Starting my 6.5 Arisaka project!

[school of mines]

Hello! I am beginning to gather items to develop a cast boolit load for my 6.5 Arisaka. I don't have any brass, dies, or molds yet. The rifle is currently being soaked with bore scrubber as the barrel is very dark. Has anyone have any experience/tips they would like to share? Specifically what dies, brass, molds, etc I should get. I'm thinking of doing a chamber cast once I get the barrel cleaned up to make sure the rifle hasn't been rechambered.

I'll get some pictures posted once I get the barrel cleaned!

Thanks,

Shane

[bruce drake]

I've got two Type 38s. I eventually rechambered one to 260 Remington (It's bore slugged at .266!) but left the other in the original caliber.

For 6.5 JAP
Dies: Buy a LEE Set - It won't break your bank and the quality is good enough
Brass: (1) Buy Starline/Hornady or Norma for brand new brass.
(2) Reform from either 35 Remington (using a 308 Winchester resizing die first and then the 6.5 Jap resizing die which leaves you with a right size case but with a short neck) or use 220 Swift brass which requires a trim to size (cut the brass down to 51mm with a trimmer) and then a simple run though the 6.5 Resize die.
Shellholder: The shellholder should be purchased at the same time as your brass. The LEE 6.5 JAP Shellholder will fit the 220 Swift but mine was sloppy and occasionally the shellholder slipped off the 220 Swift leaving the case stuck in the sizing die. Bought a RCBS 220 Swift shellholder and it works fine with my brass. The Norma and Starline/Hornady brass were tight fights in the LEE Shellholder but fit. For my reformed 35 Remington cases, I use a 35 Rem SH with no issues.
Mold: I use a Lyman #266469, 140gr Loverin Mold to replicate the length and profile of the original cartridge. I also use a Herters 257100 that someone had bored out in the past to make a .266 dia 115gr boolit mold that I got from TwoTrees that I use for plinking with.
Some barrels will slug at .268 but you can get people to cut you custom molds if you are serious about shooting the rifle.
My advice once it's cleaned up:
Slug the barrel. I once had a T38 that nearly swallowed a .270 bullet once I cleared all the gunk out of the old barrel. It was quickly sold as a wallhanger.

I like my Arisaka's and they are very accurate rifles once you get the basics down on building the cartridges.

Bruce

P.S. Prvi Partisan also offers a boxer-primed 6.5x50 case for reloaders. - No experience with the cartridge case but they are out there.

[school of mines]

Thanks for the tips Bruce! Hopefully I can make a shooter out of it.


Shane

[madsenshooter]

Get a mold that casts a big boolit! Though Bruce has one with a relatively tight groove diameter, most of them I've slugged have gone .2675" and in some cases larger. BaBore has a couple good sized molds. You don't want to invest in a mold that will throw a too small bullet. I have ran across a couple Type 38s that are .264 groove diameter, but like I said, most are bigger. Remember that you're dealing with Metford type rifling (rounded) and don't try to become the velocity king right away, boolits strip easily in the rounded rifling. The Norma brass is very undersized, I've sometimes only gotten a couple loadings out of them, even though I was neck sizing only. I can't say anything about the other brands because I make my own from either GI 7.62x51, 30/40 Krag, or .303 British and haven't tried them. Making it from 7.62x51 requires swagging the head down, and making it from Krag or British brass requires the rim to be turned down, necking down in steps, and trimming. Labor intensive. 30/40 is hard to find now anyway.