Last ditch Arisaka?

[tahunua001]

going off of what is in my sierra book, the general issue 54R load is a 148 grain bullet travelling roughly 2600 FPS.

conversely the 7.7 jap load was a 184 grain projectile travelling roughly 2400 FPS.

I can't find any 1 bullet style in those two exact weights but with a 150gr sierra pro hunter at 2600 FPS the muzzle energy is 2250FTLBS.

the same bullet in 180gr at 2400FPS is just over 2300FTLBS so even giving the 54R a handicap, 7.7 still comes out on top for energy.

 

[James K]

The Japanese did not load the 7.7 to its full potential, probably because the increased recoil would have been hard on the small stature Japanese soldiers.

The 7.62 x 54R as loaded by the Russians, is considerably more powerful, though still not up to the .30-'06 or the even hotter 7.9 Mauser.

Jim