Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Arisaka Action

I bought one at a garage sale (type 99 / 7.7) in NY back in the mid 70's for $20 if memory serves. It was "sporterized" when a previous owner cut the full length stock down by 1/2. It DID come with the bakelite (?) muzzle cover, and I think that's worth about as much as the rifle, and it has the (still comical to me) aircraft sight with the two arms that unfold to the sides for "leading" a plane.
I've shot Norma factory ammo, and a few hand loads (can't remember the recipe off the top of my head), but I remember accuracy being "minute of pie plate" @ 100 yards.
I like the angled bolt in the pic, as the "straight out" orig. bolt handle that rotates straight up 90 degrees is not what I'd consider good for sporting use. I realize that's not what the weapon was designed for.

Off topic, but I also paid $15 for a 3rd generation Burnside carbine at the same garage sale (boy, do I miss those days), so I got 2 guns for $35 bucks. I still think that was one of my best finds. -TomT

Arisaka beauty was discussed on this forum in 2008. Here's a link to the thread:
A challeng to Wolfe Publications

In the last third of that thread, forum member riceone posted some photos of his reworked Arisaka Paratroop Type 2. I don't think he will mind if I post one of those photos here. While beauty vs ugly is a problem in esthetics, most agreed in 2008 that this was a pretty nice looking rifle. Check the link for other photos.
--Bob
.

That's definitely high quality workmanship. Too bad it ruined a very rare and highly collectible Type 99 Paratrooper Rifle.

True but it was probably sporterized initially back in the '50s when few thought of any Japanese rifle as rare and highly collectible.

very true.....M1917's seem to only have gotten collectable and worth something recently as people looked around and realized how few are left after so many were messed with....i like dinking around with military sporters but i buy rifles someone else has already cut on and dont have the heart to chop up one in original condition...

The sale rack at my club had a sporterized 7.7 for sale last year. This one had a Mauser-style wing safety, an aftermarket receiver sight, and a decent walnut stock.

My local gunsmith said a lot of the 7.7s were rechambered to .30-06 by US armorers and issued to the South Koreans. Accuracy wasn't great with .308 bullets, but this was a way to arm the ROKs quickly with rifles that would use US surplus ammo. The ROKs got Garands etc when we went to .308s and .223s.

Amen!

I guess fugly is in the eye of the beholder but that looks better to me than a Savage.

I saw a 6.5 Ari some years ago that had been made into a Mannlicher-style rifle, and it certainly was a handy little rifle. The prewar 6.5's were definitely well made actions. Now the 7.7's - especially the ones made during the late stages of the war, could be suspect, and I'd tread carefully.

Yeah, nsaqam, I'm afraid I was one of those doing some of the hacking on a Springfield and a couple of Mausers, but a little later in the 60's and 70's. I did see my Springfield at a gun show years after I sold it with a tag on it that miss identified it as a G&H. I don't feel too bad about that one and I will quickly admit that I had some close supervision from a brother that used to be a gunsmith at Pachmayr's. I got to agree that some dumb stuff was done during that time.

I would love to see a chamber cast of that Arisaka though. When the round was loaded it had to have pushed the bullet back down in the case. No telling what the pressures were like when he touched that thing off.

Those Arisaka chambers are really oversized for 30/06 brass.
You will note that all of the sporters shown had the scopes
mounted high so the safety could be used.

I forgot to add that my Arisaka 6.5 Roberts is a type 30 (Ring safety). If anything the ring is worse than the turret on a
sporter.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NGJpPJhCvb0[/video]

Exactly.....I'd hoist the BS flag on this story.

As to the story about the Arisaka action being so strong.....It stems from experiments by P O Ackley.....and that alone discredits the credibility of the work.

Are the actions for the 6.5 and the 7.7 the same, or is there two different actions for 2 separate cartridges?

Basically the same but the Type 99 for the 7.7 Japanese has many features which were incorporated to reduce production time and cost.

Some of the things done include a flat sided extractor rather than contoured, a stamped rather than forged TG and FP, a slotted left lug rather than the solid lug on the Type 38, much less hand fitting and polishing, and less extensive heat treatment.

The Type 38 is an extremely well made and finished military rifle.
The Type 99 is an adequate military rifle but pales in comparison to the Type 38.

Thanks. Always wondered why the 6.5 had a better reputation than the 7.7.

The actions were the same, but the Type 99 had a shorter barrel than the Type 38. Type 99's also had fold out anti aircraft sights. Early 99's had a sheet metal sliding dust cover over the action (usually discarded by troops in the field) and a fold down monopod under the forearm.

Basically the same but with the changes I enumerated above.
Type 38's were also issued with dust covers as well as 99's.
Not all 99's have anti aircraft sights either.