zero or Zeke) fighter, at least in the first year of the war, and the Long Lance torpedo, which outdid American torpedos, even after ours were debugged.

[jethrow strait]

Nevada curmudge---warms my heart everytime I see your handle and am reminded that you escaped from the PRC---I used the expression "for the duration" with the Zero in mind, but I completely missed the torpedo.

But, whadya expect from an old infantry grunt. Think I've only read two of Morrison's umpteen tomes on the Navy in WWII, even though they are finely crafted histories. Well< I'm beginning to break out of my rut, The Divine Wind is the next book in the stack, written with a thoughtful sense of The naval situation in the last year of the war by a two former officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The specifics of the Kamikazees I can do without; get a belly full of that any time I'm stupid enough to turn on the network news!--------jethrow

[floodgate]

The chromed bores were also a big plus in jungle or maritime conditions. floodgate

[StarMetal]

They also had a hook on the hilt of their bayonets too, supposely to grab your bayonet blade and snap it off. Didn't take them long to chuck those noisey dust covers on their rifles when the high brass wasn't around.

Joe

[Four Fingers of Death]

At one of the big Sydney gunshops (Mick Smith's) there was a 7.7 Jap Fajen semi finished stock with excellent grain, etc, really good looking stock. They wanted $50 for it and I started looking for one, thinking I would end up with a nice rifle. After a few years, they dropped the price to $30. I never ever saw one!
Mick.

I wanted a 7.7, because my dad got wounded by one in New Guinea in WW2. He was in pretty poor shape before getting shot through the forearm and the bullet lodged in his rifle stock. His commander dug it out with a penknife and identified it. They were short of soldiers, so they patched him up and sent him back to work. The next day he was a bit shakey and when his unit came under fire, dad was a few yards back and didn't see the guys go to ground. He was standing with his mate, Fatty who was also wounded and pretty weak and groggy (both had malaria and were just about starving) and describing how the birds he could hear were the same as the ones which used to fly in in summer. His commander, Gerry O'Day (affectionatly known as GOD) shouted out to him to get down before he got his fool head shot off and then dad realised what was going on. Lucky to get out of that one.

[Buckshot]

............Mick, I would think with all the Australian troops that were fighting in the Pacific that Australia would have a good supply of 'Bring backs' and also surplus Arisakas. No?

One of our temporary rangemasters a couple years ago bought a very late war 7.7 Arisaka. The stock was barely finished and the barrel looked like it had been turned with a single point threading tool. The rear sight was a simple upright blade with a V and I think it was welded on. The entire rifle was rough, but it shot the old Jap ammo just fine. It was mostly click-bangs.

My shooting buddy Larry has 2 jap rifles. He had 2 uncles in WW2. One in the Army, the other a Marine. His Army uncle got a brand new 7.7 right out of the crate in a munitions dump in Manila. His Marine uncle was in the Pelieleu invasion. His rifle (6.5mm) was taken when a bunch of Japanese soldiers had been following a tank early in the attack. The tank was blown up and Larry's uncle was one of the guys to make an end run around, and flank the soldiers behind the burning tank.

I've seen both rifles and the 7.7 IS brand new. The 6.5 is in good condition with a few dings and compressions. It is a very interesting feeling to actually hold a rifle that was actively used in combat, when you know that for a fact.

..............Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Buckshot

The crude 7.7 Jap rifle you described is what is known as the "last ditch" rifle. There were manufactured very hastily and crudely during the last days of the war. In most circles they are deemed as not safe to shoot or for conversions.

Joe