At various times I've heard that the Arisaka had one of the strongest actions. A guy even told me about someone who brought back a 6.5mm Arisaka as a war souvenir. The guy asked a gunsmith to rechamber it to 30-06. It was rechambered all right, but the barrel was not reamed out and remained 6.5mm. The guy fired a 30-06 round in it and, aside from a huge recoil, no damage was done. I can't say whether this is true or not.
Anyway ,why are not more custom rifles made on Arisaka actions?
I have read that about the Arisaka being one of the strongest actions. Probably the reason there are not more custom rifles made on this action is because of the way it looks. Face it, it is not as attractive as a 98 Mauser or a pre 64 M70.
What I do wonder is what there is about it that makes it so strong. If the same design that makes it so strong, if there is anything to that, could be incorporated into a modern rifle and the safety made more attractive and easier to use, it seems like the design could be utilized for a really strong and functional action.
I have also read about the rechamber job to .30-06. That story has been floating around for years. I don't know if there is anything to it or not.
Get Ackley's book, Handbook for Shoooters and Reloaders, and he goes into why the action was so strong. Since the 7.7 was 311 caliber, it could be rechambered to 06 case, but would have to use 303 bullets. I've heard the story too about the 6.5, but it was a shorter round and not sure the action would take an 06 case.
Today, there are a LOT of stronger actions than the Arisaka's. The Rem. 700 about the strongest action out there. In a blow up test in the 40s, when the 721 first came out, Gen. Hatcher and his folks blew up a number of other actions, but were unable to blow the 721. The charge they had in it, to get to bulging and locking up the action, was a case FULL of proof powder, with a 180gr bullet, and then 5 or so MORE 180gr bullets, shoved down the barrel on top of it. What happens in most blow ups is, the case is not entirely supported, some of it, like in the model 70, is not supported, do to the design of the action. The pressures in the cartridge then let the unsupported area BLOW away, and feed gasses, etc., through the action, which destroys it. With the head of the cartridge being totally surrounded by steel, as in the 721-700 action, there is no unsupported case head area.
The design of the Type 38 is a big reason they are so strong.
Unlike a Mauser the top/left locking lug is solid and unslotted.
They (the Type 38's) were also very carefully and finely made with good heat treatment.
I don't know if I agree that there a LOT of stronger actions made today. P.O. Ackley never succeeded in blowing up an Arisaka either.
There is an aftermarket trigger for the Arisaka that uses
a side safety. I have been meaning to convert my 6.5 carbine
for a couple of years now, but havent done it.
I have seen the mention on another occasion of a 6.5 Arisaka being re chambered to 30/06 and it still seems to me to be something that would be difficult to do accidentally. The pilot on the reamer would be 30 caliber and not enter the 6.5mm bore. I don't doubt that an Arisaka action is strong (even if ugly), but I doubt that this conversion mentioned above took place by accident.
The Arisaka in question here was at one time (and may still be) in the hands of the NRA where it was sent by the gunshop owner who purchased the "hard kicking" rifle from the Bubba who ground down the pilot of a .30-06 reamer to fit the 6.5mm bore.
I read about the initial report of this in a late '40s early '50s issue of American Rifleman.
It is not apocryphal, it is true and they had pictures of the rifle and the bullets recovered after firing it. With a long string!
I can't even remember the last time I saw an Arisaka action/rifle for sale!
Then again, I don't really read GB and the like either.
Why aren't they used on more custom rifles? Have you seen an Arisaka action? They are hideous looking. Big, bulky, and clumsy. They might be strong but other actions are plenty strong enough and look much beter.
I don't doubt for a second that it could be done. I just doubt that it was done by accident. In the 60's I read of some tests done after the war on Arisakas that involved welding a rod in the bore and firing the rifle with a normal round. It evidently blew the rod out without much trouble and no further damage to the rifle.
To me the rifle described in the cartridge conversion sounds like a similar test and not something a knowledgeable gunsmith would do by accident because of the difficulty in getting a 30/06 reamer to enter a 6.5mm bore. I may be wrong though, even as improbable as the rifle conversion seems to be.
It was reported that the reaming was not done by a gunsmith but rather by a rather stupid owner who happened to have a .30-06 reamer.
This was done during the viral "sporterizing" craze of the late '40s and '50s.
Everyone was hacking away at the old military actions back then.
They are hideous looking.
Yep they are that....
Ackleys book talks alot about them.
The pre war ones had excellant heat treatment and were the only action that Ackley could not blow up.
Ackley was actually blowing the barrels off the front.Made a mess but all they did was clean them up and try again.
The loads they were usuing pretty much made bombs of everything else.
Lots of egos got crushed that the japs had a stronger action than anything we could make.
To this day I dought it could be beat in strength.
dave
I can't even remember the last time I saw an Arisaka action/rifle for sale!
Then again, I don't really read GB and the like either.
![[Linked Image]](http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/RedBluffpics/007-5.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/RedBluffpics/006-3.jpg)
Here's the one my dad brought home from Korea in 1945. It was a joint family effort having it sporterized over 40 years. I worked up a good load using 150 gr Barnes X bullets and plan on using it elk hunting next year. It's a 7.7 not a 6.5.
The Arisakas are VERY strong. If you get a chance, pull the bolt on one and notice the size of the locking lugs. Interestingly, the M1 Garand will hang in long after many bolt actions give up. As far as the 30-06 in the 6.5mm barrel, that's not hard to believe. After WWII, large quantities of surplus 8x57mm (7.9/7.92) Mauser ammo was imported. Unless put side buy side, the 8mm and 30-06 look very similar. The 8x57mm will chamber and fire in most 30-06's and lot of those people that don't pay attention would fire an 8x57 in their 30-06 with the result being a catastrophic failure. There was a lot of argument over what caused the failure, to large a bullet or excessive head space. Finally the NRA conducted a test. They throated a 30-06 to accept an 8mm (.232") bullet and fired it with a full powder charge. The bolt opened and the case extracted without incident. Then an 8x57 was necked down to .30 cal. and fired in a 30-06 with disastrous results, proving that if the headspace is good, a strong rifle will likely survive an oversize bullet, but not grossly excessive headspace. Kids, don't try this at home.
I have one that my great uncle brought back from WW2. It is a Type 38 carbine. My grandfather had it converted to a 6.5X257, scoped, and a Timney with side safety installed. It is a lot of fun and surprisingly accurate with a new stock that I installed a few years ago. 125 gr. partitions in an inch or under at 100 yards.
The Arisaka has a god-awful safety for a sporter and there is nothing to be done for it.
Most 30/06's will not chamber an 8x57. If they do it is
the lack of neck clearence not headspace that causes the
trouble.
But for military rifle the Arisaka bolt is unparalled in it's simplicity.
IIRC it has six parts total!
They are not the prettiest, but not necessarily the ugliest rifles out there. (Personal thing, but I'd rather look at it than a black rifle.) Here's mine that I amateurishly sporterized almost 50 years ago when I was in college. That's a stock blank from good old Herter's that those of you of a certain age will remember. I refinished the stock a few years ago. I originally used a peep sight on that rifle and killed a lot of deer with it. My uncle brought it back from the Pacific and gave it to me when I was five years old.
![[Linked Image]](http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy91/WoodsyAl/RiflesJune2011Arisakaupload.jpg)
They are not the prettiest, but not necessarily the ugliest rifles out there. (Personal thing, but I'd rather look at it than a black rifle.) Here's mine that I amateurishly sporterized almost 50 years ago when I was in college. That's a stock blank from good old Herter's that those of you of a certain age will remember. I refinished the stock a few years ago. I originally used a peep sight on that rifle and killed a lot of deer with it. My uncle brought it back from the Pacific and gave it to me when I was five years old.
WOW Al, that's a blast from the past. Pun intended. I've got one somewhere here I need to dig out and look at. Mine has been "drilled out" to use 30/06 brass.
I messed around with a Type 38 and a 77 years ago. They are expensive to sporterize these days, as mentioned, the safety is an issue. Mauser is a much better action to sporterize, and a custom on a Remington, Winchester, Ruger, Savage is cheaper by far in the long run.
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
The Arisaka has a god-awful safety for a sporter and there is nothing to be done for it.
Most 30/06's will not chamber an 8x57. If they do it is
the lack of neck clearence not headspace that causes the
trouble.
They are hideous looking.
Yep they are that....
Arisaka beauty was discussed on this forum in 2008. Here's a link to the thread:
A challeng to Wolfe PublicationsIn 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
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![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/riceone/CopyofDSC03657.jpg)
That's definitely high quality workmanship. Too bad it ruined a very rare and highly collectible Type 99 Paratrooper Rifle.
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.
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.
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... 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.
I have seen the mention on another occasion of a 6.5 Arisaka being re chambered to 30/06 and it still seems to me to be something that would be difficult to do accidentally. The pilot on the reamer would be 30 caliber and not enter the 6.5mm bore. I don't doubt that an Arisaka action is strong (even if ugly), but I doubt that this conversion mentioned above took place by accident.
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.
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.
Below I have copied the text of the note from
The American Rifleman story about the 6.5 rifle rechambered to .30-06.
It's neither BS nor an urban legend. The gunsmith, Enique Mahnke, had an unusual name that can be checked with google.
I'll try to include one of the photos that appeared in the magazine.
--Bob
Bullet 'Forming'
Many .30-'06 cartridges fire in rechambered but not rebored Jap 6.5 mm military rifle
Recently Enique Mahnke, a gunsmith of Cobb, Calif., set in 3 empty .30-'06 cases, one with the primer smashed very flat, and the other 2 with the primers missing and the primer pockets slightly expanded. Accompanying them was the following letter:
"Recently a man brought a Jap rifle to me and wanted me to fix it so it would not kick so much. He had been using regular .30-'06 hunting cartridges in the rifle which he said was a Jap 7.7 mm. (cal. .303) that he had rechambered himself.
"A glance at the rifle showed me that it was a 6.5 mm.(.256) and I told him he must have brought in the wrong rifle, as a .256 could not be rechambered to .30-'06 because the pilot on the reamer would not enter the barrel. He said that he had had that trouble, but had cured it by grinding down the pilot of the reamer until it would go in.
"After the rechambering was finished, he had tested out the rifle by firing 2 shots, holding the rifle in one hand on the far side of a tree, and it had almost kicked out of his hand. He then fired a few shots at a target, and went hunting with it and killed a deer, but the gun kicked so badly that he decided to bring it and have me fix it.
"I would never have believed cal. .30 bullets could be fired through a cal. .256 bore without bursting the gun, but here are the gun and empty cartridge cases to prove it.
"I am sending the rifle along to you for any tests you might care to make. If you blow the gun up, it is all right with me as it is no good the way it is. I just thought you might be interested."
This is a bit startling, in spite of the fact that the cal. 6.5 mm. Jap is an exceptionally strong rifle. It is made of extra tough material, and moreover the head of the case is unusually well enclosed, which makes for additional strength. However, few would expect it to stand the treatment described.
To find out just what a cal. .30 bullet would look like after being squeezed down by being fired through a bore only a bit over 2/3 its normal cross-sectional area, we fired a Service .30-'06 with a 172-gr. boattail bullet, a 180-gr. Remington soft-point Core-lokt, and a Remington 220-gr. Mushroom Core-lokt into a recovery box which is filled with oiled sawdust. The results are shown in the cut [photo] below.
With the 172-gr. .30 M1, the bolt handle was hard to lift, but the case extracted satisfactorily, and except for the extremely flat primer it looked normal. On the 180-gr. and the 220-gr. hunting loads, the bolt open easily, but the cartridge cases failed to extract and had to be knocked out with a ramrod.
After the test the measured headspace on this rifle was found to be 1.945", which is within tolerance for a new .30-'06. After all the beating that this rilfe had received, it remained intact, with no cracks or other damage visible.
The owner of this rifle was lucky enough to get away with a very foolish stunt without being injured. Ore firing tests were done by remote control, with recautions against injury should the rifle explode --NRA TECH STAFF
.
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![[Linked Image]](https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/26377/filename/6-5_30bullet.jpg)
Description: (l.-r.) Remington cal. .30 180-gr. soft-point Core-lokt bullet before and after firing through 6.5 mm. (cal. .256) barrel; U.S. Service 172-gr. cal. .30 bullet before and after firing through 6.5 mm. barrel; Remington cal. .30 220-gr. Mushroom Core-lokt
That is the article I was referring to.
Thanks for finding it and posting it.
I have seen the mention on another occasion of a 6.5 Arisaka being re chambered to 30/06 and it still seems to me to be something that would be difficult to do accidentally. The pilot on the reamer would be 30 caliber and not enter the 6.5mm bore. I don't doubt that an Arisaka action is strong (even if ugly), but I doubt that this conversion mentioned above took place by accident.
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.
Trust the NRA Technical Staff of 1959?
That Type 38 is one hell-for-strong action. Both from a design and manufacturing perspective.
Get Ackley's book, Handbook for Shoooters and Reloaders, and he goes into why the action was so strong. Since the 7.7 was 311 caliber, it could be rechambered to 06 case, but would have to use 303 bullets. I've heard the story too about the 6.5, but it was a shorter round and not sure the action would take an 06 case.
Today, there are a LOT of stronger actions than the Arisaka's. The Rem. 700 about the strongest action out there. In a blow up test in the 40s, when the 721 first came out, Gen. Hatcher and his folks blew up a number of other actions, but were unable to blow the 721. The charge they had in it, to get to bulging and locking up the action, was a case FULL of proof powder, with a 180gr bullet, and then 5 or so MORE 180gr bullets, shoved down the barrel on top of it. What happens in most blow ups is, the case is not entirely supported, some of it, like in the model 70, is not supported, do to the design of the action. The pressures in the cartridge then let the unsupported area BLOW away, and feed gasses, etc., through the action, which destroys it. With the head of the cartridge being totally surrounded by steel, as in the 721-700 action, there is no unsupported case head area.
The Rem 700 is definately not stronger than the Arissaka. The Rem-700 has .020" unsupported case. Surrounding the case head with steel is not needed, since the case head is the streoingest part of the case
I have seen the mention on another occasion of a 6.5 Arisaka being re chambered to 30/06 and it still seems to me to be something that would be difficult to do accidentally. The pilot on the reamer would be 30 caliber and not enter the 6.5mm bore. I don't doubt that an Arisaka action is strong (even if ugly), but I doubt that this conversion mentioned above took place by accident.
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.
Jack Huntington intentionaly tried to blow up an Arisaka action but was able to do so. He even drove a steel plug into the barrel and loaded the case full with Bullseye. This =blew the barrelk out of the action, the action was fine
They are not the prettiest, but not necessarily the ugliest rifles out there. (Personal thing, but I'd rather look at it than a black rifle.) Here's mine that I amateurishly sporterized almost 50 years ago when I was in college. That's a stock blank from good old Herter's that those of you of a certain age will remember. I refinished the stock a few years ago. I originally used a peep sight on that rifle and killed a lot of deer with it. My uncle brought it back from the Pacific and gave it to me when I was five years old.
Nice bottom metal.
Yeah, I believe it was done and I am glad to see the article and pictures of the bullets. I would still love to see a chamber cast with the first few inches of the bore.
It is amazing the punishment the old action took and kept on working. I never doubted that the action was strong as I have read for years of things that have been done to them and they survived. I just doubted that the 6.5 barrel was chambered with a 30/06 chambering reamer by accident. It seems from the article that the doer of the deed went to some trouble to successfully chamber his rifle with the 30/06 reamer and ran into precisely the problem I though he would. Still amazes me that it was actually done...by accident or on purpose!
It is hard for me to imagine what was going through the guys mind if the reamer's pilot didn't fit the bore. Still smacks of a stunt pulled because the guy believed the action would take it and it did.
I would love to see this done with a Remington 700 barreled action. Anybody got a Remington 700 in 260 Remington they want to re chamber to 308 Winchester just for kicks?
I have never tried this, nor do I have any documentation on whether or not it is factual, but I have read that squeezing a bullet down does not increase pressures all that much.
By all that much, I guess that could mean it does not increase pressure enough to destroy the rifle.
I would like to see this tested under laboratory conditions.
There was an article a year or so ago about a guy that built a 22LR reamer with a throat that tapered to 17 cal and one that tapered to 20cal. He was chambering 17 and 20 caliber barrels for the 22LR. When he fired them the bullet was swaged down to the bore diameter and the resulting longer bullet had more velocity and penetration was greatly increased. It was an interesting article but I can't find it in any of the magazines I've saved.
I think I read that the Germans did something similar with the .318 bores on their rifles so that they could shoot the newer .323 bullets. It seems that the long throat prevented the immediate spike in pressure and the bullet was swaged to bore diameter with no problem.
This is stuff that I have read and not anything that I have done. I would like to try one of those 20 caliber/22LR versions though, but I think the guy was in Australia and has since passed away.
All this is why I said that I would love to see a chamber cast of the 6.5 Arisaka that was rechambered to 30/06.
my books are at home so im going from memory but seems to me the Germans in WWII had a couple guns(by guns i mean tank/artillery pieces) that had barrels that tapered down for shooting tungsten projectiles cause it would increase pressures and therefor up the velocity and penetrating qualities.....but for the life of me i cant remember how much the squeee was.....want to say it was something along the lines of squeezing a 88mm projectile down to 78 or 75mm or something like that....
unfortunately im leaving town shortly and cant go check....maybe one of the WWII experts here knows what im referring to.....seems to me this is what they originally wanted to do with the gun on the Tiger tank but tungsten was in very short supply for the Germans during the war so they just went with the modified 88mm flak gun....
My first center fire rifle was a military 8X57, during the late 50s.
I used Win. factory loads in it. At the time, there was some discussion in magazines about the .318 dia. bullet and the .323 dia. bullet. It was confusing then, and is also confusing now, as to which rifles had which bore size.
There was something called a "J" and also a "JS". I think the JS was the .323.
If I remember, and this was a long time ago, Winchester factory loads used the .323 bullet, but the cartridges were loaded down, in the event someone fired a Win. factory load in a rifle with a .318 bore.
I think I remember reading, somewhere, that all 98s in 8MM had the .323 bore size, and that all 8mm rifles built before the 98 had the .318. As I said, it was confusing then, and it still is.
Or maybe it is simple, and it is just confusing to me.
Some German sporting rifles actually have choked barrels, that taper down a little near the muzzle. Supposed to improve accuracy while raising velocity. It's a pretty expensive way to do it, but if you're spending the money to have claw mounted $3,000 scopes and engraving, why not?
I can't even remember the last time I saw an Arisaka action/rifle for sale!
Then again, I don't really read GB and the like either.
I can send you my friend's in 308. He has a couple of 'em.
Great rifles, those Arisaka's.
The Germans made three tapper bore anti-tank guns in WWII. The bores tappered from 28mm-20mm, 40.3mm-29.4mm and 75mm-58mm and all had muzzle velocities in excess of 4,000 fps. There difficult to manufacture, and saw limited use to the shortage of tungsten. Even after the German military switched to the 8x57JS (.323"), many commercial rifles continued to be made in the original 8x57J (.318") caliber. So unless marked "S" or "JS". it's a good idea to slug the bore of any pre WWII German 8mm sporing rifles, rimmed or rimless.
I have a real nice sporterized one I bought for a bill that even came with the flip out anti aircraft beams, says its chambered in 30-06. Currently have a stuck round in the chamber in the half lock position.
When I get ballzy enough someday, I think I might try tapping it back open. Figure I better have a replacement extractor on stand-by when I do.....
Its a shame that it has to be locked in a case until then....
Did I mention it's a really nice looking gun?
Years ago I had a gunsmith mount a scope on my 6.5 Arisaka, I heard that they had a very strong action and asked him about it. He told me that he once tried to blow one up, he filled the case with 2400 powder and fired it using a string while he hid behind a tree, nothing happened, he then did the same thing except he plugged the barrel with a ball bearing, he ended up bulging the barrel, the action was still intact. I still have my sportsorized Arisaka and on occasion I take it out and run a few rounds through it.