Ya see I've got these old guns. One is a sporterized arisaka 99 with a dark and pitted bore. The action is in good shape (says my gunsmith). I also have a bright and shiny .303 british barrel from a patern 14 enfield sporter. I am considering having that .311 barrel cut and rethreaded to fit that jap action then rechambered. The caliber is the question at hand. I kinda like the 57mm case and the 06 case better. With those 2 pieces, what would you do?

Assuming you have enough barrel to allow you to cut the shank off rethread and chamber. I guess it would work.
As to the thought of paying a smith to do this work getting a custom reamer and dies. I can only think of one thing to say. Why?

There is only one answer I can think of to that, Why not?

To each his own. But, the work, dies, reamer etc will be the largest $$$. If I was going to spend it I would look to a new barrel instead of military take off. But that is me.

If it floats your boat go for it can see off hand why it wouldn't work.

It could work rather well, depending on a couple of items.

1. Will your magazine box be long enough for reliable retention and feeding of the cases and bullets you wish to use?

2. What sort of equipment does your 'smith already have?

If your gunsmith already has a 7x57 reamer, AND a set of separate neck & throating reamers in the standard diameters for .30 and .311 military cartridges, then you will need no custom reamer. He can simply run in the 7x57 reamer to properly headspace the cartridge, then use his neck & throat reamers to fit the chamber to the case-neck diameter and the bullets you want to use. Likewise, if he is experienced at lathe-boring chambers with boring bars, it can work. He could also use the 7x57 reamer and bore the right neck diameter without much trouble if he knows how.

The problem will likely be that your gunsmith does not have that sort of tooling lying about. These days there is not nearly the volume of rechambering of military barrels done as was common right after WW-II. So, lots of smaller gunshops which do barrel fitting are only really equipped to handle fitting new barrels, using reamers specific to common cartridges now popular.

So, I'd opine that if you could do the work yourself, it would be quite practical. If you have a local shop that has been around a number of years and has the proper tooling, it is still practical.

But, if you have to buy a custom chambering reamer and a custom die reamer, then I'd consider it far better to just go with a new barrel in a standard chambering for a cartridge that will fit your magazine.

Midway does sell the inexpensive Adams and Bennett barrels unthreaded and unchambered for very inexpensive prices, so that might be a route to look into instead.

quote:

Originally posted by bigguns45:
There is only one answer I can think of to that, Why not?

Well, if you have a lot of dough laying around that you don't have any real use for, indeed, why not poop it off making a Rube Goldberg out of the remains of an old Jap and Enfield. After all, it's only money! But I can think of a lot nicer rifles to waste that kind of money on!

BTW, the 7.7mm Arisaka round is already sort of a .311X58mm IMPROVED!

All good points. Thanks for the input. So, what does a guy do with an old jap action? I really hate to throw a lot of cash at it. I don't want to just toss it. It is a good strong action worthy of a new barrel job.

quote:

Originally posted by bigguns45:
All good points. Thanks for the input. So, what does a guy do with an old jap action? I really hate to throw a lot of cash at it. I don't want to just toss it. It is a good strong action worthy of a new barrel job.

Even though it is dark and worn, how does it shoot? A lot of the military beat up barrels that I have and have had are capable of 2 inch groups at 100 yards. Some not. roger

Well, it doesn't shoot at all anymore, or for the time being. I just pulled the barrel off this morning. It was a bear but I did get it. I'm thinking a 7x57 may be in order.

Roy Dunlap used to build highpower match rifles chambered for his 30 Dunlap(what else would he call it). This was a 7X57 case necked to 30cal. Didn't last to long with the advent of the 308Win.

I'll second the 7.7 Jap. COTW calls it "the rimless .303" and the .303 Brit has a fine reputation for killing just about everything. I have two and love them.

Stick with your original idea of using the .312" barrel. There are no flies on that caliber - bullets are just harder to find...

quote:

Originally posted by bigguns45:
Ya see I've got these old guns. One is a sporterized arisaka 99 with a dark and pitted bore. The action is in good shape (says my gunsmith). I also have a bright and shiny .303 british barrel from a patern 14 enfield sporter. I am considering having that .311 barrel cut and rethreaded to fit that jap action then rechambered. The caliber is the question at hand. I kinda like the 57mm case and the 06 case better. With those 2 pieces, what would you do?

7.7 Japanese type 99 has a case of 2.270, the 8x57 2.240. Go for it. Speed is not the only deciding factor for a wildcat, go for unusual. Personally I would go for the 376 Steyr necked down to the 8mm and improved. Another AR member has it, looks good!