Arisaka suggestions

[DeanWinchester]

I have fairly nice type 38. The bore is garbage. You could hide a cow in the pitts in is thing.

What to recharmber it to? I'm leaning heavily to a 358 Winchester, but I've also considered opening the bolt face up and trying to horseshoe a 50 Action Express in there. I've also given thought to a 45 Winchester Magnum with a long throat.

[Wayne Smith]

OK, Dean, are you asking us to confirm your choices or to add more?? That all depends on what you want to do with it. Also depends on where you are. Around here a 35 Remington or Whelan (sp) would be close to ideal, if the mag can hold the 63mm case. Out West or beanfield shooting you may want something longer range.

Look not only at what you can open the bolt to but what fits in the magazine with the cartridge OAL where you want it.

[DeanWinchester]

Just fishing for ideas I may not have thought of. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Here in TN, I can't imagine a critter that a .358 winchester couldn't handle. I really like the .35 remington but brass is more of a pain. The .358 lends itself to being made from .308 VERY easy. Plus, the cast bullet selection is pretty vast.

The ONLY things I know I want to do with this rifle is: Keep is short and simple. I'd like to use some high quality open sights as I'd rather not modify the action in any way. The action is really nice and someone may want to restore it one day. That task will be lots easier if there's no holes drilled in it. Barrel length of about 17-18 inches will be perfect for any caliber I end up using because it will only ever see light to medium cast loads. It'll probably NEVER see a copper condom.

Magazine length should be kept close to 3 inches. That kinda knocks me out of a 35 WHelen. The 35 Whelen is a little more gun than I need. The other important criteria is managed recoil. I have hurt my right shoulder pretty bad recently and will have to live with it the rest of my days. The big boys had to go. I shoot a bolt action .300 blackout, 6.5 Swede and .223 mostly. Some light .30 WCF too. Gotta keep it easy for the range but it would be nice to be able to warm it up a little should I decide to take it hunting.



I've thought seriously about a .308 Winchester but have Manson make me a reamer for a really long neck. A .308 Win with a neck the length of a .30WCF would be awesome too! A rimless 30/40 Krag if you will.

[DeanWinchester]

My only other thought was to build this in a .220 Swift. Granted, it's not a cast friendly caliber but I've always wanted one. I'm hesitant though. There's no arguing the Arisaka is a very sound design but I question the metallurgy. That's not exactly a low pressure cartridge.

[Goatwhiskers]

The Arisaka is ugly as sin, and hard to sporterize, but I don't know that I'd question the metallurgy. Don't quote me on this, but I seem to recall from many moons ago that P.O. Ackley ran blow up tests on the bolt actions available at the time. IIRC the Jap action held up without damage from loads that literally vaporized the case. Don't remember where I read this. YMMV. GW

[DeanWinchester]

The Arisaka is ugly as sin, and hard to sporterize, but I don't know that I'd question the metallurgy. Don't quote me on this, but I seem to recall from many moons ago that P.O. Ackley ran blow up tests on the bolt actions available at the time. IIRC the Jap action held up without damage from loads that literally vaporized the case. Don't remember where I read this. YMMV. GW

I can see why you'd say that but ugly is a point of view. I think skinny blondes and 1911's are ugly too. The next guy to come along might punch me in the face for saying that.

I think it has serious character.

I didn't know that about PO Ackley. I'll have to do some digging and see if I can find that. If PO Ackley gave it a nod of approval, that's as close to gospel as you can get.

Thanks Goatwhiskers. I appreciate it.

[shooter93]

Arisaka's are very strong. Also read Dunlap's testing of actions and their strength.....very "enlightening" information on actions that are considered weak.

[andremajic]

I'm planning on converting my arisaka action to 45acp. The bolt face is the same size and won't need modification. Just need to cobble together a magazine adapter to feed from the bottom up. Also need to buy a reamer. Already have a blank barrel from green mt. barrels. Cost was about 30 bucks for the blank.

[ANeat]

Ive got an Arisaka waiting for whatever, not the most elegant looking piece but hey, mine still has the Mum but the chamber is farked where someone tried to drill out a stuck case or something....

I had always heard it was one of the stronger actions as well
Ive got everything to do 45acp, reamer and gauges, never thought about doing the Arisaka in that.....

[Wayne Smith]

I thought it was Hatcher's tests that showed the Arisaka to be the strongest of the WWI/II bolt actions. Anyway, those actions stood having loads that literally blew the barrel out of the action!

You have no problem with the strength of the action. What your shoulder will stand is something else - I like the idea of a long necked 308 - I'm having a Martini action made into a 25 Krag AI. Neck that 308 down to .25 and you will have a light recoiling rifle that will be adequate for everything you will face except maybe bear. With the right boolit even bear.

The down side is having dies made, but talk to Dave Davidson at CH4D or have your gunsmith make them when he chambers the rifle.

Or if you want to go with a standard chamber make it a 7-08 or .243.

[bruce drake]

Word of warning on rechambering Arisaka T38s. The magazine well and the receiver feed lips are are going to have to be worked on to fit the fatter 308Win-based cartridge cases in and to feed properly. I rechambered one of my T38s to 260 Remington (6.5x51) a few years back and I had to do both to get it to feed reliably and fit more than 4 in the magazine.

I like the idea of rebarreling to 45ACP if you really want to build a plinker/small game rifle.

Bruce

[SOFMatchstaff]

I am starting a re-chamber next week, going to be a 6.5x55. The existing chamber has a oversize bad neck, should clean up nicely. I just wish the Family heirloom rifle was in as good a condition as the one I'm about to put back in working order. My Uncle brought it back from Tinian, he was a SeaBee. Its not often a returning VET brings along the rifle that almost ended his life, He had the hole in his left ear and the dated Purple Heart paper , Aug 2, 1944.

[Wayne Smith]

Word of warning on rechambering Arisaka T38s. The magazine well and the receiver feed lips are are going to have to be worked on to fit the fatter 308Win-based cartridge cases in and to feed properly. I rechambered one of my T38s to 260 Remington (6.5x51) a few years back and I had to do both to get it to feed reliably and fit more than 4 in the magazine.

I like the idea of rebarreling to 45ACP if you really want to build a plinker/small game rifle.

Bruce

Good point, Bruce. In that case, Dean, make it a 7x57 and have fun!

[DeanWinchester]

I just loaded the magazine with factory 220 swift. If you are sure to stack the rims properly,it feeds flawlessly. If you stack them backward, you have to give the bolt a stiff shove.

I would rather not modify the action and if the feed ramp and rails need tweaking for a 308 case, maybe the Swift is the answer. As I said, I've always wanted one.

A few questions on the Swift for you guys. First, what barrel length? I'd probably go with a 9 twist barrel even though the Swiftmhas traditionally run a 12-14 twist. Reason being, I'd feed it more 62-75 grain pills than the lighter stuff, but a 9 twist will still run a lighter bullet. I don't know how long though. I imagine it would need to fairly long to get a good burn on the charge.

Second, what's yalls opinion on white tail deer with the Swift? Its legal in Tn to hunt with a 22 cal CenterFire. OBVIOUSLY shot placement and discretion is paramount. I'm thinking a 70g Barnes TSX would put a deer down fast.

Thanks for all the opinions!

[TCLouis]

260
7-08
338 Federal (338-08)
35 Remington
358

Or the old standby from days gone by . . . 6.5X257

6.5X50 is a semi-rimless case.
A lot of 6.5X50 was made from 220 Swift before bass became readily available so it makes sense that it would feed

[EDG]

The bolt face recess of my Type 38 is about .505 and it will take a .30-30 rim. It is kind of sloppy for the Arisaka or Mauser cases. Based on that I thought about just using it as a single shot since I don't want to mess with a magnum size belted case. The single shot rounds I have considered are .219 Zipper and .25-35 or some thing like a rimmed .35 Remington using .303 brass. But then again I have always wanted a .303 that does not ruin brass so I could build a .303 British single shot and see if I could get a few rounds to feed later.

[SOFMatchstaff]

I got the rechamber project completed and test fired, and every thing came out just as I expected. ONE big problem, it seems that the rifle had been rendered safe before it came into the conus by driving a stud or some such into the chamber and a short section of throat. So when the chamber was recut, it left a .200 length of barrel expanded and scratched that didnt clean up when reamed. this caused less than agreeable extraction out of the chamber after the first test fire.

I have located a couple stripped barrel receivers that might yield a good candidate, now back to work..