I have played with Arisakas quite a bit.
The nicest sporterized Arisaka I've ever seen is a Manlicher full stocked style,which someone offers to buy almost every time I take it to the range.It is a 6.5x57 conversion that shoots very well.
I have found that Sellier and Bellot 6.5x57 ammo takes a little bit of a crush fit on the first chambering,but shoots well and chambers well after the first chambering and /or firing.I reload with 6.5x57 RCBS dies ,and it always chambers slick as you please after that first time.It is very accurate and does a good job on whitetails.....but the triggers suck big time.I understand that Dayton Traister now has a good adjustable trigger for them and also a conversion to cock on opening.....not sure how that works.
As an aside,having tried something like 40 some odd different cartridges to convert to 6.5 Arisaka brass,I finally discovered that .35 Remington converts on one pass through 6.5x50 sizers,and is superior to the 6.5 Arisaka brass from Norma.
The Norma brass has a tendency to bulge in many 6.5 Arisaka chambers,which can be generous since they were designed to work under adverse conditions with ammo that was never intended to be reloaded.The Norma brass is comparitively soft.The brass made up from .35 Remington has given no such problems through five or six reloadings,and can safely be loaded somewhat hotter than the Norma.
