The Arisaka is the only military rifle with a decent safety to use with a scope. You may need to do a little polishing to get it smooth, and practice your coordination. I still have 3 I use for hunting, one a T-38 I recut to 6.5x55. If you use longer bullets, you will have feed problems. I opened up the feed ramp and put a new location slot under the receiver ring for the magazine box. I used a 7.7 box and milled the trigger guard assembly out a little so it would fit. I have had Arisakas in .300 Savage and .308 and these guns do not feed well with cartridges that have a .308 style case. As far as strength of the receiver, no problem. It is not so much the design as the material used. I have blown primers with no problems, and most guns will handle that. The real test was under abnormal conditions that would have destroyed most receivers.