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  • Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Going to build an old school Jap sporter from some dead parts. Messed around today and began to re-position the bolt knob to clear a scope and will be grafting this p14 trigger bow onto the 7.7 bottom metal for a better appearance.

    Stock I did years ago and want to put it to use. Problem is I need some parts, bolt internals with safety knob and a rear sight ladder with the screw for the leaf spring. If anyone has anything laying around let me know.

    Might even see if a m1903 front sight band and ladder will work. I think it will allow for a nice look if I can figure out how to get some windage out of it by threading the leaf pin and making a knob with some detents if I really get enthusiastic.
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    K-43

    West of Morning Side
    Oct 20, 2010
    1,874
    PG
    Nice bolt work!
    All I have is a triggergaurd/magazine, which you apparently don't need.
    What cartridge are you thinking of?
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    IMG_0593.JPG Im going in 7.7 because I have some brass left. I just tried a DWM front sight band but I need to make a sleeve because of the ID. I can make a paper thin sleeve and then use the set screw under the FS blade to get TDC after the band and sleeve are soldered to the barrel. The only bolt internals I have available are for a type 38.
    Never seems to fail when you need something you cant find it! or you have the wrong thing.
    Instead of ruining a good piece of Win. bottom metal, I think I can mill out a section of the rear guard at the rear, push it together and weld, then heat the tg bow up red hot and push it forward to make it an oval.
    Then taper it from front to back to get a nice shape after its all ground out and polished.

    The root of the bolt handle has been built up in its width, to remove some slack at the sear engagement surfaces which improves trigger pull and the slap twang associated in the 99's generous tolerances. Ill use the factory two stage trigger after thinning it out some and leave it polished bright with a checkered face. Probably beef the ejector box up with a stiff coil spring along the way too.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    You know, I heard the Japs were good at copying things but this was too easy.
    The leaf pin was the same diameter and there was minimal fitting to the bottom of the leaf base.
    You must measure carefully to keep the sight centered and stone off the stop on the face of the bottom of the leaf to allow it to become vertical.

    Also remove a few thousandths of the bottom of the leaf where it bears against the spring while at the same time slightly reducing tension on the original spring.
    The underside of the flat leaf is already radiused so don't go to thin before you have a chance to look at it. Sight leaf is rock hard all the way through so have a nice selection of hand powered stones and a foredom tool with a cutting or grinding disk to remove the bulk of the material from the sight base then stone up to the lines you made prior to fitting.
    Reduce the width of the sight spring towards the muzzle so the site when folded, it straddles the vertical portion of the spring. Use a cramp to assemble your pin and leaf.
    I'm going with a m48 FS base/band so a hood can be added once that's all done. Trigger bow next.

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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    IMG_0607.JPG Well... reforming didn't go so well. I started like this did some shaping and ended up with what looked like a A3 or at one point a garand stamped trigger guard bow after i pushed it forward and tried to re-forge.
    Going P14 bow to remedy the error after fitting the sectioned part and making a welding jig with some clamps. Might get to it today after chores or a range trip.
     

    K-43

    West of Morning Side
    Oct 20, 2010
    1,874
    PG
    How's the trigger guard coming along? You must have a TIG welder, no?
    Saw your pics on Milsurp? too. I'll just follow here.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I haven't been working on it outside of polishing the major components but will start back into it. Thought I did the right thing welding but added to much to the rear of the bolt root trying to over correct and tighten the rear of the bolt up in the race way too much but that's ironed out.
    I did manage to make a rudimentary jig to hold a p14 trigger bow to the sectioned Jap bottom metal but have been slacking. It looks like Edward Scissor hands motionless on the work bench. Major components minus bottom metal are all polished out and ready to be blued and engine turned on the bolt body. Bolt raceways moderately smoothed up but no overkill.
    I should have taken some pictures of the twisted up trigger bow that turned into abstract art, I"ll never try that again. The inside curve of the TG was manufactured with a radius to the inside. Makes it unpredictable when you try to re-form it under heat.
    Might even sand blast the front ring just on the top about 3/4 wide to hide where the mum's been scarfed, it's gouged to deep to stone out but I might just leave it alone, not sure yet.

    Once all the polishing was done to the barreled action I was surprised to see very small inspection stamps all over the assembly. They can be found inside the receiver, along the barrel and reinforce and underside of the receiver but are very subtle and hard to discern having no knowledge of the language. They were put into place with very fine tools which I think is interesting.
    Tojo's probably rolling in his grave right now. Still have to do the trigger by thinning it out some.
     

    K-43

    West of Morning Side
    Oct 20, 2010
    1,874
    PG
    Tojo should have put the rifle in a museum before someone made buggered parts out of it. No point in crying over spilled milk. Make something nice. Be trendy and say you "repurposed" those parts!
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Little at a time. Tg welded up and needing some more grinding and polishing along with the rest of it.
    Once that's done I'll work the trigger by thinning and shortening it. Polish an tune the extractor so it snaps over the rim of a chambered cartridge, damascene the bolt some then adjust the bedding with some acra -glas and a rear pillar made from steel tube.
    After that Ill boil it all out in lye and express blue it to finish it off.

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    HogCommander

    Active Member
    Aug 10, 2013
    411
    Texas Hill Country
    Cool project and nice work! I brought a Type 38 back to to life that was basically a barreled action from a WWII bring-back. Acquired all the missing parts and assembled. Accuracy is decent but turned out to have a chamber issue...the brass bulges near the base, so much that I wouldn't try resizing the cases and reloading.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Cool project and nice work! I brought a Type 38 back to to life that was basically a barreled action from a WWII bring-back. Acquired all the missing parts and assembled. Accuracy is decent but turned out to have a chamber issue...the brass bulges near the base, so much that I wouldn't try resizing the cases and reloading.

    I have seen 7.7s that have bulged brass especially after someone ran a 06 chamber reamer into them without setting the chamber back one thread.
    6.5's I understand have a more prevalent problem with case bulge due to having generous chamber mouths for a combat rifle where brass is immediately discarded.
    I did not cerro safe the chamber on this rifle but carefully checked the fit of new unfired brass cases and made sure to start with a barreled action that was unaltered and carefully visually inspected for irregularities.
     

    K-43

    West of Morning Side
    Oct 20, 2010
    1,874
    PG
    In the '60s my uncle ran a 6.5 x 55 reamer into a 6.5 Jap pawnshop "sporter" he picked up for my cousins to hunt with. I think it was more the problem getting 6.5 Jap ammo than bulging cases though. He already had a sweet little Swedish carbine he hunted with, so was able to stock just one hard to get cartridge.

    That's a pretty nice piece of straight grain walnut you have there. Who made it? Old Fajen or Bishop or newer Richards or Boyds?
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I think its a Fajen because of the grip cap and butt-plate. Im only saying that because I seem to recall like or same parts on a Fajen stock. They both probably bought parts from the same suppliers though for certain. I have seen Bishop stocks named on the butt-plate and lot of grip caps were the popular sunburst or petal pattern.
    I had that stock laying around for at least 20 or more years. It has a rubber Win-A-Mer plate on it with straight slots brass screws. I have some real early Uncle Mikes flush mounted 1 1/4 push button swivels for it that may go okay if the toe line is wide enough.
    Fully assembled its a tad heavy in the rear with the heel of the hand against the magazine door but real close to balance with the thumb and forefinger right behind the body ring. I cant find any of my loaded ammo because I used it for another rifle or gave some away. Im going to have to load some so I can shoot the damn thing.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Cooked up kitchen table metal finish and some engine turning. Hard as a rock Arisaka action wouldn't take much of the express blue/brown without a couple dips in boiling water. Barrel steel is soft, soaks it right up.
    Polish your parts and then degrease by washing parts in soap and water, then boil in washing soda then clear boiling water again. Apply solution by boiling in clean distilled water and swab on with forceps and cotton ball or a clothespin on evaporation.
    Once it oxidizes reintroduce to the boil, then solution again once water evaporates. Then card, oil then degrease and one more wash in baking soda to neutralize the solution. seal it up with BLO, STP or good old motor oil when neutralized. IMG_0628.JPG

    IMG_0632.JPG

    Use PVC pipe for your tanks and be careful with the boiling water and for getting the chemicals around exposed skin or eyes.
    Oil/grease the bore and plug with wooded dowels then wipe it out real good with heavy oil after a cool down period.
    The better you polish, the better it looks when its buffed out.
    Engine turning formula is 120 lapping grit mixed with cutting fluid and the smallest wire brush you can find. Heat shrink tube and O-rings will keep the brush tight. The right way to do it is with an indexed jig and an even smaller brush or Cratex rod.
    One other thing is to make sure when you solder, get the excess off completely. When I sweated the sleeve on for the ramp I should have followed up on the solder line more completely. Use cold blue to find out where you missed. (It wont stick) that's a good way to find pins that have been ground flush or screws that have been ground off in receivers that will lock barrel threads up too.
     

    K-43

    West of Morning Side
    Oct 20, 2010
    1,874
    PG
    Nice write up and work.
    For Solder lines, Brownells sells a solder black solution to get at that last little faint line if you have one. They also sell a brass black solution.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    IMG_0647 (2).JPG Not to bad for the first go around. I used 46 gr of h4350 and a .312 Hornady flat based 150 grain bullet.
    I think if I can select another powder to get more case density and start moving the bullet out I can shrink it up some.

    All testing was done from the mobile truck hood using rolled up Carharts at about 130 yds. from behind Mr. Petes chicken houses. So it was a pretty scientific experiment.

    Rifle worked good, no problems with brass or function and it was a fun project to re-purpose some spare parts.

    I have some Garand parts floating around yet that I was looking at. I have a clone receiver and a new CBI barrel I might make into a hackberry sniper with a G&h esque mount over the summer time.
     

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