Heretic!

[bruce drake]

Yep, I'll call myself out on this. Probably could have kept it in the original caliber but the 260 Rem reamer was talking like a siren.

Last night I rechambered one of my 6.5mm Arisakas into 260 Remington. I intend to keep it in the military stock and layout, but I just was getting tired of reforming 35 Rem and 220 Swift cases for multiple 6.5 rifles and chambers. Now I just need to neck up 243 brass which is a lot easier and the brass is prevalent at the WMA ranges here in GA.

I tested the feeding of the bullets and it still fits 5 in the magazine but I had to seat my 140gr boolit deep into the neck to ease the feeding. If I kept the boolits long than the nose caught on the side of the barrel face. I may file some off front of the magazine feed lips as well to ease the stripping of bullets from the mag. Right now the 2nd and 4th round hang up unless I'm forceful on the bolt.

The feed ramp will be polished as well just to clean it up some.

Bruce

[oldhickory]

If it works for you, bruce...It works for me!

[jonk]

Yes you are a heretic. Grafs has 6.5 Arisaka brass at a reasonable price.

Your rifle, your choice. Make sure you stamp the chamber with the new caliber so that 100 years from now someone doesn't shoot a 6.5 Jap in it.

[bruce drake]

Already stamped. Did it last week when I decided to to rechamber it. Figured if the barrel said it, I had to complete the project.

Bruce

[1874Sharps]

Watch out for those hairy ticks, you can get Lyme's disease from them!

[TAWILDCATT]

the popular change was 6.5 roberts.shoot 257 robrts in modifid chamber and then reload with 6.5 bullets.
but as the man said GRAFS has new brass.

[StarMetal]

I rebarreled an old shot out Arisaka to 260 Rem. Now I wished I'd done it to another caliber with a more longer slender case like the original. Before any mods my magazine would only accept 4 cartridges and that was forcing the 4th one. It would feed none of them. After extensive working the feed rails it feeds just so so. The rifle shoots great and all, but sure wouldn't trust the feeding if something was charging me and I needed more then one shot.

Joe

[bruce drake]

I figure that since the 260 Rem wasn't around when the majority of the rechambering of these rifles was done than most people did go with the 6.5x257 or 6.5 Swede. I just need to touch the front of the magazine lips with a file to open them up a little bit to help with the feeding.

The magazine has plenty of room for 5 of the 260 Rem cases. I can even push them down a little bit. More to follow tomorow when I've got time to play with it in the morning.

Bruce

[madsenshooter]

I rebarreled an old shot out Arisaka to 260 Rem. Now I wished I'd done it to another caliber with a more longer slender case like the original. Before any mods my magazine would only accept 4 cartridges and that was forcing the 4th one. It would feed none of them. After extensive working the feed rails it feeds just so so. The rifle shoots great and all, but sure wouldn't trust the feeding if something was charging me and I needed more then one shot.

Joe

Judging by an unmodified carbine that I have, the type 38 isn't a great feeder as is. I don't doubt a lot of Japanese got shot while fumbling with the bolt. On the other hand I have a couple 6.5/257s that don't have near as much a problem. Could be just this particular carbine, I had an early rifle that fed well, as long as the bullet wasn't a flatnose. Grafs has new undersized brass, not as bad as the old Norma, but I prefer my home swagged military .308.

[bcp477]

The 260 Rem is superior to the old 6.5 Arisaka, anyway. To me, that's all that matters - screw "tradition for tradition's sake". So, good show !

[StarMetal]

The 260 Rem is superior to the old 6.5 Arisaka, anyway. To me, that's all that matters - screw "tradition for tradition's sake". So, good show !


Yes the 260 Rem is a very good underrated cartridge. If you have an Arisaka that shot out I don't see anything wrong with rebuilding it to another caliber.

Madenshooter you are most correct about working down 308 brass.

Joe

[madsenshooter]

I sold some to a guy in CA about 5 years ago, last year I got a note from him, he was on his 6th reloading with no problems, he ought to be up around 10 by now. He shoots in vintage matches at his local club with the bayonet attached on his long rifle! I get a kick outta some people saying a type 38 is shot out after looking at the rounded rifling. They don't realize it was made that way. I'm not speaking of the folks above, I have several dealers in mind.

[skeet1]

Bruce Drake,
Well, they say confession is good for the soul. Just don't let it happen again.

Skeet1

[bruce drake]

Nice thing about having spare 6.5 Arisakas, one of them can go to the dark side and the other can stay in the original caliber. All is balanced in the world!

With the feed lips as-is, it feeds Hornady 120gr Jacketed Spitzer bullets without a hiccup but to make my 140gr Loverin boolits feed I have to seat the boolit well past the end of the neck and deep into the case.

I may have to invest in another 6.5 mold shortly and leave the 140th grain boolit for my other 6.5 Jap.

I'm taking it to the range tomorrow. I've got the day off so there shouldn't be a crowd at the range for me to set down and do some serious testing.

Oh, and the 6.5 Arisakas were rifled Metford Style so yeah, so some people claim that the rifles are worn (until they shoot one!) With the rechamber, I should have a fresh throat as well so I'm looking forward to seeing what it does tomorrow. I consider Metford rifling like Marlin's Microgroove barrels. If you take your time and study the barrel , you can get it to shoot boolits!

Bruce

[StarMetal]

I sold some to a guy in CA about 5 years ago, last year I got a note from him, he was on his 6th reloading with no problems, he ought to be up around 10 by now. He shoots in vintage matches at his local club with the bayonet attached on his long rifle! I get a kick outta some people saying a type 38 is shot out after looking at the rounded rifling. They don't realize it was made that way. I'm not speaking of the folks above, I have several dealers in mind.

Thanks madenshooter...I know you weren't referring to me. After I had that Jap rebarreled to 260 I cut the old 6.5 barrel lengthwise. She was pretty void of rifling. Wasn't until about half way up the barrel any rifling showed up. The chamber didn't have a definition or step at the end of the neck area. Just a smooth transition into the barrel. I would say leade or rifling but there wasn't any there. Now I don't know exactly what the chamber is suppose to look like.

Joe

[bruce drake]

Can I say that I left the range with a smile on my face...yep sure did. Took the Arisaka out and with 12gr of Unique pushing the Gaschecked 140gr Loverin sized .266 out of the new 260 Remington chamber, the rifle made a pieplate dance at 100 yards when I put the rear sight at 400 yards. Lyman's manual for a 6.5 Swede says that the boolit should have been going around 1600fps. Recoil was neglible and the feeding works better than I expected once I was forceful in chambering the cartridge. If I short-stroked than she'd burp but sharp, forceful bolt action had the rifle feeding smoothly. The 120gr Hornady fed like butter and will probably be reserved for full power hunting loads where the following shot may be needed swiftly.

Bruce

[TCLouis]

Don't know about 260 ( will in the future) but my Type 38 feeds 6.5X257 quite well as did the carbine I used to have before it was stolen.

I have yet to see a decent chamber in any of these rifles so rechamber is no bigggie (oooo did I hear some collector groans).

I have 4 more and a 260 reamer, just have been too lazy to pull the barrel check the eccentric chamber and bore to round to start the 260 reamer straight and true.

Years ago I handled a carbine at a gun show that was in perfect condition. Took me a while to figure what was unique about it (other than the pristine bore), it was the walnut stock. Two piece proper stock, but it was walnut and in flawless condition. Wish I knew enough about them to check the chamber back then. Of course in that condition it was a collector, not a shooter.
There was also a run of them back in the 80s (?) that were chinese rechamber/rebores to 7.62X39.

[HamGunner]

I bought an Arisaka 6.5 x .257 carbine a few years ago that had been drilled/tapped for scope mounts, jeweled bolt, restocked into a full length Bishop stock. But it slugged at .268. I ended up working up the 160gr. Hornady Carcano bullet and throating the thing out a bit and now seat the bullet at 3.0 OAL. It feeds well, but on occasion, if short stroked or slow cycled, it will hang up feeding. Just have to remember to treat it like it was supposed to be treated, I guess. It feeds the .266469 fairly well, but again, not if babied.

[madsenshooter]

I think the Japanese were trained to use the palm and heel of the hand and to work the bolt smartly. The palm for lifting the bolt up and pulling it back, and the heel for pushing it forward with that oval shape still in the palm.

[bruce drake]

For those thinking about running a 260 reamer in to a 6.5 chamber, Its a lot of cutting as you are cutting almost a entire chamber out from the throat to the neck to the head of the cartridge . I did mine by hand and it was worth taking my time ensuring that the reamer ran in straight and true.

Bruce