My Arisaka .308 build finally done Pics

[jtwodogs]

Well I finally got my Arisaka .308 build done, and took it to the range today.
My smith put a A&B 25 1/4 barrel on, also a Timmney trigger and saftey, that cleanly brakes at 2.5 lbs.. Bedded and free floated the barrel. I did the stock in several coats of tru-oil, and smoothed everything out with pulverized limestone and linseed oil.
My first and only load so far is 125 gr. Sierra Pro-hunter, behind it was 47 gr. of 4895. A couple of 3 shot groups came in right at an 1 inch. I have a sneaking suspicion that 168 SMK's would do well in it since it is a 1:10 twist. Anyway just wanted to post what I have been working on.
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0147.jpg
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0146.jpg
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0145.jpg
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0144.jpg
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0143.jpg

[roverboy]

It looks real good. Shoots good too, and with a little more load experimenting it'll probably be better. I agree the 168 gr. SMK will probably be good in the 1 in 10" twist.

[littlejack]

jtwodogs:
Very nice lookin rifle. What model is it?
I don't know much about the Arisakas. I do know that P.O. Ackley got a surprise when he was deliberately blowing up military rifles way back when. He figured the Arisakas would be weaker than they were. Accourding to his experiments, one version of this rifle was as strong or better than a lot of the others reputed to be stronger.
In all but one of my rifles, I have had outstanding accuracy with the Hornaday bullets. That particular rifle has not had any shot in it yet, but it will in the future.
Jack

[FAsmus]

Jtwodogs;

Sure it looks just fine and all ~ I'm interested to hear how it shoots with Cast Bullets!

I have a JAP Type 38 I rebarreled to 7.62x51 in full military wood and iron sights that shoots very well on out to 800 yards with RCBS 30-180-SP.

Good evening,
Forrest

[Ben]

jtwodogs :

That's impressive. Everyone that played a hand in the assembly of that rifle is to be congratulated !

Ben

[Arisaka99]

Thats an arisaka!?!?!?!?!?! that is AMAZING compared to mine!!! How much did it run you to make it?

[jtwodogs]

well it do add up after awhile. The barrel was 70 bucks, the trigger and saftey was 89, the smith bill was 150. He probably would not have charged me that, but he had a time turning the rear saftey down to give it a better apperance

[madsenshooter]

I've got a carbine that someone started, probably back in the 50's, and never finished. I'm going to have to get around to it myself. It's been rechambered to 6.5x257. The stock is a wonderful piece of walnut, very heavy, with a Mannlicher-style forearm. Whoever started it did a masterful job of inletting. Do they make the A&B barrels threaded for the Type 38, or is that work your smith also had to do?

[NickSS]

A long time ago I bought an Arisaka that was sporterized with a new fajen stock and the barrel was 14 inches with a 2.5 inch muzzle break brazed on the end to make it leagle. It was in 7X57 Mauser. It shot fine and was a dream to carry deer hunting but it was way too loud when fired. It was easily the loadest gun I have ever fired. It also kicked pretty hard. Then one day when cleaning it I thought the bore looked a little smaller that it should in 7mm so I measured it. The bore was still a 6.5 bore and only the chamber had been opened up to 7X57. I found this out after having fired several hundred rounds of ammo in it. I sold it back to the dealer I bought it from and arter telling him what I had found out he gave me my full purchase price back for it.

[Bret4207]

Wow! Lots nice than my "Worlds ugliest rifle" 6.5x257 Arisaka. Ignore the pot please, posting pics isn't my bag...

[Hip's Ax]

VERY Nice !!!

[jtwodogs]

I've got a carbine that someone started, probably back in the 50's, and never finished. I'm going to have to get around to it myself. It's been rechambered to 6.5x257. The stock is a wonderful piece of walnut, very heavy, with a Mannlicher-style forearm. Whoever started it did a masterful job of inletting. Do they make the A&B barrels threaded for the Type 38, or is that work your smith also had to do?

The Smith bought the barrel blank and did the machineing.

[shunka]

Beautiful rifle!
Can you tell us if the smith had any problems removing the original barrel?

yhs
shunka

[Multigunner]

For those who have 6.5X257 and vintage .257 Roberts rifles remember this was at one time a Wild Cat and chambering reamers for the .257 used in building custom rifles weren't always fully compatible with the later factory loaded .257 Roberts.
There are a few others in this class but I don't remember these off hand.

As for the Arisakas as sporting rifles, I've always thought these turned out very nicely when some effort is put into them.

[madsenshooter]

I found out the hard way that 6.5x57, and 6.5x.257 are different critters. I bought a die set for the 6.5x57. The length to shoulder comes out a little long, but the rifle has enough camming power to push the shoulder back. One way to get positive headspace!

[Larry Gibson]

Some 25 years ago some people found my Arisaka (customized by Hyakawa Bubbazuki) in the attic of a house they had bought. The stock had been cut down and varnished, the sights removed and there was no butt plate. They didn’t want it and gave it to me. A year or so later I came into a box of Norma ammo with 18 rounds in it so I decided to give the old jap a try. I initially forged the bolt handle and D&T’d the action mounting a Weaver 4X while the barrel bore was soaking. After a generous amount of scrubbing the bore still looked pretty bad but I tried it anyway. It shot horribly. The last 4 -6” of barrel were really bad so I cut the barrel off at 22” and crowned it. Amazingly the remainder of the Noma loads (8 shots I recall) went into a little over 2”.

The problem was the jap’s chamber was grossly over sized and the cases really swelled up in the body, particularly at the expansion ring. I knew FL sizing was out of the question so I took the decapping rod out of a 6.5 Swede FL die and used it as a Lee Loader to just NS the cases. I had some Hornady .264 160 gr RNs and loaded them in work up loads using 4895. Accuracy was under 2’ with all loads but 3 or 4 of the cases had cracked from head separation on the second firing. That kind of brought the project to a halt. I figured the Jap had some promise as a “truck beater” at least but with the cost of Norma ammo (cases alone were not available then) put it on hold.

A couple years later I picked up a PO Ackley .264 Win Mag barrel or $20 as it appeared to be only severely fouled. I set the shank back, rethreaded it for a M98 and then short chambered it with a 6.5 Swede reamer using .308W cases reformed in a cut off 6.5 Swede die making basically a 6.5-.308 with a Mauser taper to the case. It fed fine and shot sub moa (actually ½ moa) in the Ackley barrel. One day while loading some of the 6.5-.308 ammo I got to thinking about the jap and dug out the fired Norma cases. A comparison showed that the 6.5 Swede reamer could just clean up the jap’s chamber. I put 5 rounds of the 6.5-.308 in the Jap magazine and it fed them into the chamber beautifully. I then borrowed the 6.5 reamer and reamed the jap’s chamber headspacing the bolt with fired cases from the Ackley.

I then decided the jap was ready for a little more “customizing” so I cut off the horribly short original bolt handle and welded a longer one on. An old recoil pad was added to the butt and the receiver and 1st 3” of the barrel were bedded. The trigger was cleaned up to break clean at 3 lbs. I added a front sling swivel off and old Mauser stock. I formed a hundred cases by simply FL sizing some LC 7.62 Match cases in the shortened 6.5 Swede die. Loads were worked up with various 120, 140 and the 160 RN .264 bullets. Accuracy was very good considering running from 5 shot groups of 1 ½ to 2”. The bore was still pretty rough but I slugged it and found it was the usual .268”. Fire lapping helped the bore some and some decent cast bullet loads were developed using 266455 as cast at .267 - .268 and double dipped in LLA. Several years ago Hornady announced they were making some .268” 160 gr RNs for the Carcano so I figured they should do well in the jap also. That they did as they run right at 2500 fps under AA4350 and shoot into 1 to 1 ½ moa. That makes the jap a very nice “truck beater” rifle for sure though obviously not up to the quality of ‘customization as the previous posted rifles. I’ve some of the 175 gr cast CMs and the 3rd GB cast bullets to try in it one of these days.

Larry Gibson

[madsenshooter]

I still have an uglier, more bubba'd one! It's so ugly I'm not gonna put any pictures up. Even has "Smokey" carved into the side of butt. But it was cheap. It wasn't that the chamber of yours was oversized Larry, the Norma Brass was woefully undersized. I wrote them about how I made better fitting brass from .303 or 30-40 and they started loading their ammo in larger cases, as they made .303 anyway. But they still sell that undersized stuff as components. Might work ok in the type I, they're tighter chambered.

[jtwodogs]

Well I am back in love with it after some tweaking, and comming up with this load
165 gr. Sierra Game King
43 grains of 4064
FC case
CCI primer
seated to 2.88
This is what I got.
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0156.jpg
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0158.jpg
I guess I just gave up on it to quick, glad no one took me up on it posted on the classifieds:)

[FAsmus]

Jtwodogs;

Nice shooting of course ~ but how well does it shoot with cast bullets?

Good evening,
Forrest

[jtwodogs]

Do not know, was quite the task getting this far, more tweaking then imagineable with trigger, stock, lugs. I think it will be a long time before I would even consider another military conversion, maybe someday I will get caugth up enough to try some cast boolits in her.
Thanks

[jtwodogs]

I think I have found the sweet spot on this rifle, shot it today.
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq103/jtwodogs/HPIM0173.jpg

[FAsmus]

jtwodogs;

I don't really want to rain on your parade but, really, this is a cast bullet site ~ I repeat my request about how well it shoots with cast bullets?

And! Maybe with a five shot group!

Good evening,
Forrest

[jtwodogs]

jtwodogs;

I don't really want to rain on your parade but, really, this is a cast bullet site ~ I repeat my request about how well it shoots with cast bullets?

And! Maybe with a five shot group!

Good evening,
Forrest

Trust me. I am on cloud 9 over that group. Not the cloud over me, no rain here.
Blessings

[FAsmus]

Jtwodogs;


Sure, and justifiably so.

I'm just kind of built ( I figure ) in way that that makes me wonder; "If a rifle shoots so wonderfully with jacketed how incredible it would be to shoot cast bullets equally well!" I could never resist such an opportunity.

MY Type 38 will probably never shoot as well as your conversion but it gives me such consistent 5x1.500 performance in a 71/2 pound carbine that every time I take it out and hammer my armor-plate chicken offhand @100 yards I'm always sorry I didn't bring more ammunition.

Good shooting,
Forrest

[roverboy]

That rifle is a good'un.

[jtwodogs]

Jtwodogs;


Sure, and justifiably so.

I'm just kind of built ( I figure ) in way that that makes me wonder; "If a rifle shoots so wonderfully with jacketed how incredible it would be to shoot cast bullets equally well!" I could never resist such an opportunity.

MY Type 38 will probably never shoot as well as your conversion but it gives me such consistent 5x1.500 performance in a 71/2 pound carbine that every time I take it out and hammer my armor-plate chicken offhand @100 yards I'm always sorry I didn't bring more ammunition.

Good shooting,
Forrest
Is that still in the 6.5 config., if so what is your load info like was not asking specifics.
Just type and wieght of bullet, type of powder. How fast are you pushing it? Are you getting any leading? Probably using a gas Check.
Thanks

[FAsmus]

Twodogs;

Back there in the thread somewhere I think I mentioned that my Type 38 was hopelessly rusted out. I rebarreled it to 7.62x51 ~ the barrel cut to the contour of the original and back into military wood.

My load is the gas-check RCBS 30-180-SP @ 190 grains over 29 grains "Varget". Velocity around 1850 - 1900 ft/sec. Never any leading.

Good morning,
Forrest

[cigarman454]

Congrats,

Nice looking gun and the accuracy is awesome.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

Here is a shot of my Type 38 out on the range the other day.

http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/yy333/Forrest_Asmus/IMG_0078.jpg

As you can see it looks very much like an issue JAP except for the receiver sight and Lyman 17A.

Good evening,
Forrest

[psj12]

I have an old type 99, 7.7 Arisaka that my dad brought back form the war. It was early (high quality) production with the chromed bore. It did not have the cresanthemum ground off. I was given the rifle as a child to play with as my father attached no value to it as a "real" firearm.

When i reached the age of 16 or so I decided there was nothing keeping it from shooting so I found a box of 7.7 Jap Norma ammo for sale and gave it a try. It shot great. I then did the typical bubba stock cutdown, sight removal and cheap scope installatioin on it. I used it for a few years as a knock around deer rifle.

When I turned 35 I decided since I had already screwed up any collectors value I would try to fix it up. I installed a timney trigger, Fajen stock, free floated the barrel, shortened the barrel about 2 inches and recrowned it, installed quality scope mounts. Had it professionally reblued. It looks much like jtwodogs'.

I found it to be one of my most accurate rifles with the original barrel firing 150 gr .312" Hornady spire point bullets. It will fire one ragged hole at 100 yds with brass that is neck sized only.

I now make my own brass from once fired 30-06.

I have, and do, fire 160 gr lee GC bullets from it with very acceptable accuracy.

[smokemjoe]

Nice jobs, feels good to see people can still use there hands.
My brohter uses a jap all the time, he layed it in his jeep and it went off and just missed the tranny by a few inchs. Watch em.

[rattletrap1970]

I have a Type-38 Arisaka I bought back in 1993 or so for $79.00. I took the barreled action out of the original stock and did the following:
1. Re-chambered for 6.5x55
2. Had a turned down bolt handle put on.
3. Drilled and tapped for scope base.
4. Timney trigger.
5. BSA 6-25x44 scope
6. Pillar and glass bedded it into a Boyd's Walnut stock with Devcon Steel Epoxy.
7. Added Harris benchrest bipod.
8. (Not sone yet, but I am going to re-crown the barrel)

With 140gr Sierra HPBT match bullets and 4895 powder it will make the first 4 rounds touch at 100 yards. But the barrel is the original 800mm long one and once it heats up it walks a bit.

Currently I'm working on a load using the 170gr Lee cast "Cruise Missile" boolit. I'll post pics of the rig and the targets very soon.

[Nora]

Wow very nice!!
I've never seen an Arisaka I'd even remotely like to have until now. That is defiantly a first class job!

Nora