Six and Seven

The first center fire rifle I ever fired was a military Mauser barreled for the 30-06. The stock was way too long and I weighed maybe 130 pounds. Every time I squeezed the trigger from the bench it repositioned my whole body and I experienced pain. But shooting an old Japanese turn bolt was much more to my liking, even though there isn’t much difference in the muzzle energy between two. The Arisaka 7.7mm with a shorter stock fit me fairly well.

Several years later I lucked onto an Arisaka that someone had chopped the forearm. I paid a whopping $35 for it. I thought the Boss would be upset because we didn’t have the discretionary money that we have now. I was surprised. She said it was “neat looking”. That also surprised me because I thought, and still think, it's a bit ugly.



What I didn't know at the time is that this rifle is a bit unusual because it still has the mum stamped on the receiver.


Seversl years later I ran across another Arisaka with good furniture, but with a defaced mum. Seems the Japanese ground the mum off the surrendered weapons at the end of the war. That means the first with an intact mum was brought back before the end of the war.

I bought the second Arisaka just to get the wood. I wanted the first with intact mum to look original, so I switched the stocks.

I've always been a little surprised at how well these rifles actually shoot, considering how crude they appear. They're basically a Mauser action with a big knob on the rear of the bolt that's the safety. I'd consider fit and finish as being terrible and the trigger just adequate for an old military bolt action.

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At some point during the war the quality was actually worse than the 2 I own. The biggest visual difference is the rear sight. Both of mine have flip up rear sights, while the older examples have a simple block around the barrel.

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I'm not sure if anybody makes ammo for the 7.7mm Jap anymore, and if they do it's bound to be very expensive. The last I bought was about $25 for a box of 20, and that was about 20 years ago. I load my own since. Brass, bullets and dies are still available. It uses the same bullets as the British 303.