Made in Japan! : or : Buy one get the 2nd one cheaper!

My good friend who purchased the 6.5 Carcano I mentioned earlier on this site has also been longing for a Japanese rifle as well after seeing his grandfathers WW2 war bring back in his relatives small gun collection. I kept half an eye out for a rifle that would suit him and me being a rather patient person I happened upon a listing of a small Japanese rifle collection that was being sold. I called and inquired about the different models and such but the seller didn't even know all that much about them other than one was "big jap" and the other two rifles were "little jap". The prices given to me on the phone seemed reasonable so I told my friend to get out of bed and that we were gonna go look at some guns today!

I looked the 3 Japanese rifles over as well as the other WWII circa rifles that the gentleman had up for grabs but I was focused on the 7.7 jap type 99 rifle for my friend. We agreed on a price for it and then I looked the little type 38 6.5 carbine over..."I have no use for it, and I don't need another groundhog gun" But I put down a offer thinking he would pass on it but he took. We walked out of there paying $140 for the two rifles and me thinking...."I really shouldn't have done that"

I don't know what possessed me to randomly purchase a rifle of such vintage and origin but I did. And like most people who do random things they try to rationalize their decision "it will make a great groundhog gun" I told several people who asked why I had purchased it. Then upon reading "Bolt Action Rifles" by De Haas I came to the conclusion it was a perfect plains game rifle round and barrel length. And that it is indeed one of the strongest rifle actions ever made! Bullets I have as they will be cast from the mold we got for the 6.5 Carcano project. Brass will be made with anything with a base diameter that is appropriate for the 6.5 jap and is long enough. pretty much anything that uses the 30/06 as a parent case will work. .270 winchester being the top pick from what I can tell. Run it in steps through the sizer die and turn off the remaining belt in the lathe at home. I have a goodly amount of range pick up brass to make both 7.7 jap and 6.5 jap brass from though I should think no more than my friend shoots that 50 pcs should be sufficient for him and I think 50pcs should do for me as well.



Above you can see a 6.5 Cast bullet and a 6.5 that is lubed loaded into a modified 22-250 case that has been run through a 6.5 carcano sizer die to form a belt that has been roughly hand filed off. The Carcano head diam is only .001" larger than that of the 6.5 Japanese. Next to the dummy round is a 6.5 Japanese round by Norma then a 7.7 Japanese round. 30/06 brings up the end to show case size comparison and conversion feasibility.