Firearm Restoration: Reclaiming an Arisaka from Bubba.

[AFJuvat]

I originally posted this on another forum I am a member of. Reposting it here.

For Christmas 2015, my daughters' boyfriend, knowing I love old military firearms, gave me a Japanese Type 99 Arisaka he had picked up at a gun show.

Nagoya Arsenal (Tokyo), 3rd series (Early) which puts in sometime between August/September 1942. The mum was ground off, indicating that this rifle was surrendered, rather than a battlefield capture.



Unfortunately, "Bubba" had been at the rifle. The stock was cut down and a recoil pad added, the stock was also covered in a thick polyurethane. Sad, as the rest of the stock appears to be made from Katsura wood, was in great shape and had a good color to it.



Perhaps worst of all, the bolt handle had been heated, bent, and the round bolt knob hammered into a diamond shape and then final finished on a grinding wheel.

Applying that much heat can compromise the heat treatment of the bolt body. Between that, and the fact that it is not original, I will be replacing it.



There were other missing/incorrect parts - no dust cover, no anti-aircraft sights, late style barrel band (probably changed to go with the "sporterized" stock, which eliminated the monopod, etc.

On the plus side, as the Arisakas were the first military rifles to have chrome lined barrels, the barrel and action were in great shape. As a bonus, the remainder of the parts that had serial numbers matched the receiver.

It took some scrounging around, but I was able to find all of the correct parts that I needed by picking up a donor rifle that had all of the parts, but had been rechambered in 30-06, which destroyed the barrel.

It had a correct early Japanese Walnut stock. It looks a bit rougher than the original, but it isn't cracked, and "battle scars" do look good on a war rifle.

The stock was cleaned up using alcohol. Arisaka stocks were finished in a varnish made from a plant called "urushi", which is a derivative of the poison oak plant, stripping and sanding can be hazardous to your health.

Exposed wood under the metal was very dry, so I applied a few coats of raw linseed oil..



Many of the metal parts were beaten up/rusting, so into the ultrasonic cleaner they went for a deep clean, followed by a rust blue.



Post Ultrasonic bath + Denatured Alcohol soak.



Oil bath post rust bluing.



Over the odd 74 years, the threads in the receiver and bolts had gotten beaten up. Out come the taps and dies to chase and repair threads.

[AFJuvat]

Anti-aircraft sights added to original sight. The original intent was to have a unit fire "en volley" at low flying aircraft. It sort of worked in China with WWI era aircraft, not so well against fast, high flying aircraft



Located an original numbered dust cover (non matching of course), fit it to the slots in the receiver. The bolt body was replaced with a correct early style bolt.

Bolt Closed



Bolt Opened



Cleaning rod, reproduction muzzle cover (originals were made from Bakelite, relatively few survive today) and non reproduction monopod.
Front barrel band and cleaning rod were rust blued.



Reproduction early sling. The early slings were leather, the later slings were rubberized canvas, which means the few that did survive are prohibitively expensive.



7.7 x 58 mm ammunition is hard to find; and pretty pricey when it is available. New reloadable brass, on the other hand, runs about $0.50 each. Uses the same bullet as the .303 British, which are reasonably priced. Loaded myself 100 of them. The 7.7 x 58 performs about the same as a .303 British, or a 7.92 x 57 Mauser



All together with a Type 30 bayonet with the early hooked quillon I picked up. I can imagine that a platoon of these running at you screaming "Banzai!" would have been intimidating as hell..



Took it to the range, made one test shot and checked for headspace. Once that was verified, shot 8 more shots. Groups pretty well. Recoil is moderate, about the same as a .303 British or a 30-06

[Riverpigusmc]

interesting

[sdmc530]

nice, I have one. Not picking on anyone but would never spend any time or money restoring it. Its a great shooting rifle, but not worth anything unless had a personal connection to it. Just not for me I guess. But they are fun guns to shoot. The bad part is the 7.7 round is spendy.

[AFJuvat]

Originally Posted by sdmc530

nice, I have one. Not picking on anyone but would never spend any time or money restoring it. Its a great shooting rifle, but not worth anything unless had a personal connection to it. Just not for me I guess. But they are fun guns to shoot. The bad part is the 7.7 round is spendy.

Yeah, I like them "as issued". I enjoy doing restoration work like that, finding the parts, cleaning it up, etc.

7.7 is one of those rounds that is much cheaper to reload than buy commercially manufactured.

[RKP]

.. Nice project, and a nice job as well, I'm sure you enjoyed restoring it and that's what really counts.

[Caleb]

Nice work..... it's always nice to see bubba'd surplus rifles brought back to original. Well done.

[sdmc530]

Originally Posted by AFJuvat

Yeah, I like them "as issued". I enjoy doing restoration work like that, finding the parts, cleaning it up, etc.

7.7 is one of those rounds that is much cheaper to reload than buy commercially manufactured.

Oh I get it. I respect the time and effort of doing a job like that. It takes passion!!

I shoot mine once a year, don't load for it cost for set up vs. taking 10 shots with it a year just not worth it. Although I might shoot it more if I loaded for it.

[pitor]

Nicely done, you sure know how to restore guns, woods, metal, etc

[MajO]

Well done.