Japan Type 99 Mauser Vs German 98 Mauser

[bouncer50]

If you compare a type 99 against a German Mauser the type 99 has a bolt that come apart better. Another the Jap has a chrome line barrel and bolt face. I never seen a type 99 with a pitted barrel. After WW11 they tested the type 99 with over load it held together but 03, 1917 enfields with over load blew the reciever apart. I am not sure what type of steel the Japs used but the bolt handle was the third locking lug. Why did the Japs use a two piece butt stock instead of one piece of wood. Even the Type 1 use a two piece stock made in Italy. Never could find a answer to that question:veryconfu:veryconfu To me the type 99 is ugly compare to a 98 mauser. But it not Jap junk like my dad said after he bought one back after WW11.

[Mauser48]

The 98 action is a better action. There is a reason why no modern rifles are patterned after a type 99 action. I have seen type 99's with pitted bores. The ammo they used was very corrosive, plus they were used around salt water. Most type 99's I have seen are pretty beat. The 99 action isn't weak but the 98 action is definitely stronger. The german rifles were also very nicely finished. The bluing was excellent. Both the type 99 and k98 rifles were crudely made the last couple years of the war.

[pietro]

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The robust Arisaka 99 action might be the most underrated firearm in the Western Hemisphere.

One of my cousins has one that was very nicely sporterized, with a nicely-grained Fajen stock & the barreled action polished/blued, with a scope mounted atop, like any sporterized military boltgun.

When shooting it, I found the rifle to be very smooth-operating, and plenty accurate with commercial 7.7 JSP ammo - fully the equal of any .30-06 I've had/shot/etc.

He's been taking his annual venison with it ever since he obtained it in 1963.



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[fryboy]

Two piece stocks are cheaper to make and repair. For one one doesn't need ad big of a solid piece of wood ( much like the early Russian and German laminate stocks ) and if you managed to break off the toe you didn't have to replace the whole stock
Personally I like the humble 6.5 jap better but a bigger caliber does have merit

[Scharfschuetze]

Why did the Japs use a two piece butt stock instead of one piece of wood.

By the time WWII rolled around, Japan didn't have access to what the occidental world considered good rifle stock wood. They denuded most of Korea for wood and I'm pretty sure the selection of Walnut, Beech and Birch would have only been found in arboretums in Japan.

Given the scarcity of good wood of adequate size, they splined the butstock together and they also used long tang extensions top and bottom on the wrist of the stock to strengthen that area. Compare the Type 99 stocks to earlier production Japanese rifles and you will see the degradation in wood used.

The only mechanical issue that I've seen with Type 99 rifles (early to mid war) was with a friend's whose hollow firing pin body cracked. It was a very nice early production rifle otherwise.

My Type 99 rifle is pretty accurate, but it is about .316/.317" in bore diameter and must be loaded for accordingly. It is very sensitive to velocity variations and will give a 2 MOA or more variation in vertical dispersion for the high and low velocity rounds in a chronographed string.

While the Japanese developed the Arisaka line into workman like rifles and carbines, they certainly were not Mausers in their finish, fittings and wood. Their chrome lined barrels and bolt faces certainly were a good feature.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I have a Jap Arisaka in 270 Savage, a pure genius worked the military trigger to break at 1 1/2 lbs with no creep!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/IMG_0419_zpsequp7kbr.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/BAWallace/media/IMG_0042_zpse8a12e1e.jpg.html)

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A good Arisaka is a very strong rifle, and although there are bad ones in late production, they are usually too crudely made to pass unsuspected. The worst were drill rifles, never intended to be fired with bulleted ammunition, or at all. I don't like the safety, and if you plan gunsmithing it into a quality sporter, you don't have the unequalled variety of good aftermarket safeties, triggers, bottom metal, threaded and chambered barrels etc. that are made for the 98 Mauser. No manufacturer of modern sporting rifles uses better parts than some of these. The chromed bore, for those that have it, is an asset if it is done evenly enough for good accuracy, which certainly it often is, but perhaps not invariably.

In stock wood the difficulty is to get the grain running lengthwise along the forward part of the stock, but changing direction through the grip. Military rifle builders can rarely choose their blanks to incorporate in the fullest way, so a splined or sawtooth joint, with modern glues, is a very practical way of achieving this. The trouble is, it may not have been a modern glue, but we can take it that any Arisaka that hasn't come unglued by now isn't going to. The mysterious grinding away of the Imperial chrysanthemum on the receiver ring of most rifles now extant looks ugly. Either careful hand work or a grinding machine with external cylindrical accessories will often tidy this up but would be excessively weakening if the original defacement was savagely done.

One of the big myths of the Springfield is that it was a copy of the Mauser 98. Nothing of Mauser origin in it couldn't have come from earlier Mausers. The 98 had just enough extra metal in the receiver ring, and the strengthening internal web or stop-ring, to make it more or less independent of the kind of steel used. Good ones are usually case-hardened for wear or scratch resistance but are thoroughly reliable if made of mild steel. A good Arisaka is fine if you have one, but if you want to find a military rifle for use, and have some absurd prejudice against Lee-Enfields, a Mauser 98 is the one to look for.

[Screwbolts]

I like the Arisaka, and the "Banned" Goodsteel also had a very high opinion of the action.

My Arisaka was sporterized/customized before I became its forever keeper. The action was cleaned up and polished, drilled and taped, fitted with a medium heavy 26" barrel chambered for the 6mm rem. the trigger was replaced with a Timney side safety unit. All of this was placed in a very straight grained Walnut thumhole stock. I looked at this package for several weeks on Gunbrooker asking price was only 3 bills and it had a simmons ATV 4.5-14 scope on it. I will never part with it, it is a pleasure to handel/shoot with either the NOE 245-75 FN or any condom wrapped thing.

Ken

[725]

Huber makes a bearing type trigger for the Arisaka. Seems to be an easy replacement. As for the steel used to make these very strong actions, without any known source to me, I have heard that they were largely made with railroad steel the Imperial army took from years of invading China. I do know, however, that the US was still selling Japan steel well into the beginnings of WWII.