Author Topic: Arisaka Modification  (Read 2730 times)

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Offline Bigcat

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Arisaka Modification
« on: December 16, 2003, 05:15:01 PM »
Hi guys,
    I have a mod 38 Jap Arasaka that has been sporterized.  I am quite fond of the rifle, except for the cost of the ammo.  ($45 a box).  :cry:  I have a remington .244 barrell that I have been thinking of modifying to fit the Arisaka.  I can have the barrell rethreaded for the arisaka, and the shoulder tirned back about .250" and rechambered for a.243 Winchester.
    I believe this would make a nice varmit rifle and maybe also ok for Whitetail.  The reason to rechamber to .243 Win. is that it is much more versatile than the .244 rem.  :grin:  There is a lot more ammo out there in .243 Win than .244 rem. and more varied loading.  By cutting the shoulder back there should be plenty meat to rechamber to the .243.

    What do you guys think?
    Bigcat[/list:u]
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Offline Double D

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2003, 05:15:20 AM »
You do know that the .244 remington is now called the 6 MM remington.  and the .244 was designed for lighter varmint bullets?

Offline Bigcat

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arisaka Modification
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2003, 12:33:41 PM »
Double D,
    Yes I did know that the .244 rem. was also known as the 6 mm rem.  8)

    Still the ammo is not as plentiful as the .243 win and I don't want to handload my own.  Too many Irons in the fire, in building other guns and
    other misc projects.   :-)

    But, thanks for the reply!
    Bigcat[/list:u]
Les Connally

Offline 257AI

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2003, 02:00:00 PM »
What I think Double D was talking about is that the twist rates for the .244 and the 6mm are different.  The .244 used a twist that in most rifles will not stablize 100 gr bullets.  If the barrel you rechamber has the slow twist rate it will not shoot 100 gr 243 ammo accurately. So you will be limited to 87 gr bullets max.  They still make the 244 ammo with a 90 gr bullets that is suitable for deer I think.  The thread specifications on the Jap are a very odd size and it is hard to find someone who has the proper equipment to thread a barrel for the Jap.  

257AI
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Offline Bigcat

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2003, 01:21:19 PM »
257AI,

It so happens that the rate of twist in the .244 rem and the 6 mm rem is exactly the same.   I confirmed this with Remington Arms. It is 1 in 9 & 1/8" This is rather fast as the general rate of twist normally is.   They just changed the name as .244 is the equivalent to 6 mm.  This should not be a problem with 100 grain loads.

Thanks for the concern,
Bigcat
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Offline oso45-70

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custom rifles
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2003, 05:13:09 PM »
big cat
there seems to be a difference in openions here. the 243 came out about
two years before the244 rem and the 244 had a 1 in 12 twist
and would not shoot the 100gr or the 105 gr. so in 1963 rem. brought it out
with a 1in 9 twist. if you talked to a younger hand at rem. he may not have been aware of the history that far back. back in the early 60s i had
both the 243win and the 244rem,, i never had a problem with either gun
but i was loading for both guns and i just adjusted my loads for the best results. hope this helps. oh by the way one of my pet guns today is a
6mm rem. take care and be safe.  joe
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Offline Inspector

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2004, 02:29:32 PM »
Joe is correct on the twist rate of the older Remingtons. The .244 was actually first chambered in the 722 Remington Bolt with a 1/12 twist.
They usually wouldn't stabilize the 100 grain Spitzer Bullet but some worked ok with 100 grain Roundnose. Remington just loaded them with 90 Grainers and called it a day. Later in the 700 Series the twist was 1/9 ". BTW the Jap could be rechambered for 6.5/284 and then you would have a real Deer killer. :)

Offline Fla Brian

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2004, 08:28:14 PM »
Quote from: Inspector
Joe is correct on the twist rate of the older Remingtons. The .244 was actually first chambered in the 722 Remington Bolt with a 1/12 twist.
They usually wouldn't stabilize the 100 grain Spitzer Bullet but some worked ok with 100 grain Roundnose. Remington just loaded them with 90 Grainers and called it a day. Later in the 700 Series the twist was 1/9 ". BTW the Jap could be rechambered for 6.5/284 and then you would have a real Deer killer. :)


The trouble with that is that he would then have to form cases and handload, something he said he didn't want to do. It would be better, if he were going to rechamber, to go with the 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser cartridge which is also a great deer killer and is now offered by US companies for far less than Norma prices.

Oh, and dittos on the twist issue. The fella at Remington was probably thinking of the fact that all Remington barrels in 6mm have the faster twist, and the 6mm Remington and .244 Remington are the same cartridge. I doubt he was thinking of the older model rifles.

When Remington came out with the .244, they thought of it as a heavy varmint cartridge for bucking winds that are too much for .22 caliber centerfires.
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Offline kevin.303

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2004, 07:19:56 AM »
i was looking at 6.5 arisaka at a local gunshop a while ago and they only wanted $40. thats because ammo is impossiable to find. anyway, some one told me about some sort of wild cat using the .257 roberts case. any one else know about this?
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Offline 257AI

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2004, 07:33:48 AM »
The 6.5/Roberts under its many names was a fairly common wildcat in the 50's and 60's.  Most of the die makers still list dies for it.  Was made by running a 257 Roberts reamer with a 6.5 pilot into the Jap chamber. You ended up with a cartridge about the same power as the 6.5 swede.  If I was doing it today I would probably just have it rechambered to the 6.5 Swede or the 260 remington then you could use factory ammo. I think either of those reamers will clear out the original jap chamber and I don't think either will require any changes to the bolt head.
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Offline kevin.303

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2004, 07:40:10 AM »
260,huh? well that gives me some food for thought . maybe i'll buy it after all.
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Offline Buckeye

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2004, 03:50:13 PM »
Is your Arasaka a 7.7 or a 6.5 ? if it is a 6.5 have it rechambered for a 260 or a 6.5 X55,If it is a 7.7 ,check on cost of re-chambering for a 7.62X54 or a 303 British, both of these cartridges use the same .311 /.312 caliber bullet the 7.7 uses or take up handloading. The ole rifle is one of the strongest actions ever made(if not the strongest),you can re-barrel it with a Magnum cartridge. Its a great rifle.

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Offline Fla Brian

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2004, 07:22:13 AM »
The model 38s are chambered for the 6.5mm cartridge.
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Offline talon

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #13 on: February 04, 2005, 05:10:02 AM »
Just ran across this thread, which is about a year old. I have one of these battle rifles that was rechambered to handle a .243 case necked to 6.5mm. This was done in the early '50s and was called a ".264 Express" as memory serves. A very simple conversion for the cartridges... just a simple neck reduction and trimming. Today, it could be called a .260 Rem as the cartridges look so much alike. As someone said, the rifle's action is one of the strongest ever made, though funky in appearance. 8)

Offline longgun

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6.5 jap brass
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2005, 10:19:00 AM »
if you reload, Graf & son in mexico, mo has had a lol of 6.5 jap brass made by someone and is available at a reasonable price.  I bought 150 rounds from  a guy on e-bay.  So you no longer have to buy your ammo from Norma at an outragous price.  don
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Offline riddleofsteel

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2005, 04:20:50 PM »
I have a small supply of Norma 7.7 brass if the rifle is 7.7 and you want to reload. We had a 7.7 Jap rifle when I was in high school and my uncle taught me to reload for it. We killed a pile of deer with that old rifle until it was damaged in a house fire.
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Offline RonF

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #16 on: February 14, 2005, 07:41:18 AM »
I just got a sale flyer from Graf's on Friday, I think, and they have 6.5 Jap ammo on sale - it's their stuff, not the Norma.

RonF

Offline RonF

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« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2005, 06:46:56 AM »
A correction to my post above:  They have both their own headstamp and Norma on sale.  The Norma is closeout at $11.99 which is really good!  The Graf ammo is $19.99.

RonF

Offline ron haralson

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Arisaka
« Reply #18 on: February 28, 2005, 04:09:09 AM »
I have an arisaka mod.38 rebarreled to .257 roberts, a long barreled target rifle. It's been entirely satisfactory for the thirty years I've used it, and I'd have to be a lot better shot to need a better rifle.

I also have a mod. 96 Mauser 6.5 x55 that I use for hunting. It has been everything one could wish for as a deer rifle, and Scandinavia has found it adequate for moose for over 100 years.

If it were me, and I didn't already have a barrel that I wanted to use, I'd be happier with either of those two than a 6mm.

I'd be reluctant about the 260 Rem. because it just equals the 6.5x55 and needs A LOT more breech pressure to do it. That doesn't do anything for barrel life, although I'm sure the action will take it as well as most.

Offline Donaldo

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Arisaka Modification
« Reply #19 on: March 04, 2005, 06:29:26 AM »
Years ago, before I became an x-purt,  :) .  I came across a 6.5 Jap.  Didn't know squat, but had a friend that had a home made reamer for 6.5x257AI.  He was a machinist and did the rechamber job and made me a sizing die from a 7/8 inch allen bolt.  I cut the barrel off with a hack saw and filed it more or less flat.  The barrel had seen better days but that darn thing shot pretty good.  I couldn't find any 257 brass, probably couldn't have afforded it anyway, so I made my own out of 30-06 surplus brass.  I still have that old rifle, haven't shot it in about 35-40 years.  It was my first center fire rifle.  Kind of fond of it.  Clunky sort of action but I have no doubt that it is strong.  Lots of new rounds now that you could rechamber to.  If your barrel is in good shape that would probably be the least expensive way to go.  It would be kind of hard to beat the 6.5x55.
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