An excellent adjustable sporting trigger/side safety combination has long been available from Timney, and Arisakas in the later 7.7mm caliber are often seen at gun shows rechambered for the popular. Still, many sporters have been built on the Arisaka action. The safeties are clumsy and poorly designed, and the chambers on most of them were cut a little oversize, the better to function under harsh jungle conditions where mold and mildew attacked the brass cartridge cases and made a correctly sized chamber a tight and difficult fit. The problem is that the Arisaka rifles built to handle the cartridge are long action (and long-barreled!) behemoths that are as heavy as any 98 Mauser of the pre-WW II era.
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And all this with about the same recoil and muzzle blast generated by the 6mm Remington cartridge. 328 for the 160-gr., has made the various standard velocity 6.5's proven game-getters on everything from woodchucks to polar bears. Also, the incredible sectional density of the long bullets. and 2067 fps for the 160-gr., with more than acceptable energy beyond 200 yards. The factory-loaded ammo leaves the barrel at 2255 fps for the 140-gr. In addition to holding its own with most of the standard velocity 6.5's, it is equal or superior to any number of popular deer rounds, and is currently available from several manufacturers in the 139-140 gr.
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The longer Swedish round requires a long Mauser action to function properly, while its Japanese counterpart can work in an action shorter by an inch or more. The comparison between the Japanese and Swedish cartridges is particularly interesting. Our own Chuck Hawks has written that, with the proper handloads, the semi-rimless 6.5x50 can outperform the 6.5x54 Mannlicher and the 6.5x52 Carcano, and perform very nearly on a par with the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser so popular here. 22 WMR is currently legal for deer in the Pine Tree State.
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Large numbers of deer, black bear, antelope and caribou have all fallen to the 6.5 Japanese, and friends in Maine have told me that it was once regarded as a good moose cartridge as well. The 6.5x50 has enough killing power to be effective on most North American game. Light recoil and minimal muzzle blast combine with the long bullet's superb sectional density and penetration to provide a package most shooters find easy to place accurately at practical ranges. Indeed, men who know their rifles have long sung the praises of the 6.5x50. I suspect that it would be surprisingly accurate." "A lightweight short action rifle with an 18-inch barrel would be a beautiful mating for (the 6.5 Japanese) round," Irwin added. A general discussion of the highly versatile yet undeservedly obscure cartridge led to a chat about the rifles designed to fire it, leading the Louisville, KY rifle maker Mike Irwin to muse, "I've often toyed with the idea of having a short action rifle built around the round to see what it can really do.
Japanese arisaka type 38 carbine stock series#
A 6.5x50mm Japanese Arisaka Sporting RifleĮver since reading a series of posts on one of the many Internet rifle discussion boards, I've been fascinated with the possibilities of the 6.5x50mm Japanese Arisaka round, known in this country as the 6.5mm Jap.