arisaka 7.7

[mod586]

i have an old jap in good shape.uncle brought in home from ww2.are these safe to shoot

[Toney]

Yes they are. Neat rifles!!! Brass is easy to get now, i make mine out of 06. Been shooting bootlits but my rifle will shoot about every thing into the same poa, i"ve shot pulled 06, 7.62 39&54, .311 & .312 SP from 120-200gr

[Toney]

I almost forgot, Welcome to the guide!!! Glad to have you here!!!

[Mosko]

To further what Toney said, these Arisaka rifle actions have been tested several times and found to be almost indestructible.

The "bring back" rifles are very collectable and expensive now days, depending on which arsenal and series they are. Also, there are quite a few of the "last ditch" models that were made late in the war, where good materials wern't available.

Some of the later models may not be safe to fire!

The best bet is to have someone check it out for you who is familiar with these rifles to be sure which one you have, before you actually fire it!

[d-o-k]

First up welcome to the guide . Towards the end of the war a lot of the Jap rifles had their recivers cast & can be a real hazard ! I knew of a Chap who complained to me that the ".303" he'd brought kicked like a mule ! I thought this was strange & asked him to bring it round .Which he did & it turned out to be a (yeah you guessed it ) A 7.7 Arisaka !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell me is it fitted with the anti aircraft sights ? these fold out either side of the rifle & had me buggered as to what they were the first time I ever saw a set !

Dave

[Mosko]

The 7.7 Jap must have been modified to accept the .303 I would think. The rimmed .303, which I suppose you could also name a 7.7 x 56R. For the .303 rimmed cartridge to chamber into battery in a 7.7 x 58, the rifle would have to have .050 excessive head space, or perhaps the extractor missing.

Many of these were converted to 30.06 by running an 06 reamer into the chamber, and allowing the .308 bullet to rattle down the .312 or so barrel.

I think the most sensible conversion would be to .303, by shortening the barrel, and taking it up a turn with a .303 reaming and a rim cut.

[versifier]

I don't know how well that conversion would feed those **@#&%!! rimmed cases. The SMLE's etc. do a great job, but they have radiused magazines that help avoid rim problems. I suspect the parallel feed of the Mauser style magazines which was designed for rimless cases might require some modifications to work correctly beyond single loading. Anyone tried it? D-O-K?

[Mosko]

You're as right as you can be about that sir! "Rims", are generally a real pain in the arse. Even if you have one that can handle the rim, one must be careful not to "rim over" the cartridges when loading the mags.

Generally speaking, these problems, I think are he reason for the modern rimless cartridges. Even the "Pommes" have abandoned them these days for the rimless NATO rounds.

PS maybe, that should be "POHMS", persons of his / her magestys service. Lets ask out Aussie friends to spell it for us?

[d-o-k]

Over here Their just known os POMS (or TO& FROMS) Over the years I have converted several Mausers to accept .303 improved conversions, There are a few small ajustments to the Extracter & mag well ,but it is'nt a hard thing to do ! I'm in the market for a PAT14 action at the moment as I have access to a reamer for a .270-303 improved of which only 2 reamers were evermade ! At 300yds a Head shot on a Roo leaves 2or 3 sinews ! Up until recently I thought there had only ever been one reamer made & it was lost with time & it's creater had died years ago ! But as it turns out a Dear friend & Mentor of Mine Bob Fisher (a true Gentleman of the Old school) Happened to mention that this will be his last season of PHing (60yrs worth)I said to him are you going to finarly hang that old 270-303up ? He laughed & pointed out it Was a SID CHURCHES special !! I said to him how the hell have you got a barrel to last that long (most of us went through 2 barrels a year ) He just laughed & said that there were 2 reamers made & he still had the other !

Dave

[Roudy]

I've got a 7.7 Arisaka in original condition except for the mono pod. It has the 'aircraft' sights on it....was watching a show on the History Channel that had a bit about these sights and got to wondering how many Japanese soldiers actually used the aircraft sights.

It's just hard for me to imagine anyone having the forethought to flip out those 'wings' and try to line them up on an airplane moving at 200+ MPH. Just trying to guess the speed of the plane would be a real challenge for me.

From what I've read about the Arisaka the ones made before WWII were made from exceptionally good steel. One article I've seen included a destructive test on many WWII rifles and the Arisaka action was the only one they were unable to destroy.