Jump to content
Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Robert357

Members
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Interests
    A professional engineer, an NRA member, member of a gun range, member of the Washington Arms Collectors Association. <br /><br />I enjoy shooting a few WWII bolt action mil-surp rifles (MN 1891/30 & Arisaka Type 99. I have a collection of Pre-WW-I 32 ACP semi-auto pistols. I also enjoy reloading for the firearms I have. For some rifles, I really like reduced load cast bullet shooting.

Robert357's Achievements

0

Reputation

  1. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/01/sports/outdoors-making-the-going-easier-in-the-mud.html
  2. I think that anyone that has a CCL should be carrying as often as they are legally allowed to while there are ISIS threats. Reminded of the police officers at the event in Texas who quickly stopped a terrorist event and the campus security officer who stopped a car/knife terrorist attack. It is a shame that if I go to the post office, I am required to lock my pistol in the locked metal gun box that is steel cabled to my truck's seat frame. Similarly, there are state laws where I live the prohibit me from carrying at some other places (mostly schools). Also some shopping malls prohibit CCL in their malls. While my CCL is not a commitment to protect anyone other than myself and those I care about, it does provide society with another line of defense. If I am staring into the windshield of a truck terrorist, I probably would not hesitate to put a few rounds into where the driver was as I got out of the way and got others out of the path. Not sure most concealed carry pistols would be able to stop a determined terrorist truck attack like in Berlin, but potentially you might give the police a blood trail to follow as they looked for the driver.
  3. I guess I have three comments. (1) Let's leave the election behind us. Too much negative emotions and misinformation was tossed around, It is time to move forward. (2) Maybe in the economic/political mess that is Central American and the Middle East with their collapsing economies, hyper-inflation and civil wars, some of the governments may wish to sell some of their really old firearms on the world market. With a new US President, who hopefully has a little better opinion of firearms owners and collectors, perhaps some of the restrictions on importing of such firearms can be lifted. It would be nice to get a chance to pick up some really old Venezuelan Mauser rifles, or some Afghan British .303 rifles, etc. (3) Hopefully, with a new President, the Civilian Marksmanship Program and sale of surplus US military arms to qualified gun clubs/programs and members can be opened up once again..There were rumors a while back about M1 carbines that might be available.or maybe even some armory mis-matched M1911A1's. Merry Christmas
  4. Let me give you a totally different prespective. I don't have personal experience on a 30-06 conversion. However, I have two (2) type 99 in 7.7 that I reload for. I have used both 30-06 & 8mm Mauser brass to build Ammo for my Arisakas, but prefer to use Graff 7.7mm Jap brass. I have also used .312, .311, .310, and .308 bullets for my 7.7mm rifles. Not only do I have the full 7.7mm Jap reloading dies, I also have an ancient Lee Classic Reloader in 7.7 Jap. The Lee Classic basically does not resize the brass, except for the neck and so the brass is worked less. The problem with the Lee Classic reloader is that I need to keep spent brass from one rifle identified with the rifle and not neck size it and shoot it in the other type 99 rifle. My experience is that most milsurp firearms have generous cut chambers to allow for some dirt and yet allow the weapon to fire. I have not had problems with spend brass that are fully resized (sometimes to SAMI specifications) bursting. I doubt that 0.005 inch would be a problem on a single use factory brass at standard pressures. Given the above, let me make a few comments based on personal experience with many rounds of ammo. First, the accuracy difference at 100 yards in my 2 rifles between .308 bullets and other bullets of .310 to .311 is trivial. My rifles use iron sights, but I get 2-3 MOA accuracy at 100 yards on a regular basis. If I am on my game I can get 1 to 2 MOA with a single sized bullet. That is good enough for most hunting. I have shot my rifles at 200 yard targets and it gets real hard for me to see the bullseye on a standard NRA target at that distance (so I use a really powerful spotting scope to see how I do between trips to the target) and colored stick on bullseyes. I have not had a case head separation issue on any of the brass that I have reloaded, although by doing a lot of neck resizing, it reduces the "working" of the brass that is a major reason for case head separation. Still not all my brass is just neck resized. Finally most type 99's are very strong actions. There are exceptions with some of the last ditch rifles, but they are the exception. A very famous gun writer and enthusiast did some destructive testing of military surplus firearms from WW2 and found that he could not destroy the Arisaka action, he could load enough powder in a 7.7 mm cartridge to blow the barrel off the action, but not to destroy the action. Obviously something one would not want to replicate, but comforting to know that 30-06 commercially loaded ammo should not be a problem with the action strength. As a craftsman, you have the right to only do work you would be proud of and if you feel that a 30-06 conversion without rebarreling is something you would not be proud of that is your choice. However, I think that the objection of the different bullet diameter is not as great (based on my experience in my two rifles--and similar experience in a Russian MN 1891/30 in 7.62mm or .310 inch) as others have posted. I also feel that for a client that reloaded, this really wouldn't be an issue, if they knew what they were doing. Similarly for a client that didn't reload, and used new factory ammo each time, there would probably not be a problem either. Again, my perspective is different and based on experience with my milsurp rifles and my experience shooting them. Personally, I like the history of the type 99's and one can buy commercial Graff/Hornady 7mm Jap ammo every now and then at prices that are not unreasonable. As such, I think that directly the cient to a mail order supplier of ammo might have been the best course of action, unless they really wanted the conversion and were a knowledgeable shooter.
  5. All, I can say is that I am jealous of RGRWJB. Two MN's at the Monroe WAC show and another milsurp rifle at the most recent Puyallup WAC show! He must have a much bigger gun safe than I do. Both of mine are pretty much full and so I have to ration myself on purchasing mil-surp & other firearms. My wife has said that two gun safes are enough whenever I broach the subject of getting another one. Hopefully my two adult sons (one is still in college and the other just recently graduated) will soon get houses of their own and I can then give them each a gun safe with some of the firearms I don't really want and replace my safes with two bigger ones. Now that would really allow for some fun in going to those WAC shows!
  6. Dear Horsefly, I think that you are not looking at the odds quite right on headspacing. First the 7.62 Russian Rimmed cartridge is "rimmed." That means that it "headspaces" on the rim as opposed to the shoulder or a magnum belt at the base of the case. It is also a military rifle. That means that the chamber has been cut very generous so that when the peasant soldier crams some muddy ammo into the bolt action that thing will still shoot. One of the problems I face when I reload for military rifles is extreme working of the brass when I do full length resizing. I don't think that you will have much if any problem with a different bolt headspacing. In fact I have read stories (don't know how true) that after a battle Russian soldiers would take out their bolts and drop them in a barrel of gasoline and oil for cleaning and then fish out any old bolt and plop that in their rifle. Again, the key to the MN is that it headspaces on the rim. Remember these are battle rifles and not precsions swiss watches. If you are nervious about headspacing, you can do the scotch tape trick. It is on the web somewhere. place a cartridge in you bolted reciever, if it closes you know that your bolt isn't too long. Take the cartridge out (preferably one that has been fired & resized or has no primer) and place layers of scotch tape cut in little patches over the rear of the case so that it extends the distance between the face of the bolt and the leading edge of the rim (it works with shoulder headspacing as well) and try to close the bolt. At the point that you have difficulty closing the bolt, stop and pull the tape off and measure the thickness with a caliper. Headspacing on a case shoulder is a whole different matter as you don't want the rear end of your cartridge unsupported and splitting during firing. Many rifles don't vent hot gas in the right places from the perspective of the shooter.
  7. Well, Clark, I got to the WAC show about 10:30 AM. I was looking for a Fin MN or maybe an Ariska 6.5 mm. I ended up with an Ariska 7.7 mm sporterized war trophy for $150, including a box of unfired Norma Ammo and a set of neck dies for it. I found it on about the fifth table I went to and that meant if was carrying around so much stuff, I really didn't want to buy another rifle. You can see my post in the japanese rifle section. I am sorry that the money stayed in your pocket as opposed to helping the local firearms economy. After all, every time I buy a new rifle, I need brass, bullets, and various reloading supplies. Heck, now I am contemplating enhancing the stock on my new used Arisaka. To pillar block or not to pillar block while glass bedding, that is the question.
  8. Well I have been thinking about getting a 6.5 mm Arisaka and went to the WAC Puyallup gunshow today. Not more than about 5 tables into the show than this really nice gentleman (even older than I am) has an Arisaka on his table. I ask to look at it and it is a combination of something that looks nice and not nice all at the same time. The bolt has been turned and welded, but done nicely. The stock by the bolt handle was filed but no finish was put on the cut part. The barrel was shortened with a nice crowning job and the stock is custom, but probably home made. The barrel is free floated, but the screws holding the action to the stock were very loose. The barrel need to be cleaned, but even with the dust you could see that the bore looked good. It had a williams type peep site (but unknown brand). Front sight was a nice gold bead affair. The Mum had not been ground off, which suprised me. The bolt number didn't match the action. There was no sling nor sling swivels. It had a really nice shock absorbing recoil pad. He wanted $165. I really would have preferred the 6.5 mm, but he tossed in a box of unfired factory loaded Norma ammo and a lee loader die set (I already had both 6.5 & 7.7 Lee press die sets). Then he told me he would give me the whole thing for $150. I bought it. After I got home I cleaned it. Checked it over closely. Then tightened up all the main screws holding things together. Then off to the range. First shot at 100 yards was far upper left of the target. Tried two more also high and left. Adjusted the peep site and brought the point of impact right to the horizontal mid line, but still noticably to the left. Adjusted the windage, then again, then again. Now it was printing right toward the center of the black. Last two shots were just below the X dead center but an inch low and about 1/4 inch left of center just about the X-ring. I figured that I would stop messing with the sights. Only the first three rounds were outside of the black at 100 yards. OK, I'm happy. Deprimed all 10 rounds I shot during the sighting in. I still have 10 factory rounds I can use as comparisons. I'll cook up some handloads using H-4895 and Rem CoreLokt .312 cal bullets I use for my MN 1895/30. This is going to be fun. Now I need to work up some serious loads for this thing to see if I can improve the accuracy. I also have a glass bedding kit I bought for my MN but haven't used yet. I'm kind of thinking that I could probably do two at once. Hm.... I may have some interesting fall projects with this. Any suggestions.
×
×
  • Create New...