30-06 Converted Arisaka - No Mum !

[Sasquatch]

Hate to put the scare back into you but no--- there is no such thing as "hot crimping" any barrel together. He might be refering to using "skelps" and hammer forging a barrel such as was done with the early flintlock barrels but you were only looking at very poor quality black powder at low pressurers. If you were to ever fire that form of barrel with the pressurers generated by the 06 I would for darned sure have my life insurance policy paid up.
What you see might be the remains of the old rear sight sleeve but what someone has done to it is anyones guess.
There also seems to be some "battering" on the bottom of the recoil lug. That also is not normal.
Your rifle has some issues. This really isn't the time for good ol boy guessing but you really need to see someone who is an experianced gunsmith. Do not fire it under any circumstances until it is carefully looked at.
These 7.7 and especially the 6.5 Jap actions are not normally poorly made unless they were origionaly made up as training rifles or the ones known as "last ditch" models. Many of the 6.5's were actually made up in Germany with the best German steel at the time. Other than a funky but usable safety, they can be made up into very nice sporters and are very safe to boot. P O Ackley , in his blow up tests of the late 40's to the early 60's , tried long and hard to blow a few of the things up and when he finially got the job done rather than actually blowing the action itself , he blew the barrel clean out the front , and it took one heck of a overload to do it. Not too shabby.
Life is too short and your vision too precious to take any chances. Get it looked at by a good gunsmith, someone with experiance with rebarreling. If you have a good action and a questionable barrel just get it rebarreled. It really dosn't cost that much and with the nice old Bishop stock you have the basis of a neat old vintage sporter.

I think you are talking about forge welding. It works by heating the steel up to a hair over 2200 farenheit (WHITE hot, almost melting. it should spark and begin to burn) and tapping them toghther. If its done right, darn right its strong. Its how anchor chains used to be made and you may have driven a car where parts were essentially forge welded toghther (technically friction welded, but they work similarly from my understanding). but i personally would NOT use that barrel. if it was a forge weld you would really have to look for a seam and it would be far shallower. I may not know guns, but I know my forge welds. If thats a forge weld its sure one crappy one.


EDIT: If that is a crimed on sleeve or whatever, I can't say anything with authority on it. If it were mine id strap it to something pull the trigger with a LONG string and go from there.

[DoctorBill]

Dutchman - Thank you very much for the suggestion and explanations !

BTW - Do you think that "Trail Boss" might be a good powder for a reduced
recoil load in this case. I have used it in a 6.5mm Carcano and like it (Used the Cruise Missile).

DoctorBill

Sasquatch - I am no longer worried about this rifle...someone squeezed a sleeve
over the barrel to mount a Buckhorn sight. No worries. I will fire it with an old rug
over the receiver and then move on if it does not blow up.

I think we have beaten this horse to death !.

This is not an OSHA issue !

[HangFireW8]

Dutchman - what do you think of using 8mmx56 Mauser Brass and fire
forming those in the 30-06 converted Arisaka ?

The base of 8mm Brass is almost identical to that of the 7.7mmx58,
however the case is shorter than 30-06.

I'm not Dutchman, but the 8mm brass and cartridge diagrams I have are no different from .30-06 in the head dimensions.

I'm not too keen on the very short neck you'd end up with, either.

-HF

[DoctorBill]

HangFireW8 - yes - you are right. I just had a friend call me telling me
that his 8mm brass had the same head dimensions as the 7.7mm.

I wonder what head he was measuring.....I just measured them and you
are right. I didn't pull out my books to check him first before posting.

I went back and edited out my dumb question....hope the Dutchman hasn't seen
it yet !

Too many people talking too much and too fast !

This is approaching trying to discuss something in the middle of a riot.

I have to back off and consider these things a bit slower without all of the 'opinions'
swimming around in my skull.

Sorry for the screw up folks - I should have checked it before believing it.

Too many MilSurps with too many variations on a theme for me to keep straight !

Not only is there the caliber, but each rifle has its own bore variations.

Easy to screw something up !

DoctorBill

[Bret4207]

HangFireW8 - yes - you are right. I just had a friend call me telling me
that his 8mm brass had the same head dimensions as the 7.7mm.

I wonder what head he was measuring.....I just measured them and you
are right. I didn't pull out my books to check him first before posting.

I went back and edited out my dumb question....hope the Dutchman hasn't seen
it yet !

Too many people talking too much and too fast !

This is approaching trying to discuss something in the middle of a riot.

I have to back off and consider these things a bit slower without all of the 'opinions'
swimming around in my skull.

Sorry for the screw up folks - I should have checked it before believing it.

Too many MilSurps with too many variations on a theme for me to keep straight !

Not only is there the caliber, but each rifle has its own bore variations.

Easy to screw something up !

DoctorBill

I was trying to find a nice way of recommending that. Things were going a bit too fast there for a while.

[DoctorBill]

Latest update on things I have been learning about this 30-06 converted
7.7mm Arisaka.

I found that Weaver 54 will work for the back receiver rail and the Weaver 46 will work as the front receiver rail, so's I can
mount a scope on it. (Can't see for sour owl's milk!)

Same height and curvature.
This proved very useful ! From Brownell's web site....


I have decided to reload 30-06 Brass and use that versus reforming 7.7mm Jap
Brass because of the base being larger and fitting better.

I'll use the masking tape trick to allow the base to expand slowly.

I have taken some of the advice given here and am using the LEE decapper/expander
from my .303 British Dies in the LEE 8mm Mauser Die to expand the
30-06 neck out to 0.311 so that I can use some LEE molded 185 gr 0.312
Cast Bullets (Gas checked) in the reloads.

I will use Trail Boss to make the reloads kick my poor old shoulder less...

This conversion stuff is a big PITA to have to work with !

DoctorBill

[HangFireW8]

This conversion stuff is a big PITA to have to work with !

DoctorBill

Work out the conversion stuff with a small batch. Make sure you are getting it right.

Then, do a very big batch, and you'll be done with it for good.

-HF

[Sanchez]

..... "last ditch" versions

These are fully functional, issued weapons.

"Most were cast receivers and were never meant for firing with live ammo":

Cast receiver=smoothbored training rifle only, designed ONLY FOR BLANKS. These have altogether different markings & features from rifled Arisakas