Someone here knows....

[XBT]

Will an unaltered 7.7 Japanese rifle chamber a 30-06 cartridge?
Thanks

[Multigunner]

No.
I'm no expert on these, I've worked on a few but don't own one.

The Arisaka in 7.7 if the chamber is loose can chamber a 7.92X57 cartridge, not all will be loose enough. At least one gunsmith reported on another board about blowing up a 7.7 when he accidentally loaded it with a 7.92X57 cartridge.

Some Arisaka rifles were converted to 7.92 and some to .30-06 by users in formerly occupied Asian countries, but an unaltered 7.7 chamber should be far too short to take a .30-06.

[FISH4BUGS]

....only if you want to blow up the rifle, blind yourself, pick schrapnel out of your face, and maybe blow your hand off. other than that, you should be fine.

[frkelly74]

No it won't fit unless the chamber has been altered, which was done to a bunch of them. They were brought back by GI's and in order to shoot them they had the chambers reamed to accept a 06 cartridge and could then be fired with 30/06 ammo. The bore is oversized and accuracy will be so-so. I know of a guy who has one of these and it is a good short range deer gun.

[XBT]

Thanks guys, that's what I thought. The story goes like this: In 1939 the Japanese, anticipating a war with the U.S., rushed the 7.7MM into production so that as a field expedient their troops could use U.S. issue ammo in
it. I think the rifle was adopted in 1939, but the rest of the story sounded implausible at best.

I have heard this story several times and always told people it was not true, but it recently came up again so I thought I would “go to the source” and get the definitive answer. Thanks again.

[scarry scarney]

I have a 30-06 converted Arisaka, it is a war trophy that my Grandfather brought back, and he had it converted to 30-06 so he could take it deer hunting. Still has it's original short stock, a mum on the barrel and stamped 30-06 on the barrel. He said it kicked like a mule, and never took it deer hunting. I have never fired it (been too afraid to), it just sits in the safe. I have always wondered if it was safe to fire.

[abunaitoo]

The 30.06 will not fit. It's to long.
After WWII, a small batch of T99 rifles were rechambered to 30.06, by us, for the Korean military.
These are very rare.
After years and years of looking, a friend finally found one.
It has some strange markings on it. Nothing to show it was converted.
The 7.7 has a .311/.314 bore. 30.06 is .308.
Accuracy is "not to good"
Friend handloads for his using .311/123gr bullets.
Shoots great.
China also converted a few to 8x57.
Friend still looking for one of those.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_99_rifle
Odd piece of history.

[gew98]

All the real type99's I have seen were marked " .30 " on the receivers. Alot have been faked trying to dupe collectors. If not marked " .30 " it is not one converted in japan for the korean forces ( paid for by the US taxpayers ) . I have encountered two 99's converted to 8mm..and they were rough condition and came in with chinese imports back in the 90's. I have shot several 99's rechambered to 30 cal...and some did OK ... nothing stellar with it being 303 bore diamter. I had a type 99 rebarreled one time with a 30 cal barrel off a Rem 700 cut back and rethreaded so as to make it 308. And man was it fun shooting tracers out of it back then...and it kicked like a mule all sporterized. Now I could detail you how I read in "NO SURRENDER" when I was a kid and tried his trick of modifying the rims of 303 brit ammo and using in a type99. Yeah I don't recommend it , but it did send bullets downrange.

[DLCTEX]

My pastor has one that was handed down by his father that they had always thought it used 303 Savage ammo. He asked my assistance in getting ammo and I located brass and dies before discovering it was a 7.7 . His father said maybe that was why it never shot very well.

[Wayne Smith]

Arisaka99's 99 was his grandfather's rifle. He brought it to me and it was immediately clear it had an -06 reamer run into it. We made some ammo for it with -06 brass necked up to 311 and loaded some .314 lead in it. At that point he wanted a recoil pad on it! Done, and he is still shooting it. In fact I have some boolits on my bench I need to get mailed up to him.