old thread, as old as the net practically- but worth reviving
the Jap rifle would be a great rifle to upgrade to cock on opening, and change the safety to side tang, and rebarrel or rechamber to a 300 magnum family, or even a 375 H&H
the problem is, there are no barrels, safety kits, or bolt kits available for it- so it would be a custom job, and quite expensive to do.
so you either have to ante up and pay about 3x what it would cost to upgrade a Mauser or Enfield, or own the machine shop tools and do it yourself, by making everything from scratch.
I once saw a beautiful Arisaka Type 38 that had been rechambered to 260 Remington, reblued, new stock, d/t with a nice scope. The guy wanted $300 for it. It looked like a brand new gun. He dragged that around from gun show to gun show, and no one wanted it. I saw it at another show with the scope sold off it, but still for sale. I think he finally sold it but it took a year just to sell the gun.
I should have bought the damned thing for $300 when I had the chance.
believe it or not, I have heard from old timers that there was a cock on opening, and side tang safety kit available for the Jap rifles, back in the days after WWII- when thousands of those rifles were brought back from the Pacific Theater and Japanese Occupation.
I've had (5) Jap sporter rifles, 3-99's and 2-38's. I just sold the scoped 99 rifle for $300, pret-ty darned good price considering what it is. They are starting to come into their own and will continue to appreciate.
Basic rule now, don't sporterize any military rifle unless it's got a shot out barrel or broken parts and is un-useable or worthless. Even then, if it's numbers matched it's worth re-boring to another caliber and kept original.
If you "have to" the best way to sport a Jap rifle, is retain the original caliber, and put them in a nice stock, d/t for scope, reblue/refinish, and put it in a nice stock if you can find one. Jap rifles need a nice stock to look good, the factory wood was really mundane. One of my 38's was put in a vintage Winchester M70 stock, with a peep receiver sight, by a previous owner- and is beautiful. Another one is a Type 99 vet bring-back sporter, in a vintage Fajen stock, with a turn down bolt, and open sights. It's a damned nice looking gun. Another is a Type 38 a plumber sold me for $100, it belonged to his Dad war vet, chambered in 6.5 x 257 wildcat. But they all have the original safety and cock on closing.
If I had the chance and could find the parts, I'd convert them to cock-on-opening and side tang safety.
that's one thing about the USA- when we beat a country in a war, we make sure to take all their rifles....
There's more Mausers, Arisakas, and Carcanos in the USA, than there is in Germany, Japan, and Italy combined.