Dropped the ball on this one.

dahermit

New member
This A.M. I was listening to one of my favorite Saturday A.M. radio programs. I am a fan of NPR's "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers". However they were discussing the answer to "...last week's puzzler.", which I had missed the week before.
The puzzler was: "Why did the Japanese chamber their rifles for a .31 caliber bullet whereas the Americans used bullets of .30 caliber?"
When they gave the "answer" I could not believe my ears. The answer was that the Japanese, being clever, chambered their rifles for such because in battle with the Americans, if they fell back and abandoned ammunition, the Americans could not use it in their rifles. Also, if they captured American ammunition they could shoot it in their rifles if the need arose, albeit slightly less accurately than their own.
That kind of complete stupidity is most frequently heard in bars from "Johnny Six-pack". I have heard essentially the same thing from an old WWII vet who insisted the was the case with 30-06 and 8MM Mauser ammo...they could shoot ours, but we could not shoot theirs. Out of respect for his WWII service, I did not tell him that what he had said was B.S. He also stated that the twist on the German 8MM Mauser rifles was opposite of ours and it was an adaptation to "compensate for the rotation of the Earth."
In case anyone on these boards do not already know, the 7.7 Arisaka's chamber is too short to accept 30-06 cartridges, as is the 8MM Mauser's.
Legends never die, they are perpetuated by stupidity.
 
Good one,,,
But don't forget that if you shoot someone in the arm with a 45 1911 it will blow the arm clean off.
 
But don't forget that if you shoot someone in the arm with a 45 1911 it will blow the arm clean off.

That is ridiculous...

Honestly. Everyone knows it's the body that gets blown clean off the arm. The arm is usually fine.
 
I heard that one last week and kind of expected that would be the answer.

Even more shocking, there was a poster on this very board, a guy with a long background in the reloading equipment business, who held the same notion.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186695&highlight=japanese

It is in the same category as the 9.2mm Makarov being designed to shoot Western .380 ammo and the 82mm Sov Bloc mortar to use captured 81mm bombs... but us not able to use theirs.
 
Heard the same thing from supposed Vietnam "experts" about SKS and AK47 able to shoot the 7.62x51.

And folks wonder why I don't believe things reported on NPR.
 
There is an actual situation where "we could use theirs but they couldn't use ours" ammo did exist in WWII, but it wasn't anybody's rifles, it was some nations mortars. (I'd have to look it up to see which nations used what, and I'm not going to, do your own research!:rolleyes:)

Nearly everyone's medium mortar was a variant of the original (French IIRC) design. Some nations used them in 82mm caliber, most in 81mm.

81mm will shoot out of an 82mm tube, but the other way doesn't work too well.

I love the guys who swear you can shoot 06 from a 7.7 because .30 is smaller than .31. I just hand them a type 99 Arisaka, and a .30-06 round, and say, ok, make it fit...haven't found one yet that could.

Now, what about those bamboo bullets???
 
So I guess judging by what they said, if I run out of 30-06 I can just use .270 cartridges instead right? It's a smaller caliber so it's gotta work fine!
 
So I guess judging by what they said, if I run out of 30-06 I can just use .270 cartridges instead right? It's a smaller caliber so it's gotta work fine!

Actually--that one works.

My uncle showed me many years ago. He had health issues that kept him
out of the service in WWII. Lots of deer on the farm, only available rifle
was a '03 30-06. No 30-06 ammo so he used some 270 he found a box of.

He told me the story while we were deer hunting together--I was carrying
that same 30-06. I was a bit skeptical---he took a round out of his Remington
760 .270, loaded it in the '06 and fired. It was about dusk. Threw a flame
about 6 feet. He said it was only good to maybe 75 yards, but put meat
on the table in the 1940's!!
 
So I guess judging by what they said, if I run out of 30-06 I can just use .270 cartridges instead right? It's a smaller caliber so it's gotta work fine!
On accident I mixed a .280 round in my M1. It sounded funky when I fired it so I cleared it and checked the bore. It was clear. Checked the ejected cases and found the .280. It just sounded like a squib and went out the barrel.
 
I am a fan of NPR's "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers".

I like them too. Hey, they are funny car guys, not gun guys. It's the only breath of fresh air on NPR, so I'll give them a pass on this.
 
I've actually wondered what would actually happen if you fired a round like a .270 in a 30-06 chambered rifle, interesting stories. I knew it would physically fit into the chamber and fire since a .270 case is essentially nothing more than a necked down 30-06, I just though it would be terribly inaccurate and impractical.
 
Died of Alzheimer's. A great loss when driving.

Anyway, 45s not only shoot the opponent's arm off, they will tear your arm off.

Told this by an Army officer (in the accountant branch :D).
 
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