I have an Arisaka 38 that was sporterized to 7X57 in the 1950s. The stock and action are really nice but the barrel is pitted and very dark. I want to rebarrel it to a small ring mauser sized cartridge. I don't really want to drop alot of money in this project. At the same time, the stock and action are too nice to junk. Is there a factory barrel that is suitable to the Arisaka 38 action? I'm thinking along the lines of the turkish mausers and Remington barrel projects. Other suggestions are welcome.

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From my cold, dead hands!
Thanks Chuck!

Otto, the 38 shank has a diameter of 1.020" so a small ring mauser shank won't work. Also the threads according to De Haas are 14tpi. There are no "take-offs" that I know of with this shank dimension. You might be able to use a Remington (1.0625" shank diameter) take-off, turned down and rethreaded but it would be cutting it close. The recessed breech would have to be opened up and deepened as well and an extractor cut made. You might save a little on the barrel but you won't on installation. George

OTTO these guns are rather expensive to rebarrel due to the complex breech configuration. Not worth putting that kind of money into IMHO.

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Doug Humbarger
NRA Life member

What, pray tell, is a "small-ring Mauser size cartridge"?? To the best of my knowledge, small-ring Mausers were made for the same series of Mauser case-head sized rounds as were large ring Mausers. If your rifle has already been "sporterized", ie., has had the bolt handle altered for use with a scope, and has had a trigger with a good safety fitted already, then I'd look for a 6.5 Arisaka barrel in good condition, and have it chambered for the 57mm case to make it into a 6.5X57mm. Another alternative would be to have the barrel rebored to .30", and make a "7.62X57mm" wildcat out of it, or rebore it to 8X57 Mauser (.323"). With any of these alternatives, you wouldn't have the problem of trying to fit another barrel to this action. Since these are such good actions, it would be a shame to just junk it.

Well let's see....What cartridges were the small ring mausers chambered for? HMMMMM.....let me think on that for a while. FDA!!!

"Another alternative would be to have the barrel rebored to .30"........

My solution would be to turn it in for tickets or cash at a gun buyback. Sometimes you need to know when to throw in the towel. This is that time. This old warhorse has absolutely nothing going for it and is not worth spending any money on. Re-boring is not viable. It is almost never done anymore due to the high costs. Maybe if you had a fancy barrel with built in ribs and such, and a high quality rifle. But, never on a run of the mill sporter, let alone this old dog. Get rid of it and spend the money on a Turk '98 if you want to do some amatuer gunsmithing.

Only exception........, is the MUM ground off. IF not it might be worth while picking up a nice rifle with a ground MUM and swapping receivers. But then only if the receiver is not reblued. Check with someone who collects Jap stuff. Is a mismatched Jap worth more than one with the MUM ground??? I have no idea,

I had a 1911 Schmidt Rubin, barrrel was ruined, it was heavily sporterized, it was just used up. I got $50 for it at a police buyback. Why not swindle some of your tax dollars back from those fools?

[This message has been edited by scot (edited 04-30-2002).]