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Did the Japanese use standard rifling in some of their rifles and metford in others? I have a type I and a type 38 carbine that look like they have regular rifling while my type 38 long rifle and type 99 and another type I I have definitely are metford rifling, anyone come across anything like this?
As far as Type 38s and 99s, all I've ever encountered have Metford dervived rifling.
Yep, ALL Arisakas had Metford type rifling, but Type I rifles had standard rifling.
I know the difference between metford and conventional rifling and I have two Type I rifles, both 6.5mm one with metford polygonal rifling and one with regular rifling with six lands and grooves and a early type 38 carbine with conventional six lands and grooves also but never read anything about them, definitely conventional rifling.
I probably don't know what I'm looking at but all my Japanese rifles look like normal rifling to me, lands and grooves.
Just looking down the bore they do look like conventional lands and grooves but if viewed through a strong magnifying glass the rounded bottom and shoulder of the land can be seen easier. Even better by examining a recovered bullet with an intact shank or a lead slug driven through the bore.
I did just look at them again and I see what you mean. They are rounded a bit and if you look at just the muzzle, you can see the shape better. I looked in the Type I and it seemed as if the lands were sharp rather than humped. It is hard to see a difference, even when knowing what to look for. My Type 99 is chrome and not worn at all, the Type 38 is worn a bit more as it's a LOT older. The Type I looks hardly used.
The early type 38 used the Medford rifling in them. I am not sure about the later production ones having standard rifling. The type 99 used conventional rifling as it was better with the chromed bore. Medford rifling can give the impression of the lands being worn down and rounded but they are not. These rifles with the medford rifling do not take well to cast bullets and in general are not accurate with them.
Ok, just to stir up the pot a bit as there still seems to be an unanswered question here with guys on both sides of the fence.
Are all Japanese Arisaka rifles complete with Metford rifling or are Type 99's standard rifling? What is the evidence to support either or?
I've looked around and my limited resources don't even mention the rifling, let alone the type. The internet seems to indicate Meftord but again isn't what I would consider completely consistent.
All I can tell you is that my early type 38 carbine has the Medford type rifling and in two later type 38 rifles I have, both have conventional rifling and so does an early 1944 type 99 I have.
I have 1 Kokura Series 23 T38 rifle, 1 Koishikawa no series T38 carbine with 6 lands/ grooves made around 1910 , 2 Nagoya series 4 carbines, 1 Kokura series 20? T99 short rifle and 1 Nagoya no series T99 long rifle s/n 78xx and they all have Metford derived rifling.
1 Kokura series 20? T99 short rifle
Same here, I think we used the same site to ID markings. It doesn't exactly match but its the closest. Metford here also.....