Birthday Party, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

tahunua001

New member
Hello all,
just had my birthday party a couple days back, decided I would invite all the friends and family out for an "old gun day". since I'm the only one really interested in C&Rs naturally everyone was shooting my ammo from my guns. this gave me a good excuse to put 3 guns on paper that I have yet to do more than clean up and dry fire: 1944/1945(not sure which) MAS36, and Arisaka Type 44 and type 99 rifles that I got in trade last month and had yet to test fire.

THE GOOD:
my pair of 1942 Izhevsk 91/30s helped take a little bit of the financial sting out of it though, really got to see a shining example of the good choice I made in the sporterization of one of them though. the one I left stock was way easier to load, was more accurate, has a nicer trigger and... nobody touched a hot barrel by mistake. the one that I hacked up and have little emotional attachment to was just not nearly as good of a specimen. I never shot the two side by side until then so it was hard to tell which was a better rifle.

in addition despite my dislike for the type 44 sights, multiple shooters, including myself were able to ring an oxygen tank gong at 400 yards with 50% or better accuracy, for open sights and a short rifle to boot that is amazing as far as I'm concerned. the action is smooth though the cock on close action is much easier to manipulate with a bent bolt which the arisaka does not have. aside from that every action from loading to squeezing the trigger was smooth as butter.

THE BAD:
the MAS36. this little rifle was fun, everything about it from the shape of the bolt handle to the style of sights just screams oddball but after getting the years of gunk out of it is smooth as silk in spite of the fact that it is heavily beat up, much of the finish is gone and many parts do not match. BUT... and there is always a 'but', nobody put it on paper at 100 yards. I used Navy issue rifle targets at 100 yards and after firing a 3 shot group spent another 7 trying to hit oxygen tank ringers at 200 and think I only got it once or twice tops(inconsiderate bastards on each side of me shooting like it was Iwo Jima out there) so it was hard to tell which were mine. another shooter spent her whole half a box at the same style target at 100 yards, as there was a lot of shooters and we were on a time crunch I didn't get a chance to shoot it again after checking the targets but I'm thinking if you are completely off the target at 100 then there is a serious issue.

THE UGLY: the type 99. I love this gun, everything that I loved about the type 44 but in a long gun with better sights and bigger bullets. added that this is missing the dust cover which though isn't necessarily a good thing does make the bolt a bit smoother to operate. I was using Grafs/hornady ammo. I was gracious enough to let my best friend shoot the first round though I kindof wanted to just so that if it Kaboomed I would be the one in pain and not him but he insisted...

first shot....CLICK....nothing
jacked that round out, second shot... BOOM... ok must have been a goffy instance....
third shot... CLICK.... fourth shot... CLICK... every single round was having light strikes. feeding them though again gave the same results, out of 5 rounds only 1 fired. looking at the entire box the primers are heavily squashed in there. I am having a serious dilemma what I should do to aleviate the issue but that is a discussion for a different thread for not however... in short.

type 44 is amazing and I'm happy I got it... MAS36 can't hit the broad side of a barn from inside the barn and type 99 doesn't like the only ammo available right now.
 
sounds like a party i wish i was at....would have brought several hundred rounds of 762x54r and a couple of mosins and type 53....ahhhh maybe next time
 
deer slayer...
I must give you extra credit for your Doc Holiday quote. I'm not really a Kilmer fan myself but there really hasn't been a DH that's measured up since.
 
I must give you extra credit for your Doc Holiday quote. I'm not really a Kilmer fan myself but there really hasn't been a DH that's measured up since.

Def. Kilmers BEST role! He nailed it! Heck all of the characters were jam up IMHO. If that movie is on TV I'm watchin it! But back to your post. I'm researching Arisaka's now, cause I don't know squat about them. I've seen them at gun shows in the past. But all the ones I've seen looked like they came from the bottom of the pacific.
 
this one has a little patina on the floor plate, trigger guard and other external parts but anything mechanical is clear. no sign of rust anywhere inside. my main problem is that I can get a new spring but there is no guarantee that the firing pin can move far enough forward to get a good strike on the primers and I can demill the ammo and reseat the primers but that's a lot of work and there is no guarantee that the firing pin will have enough strength to ignite the primers so it's kindof a damned if you do, damned if you don't type deal...
 
Tahunua,

Maybe post a photo of the striker and spring and measure with a set of calipers. And also one of the light strikes.
I'll compare to a couple of my 99s. It might save having to pick up both.

I've been around quite a few 99s and have never seen a 99 with headspace issues before. The extractor should be holding the case enough to get a higher percentage of ignition. I'm leaning toward a weak spring as well.

You could start by swapping springs with the 44 and see if the light strike cartridges fire.

Just a thought, JT
 
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