I "accidentally" bought a rechambered Type 99, is it worth anything?

I paid $400 for this Arisaka. When I bought it, I didn't realize people rechambered them.
Imagine my surprise when I tried to feed it some 7.7...

Pics: Arisaka - Imgur


It is a Nagoya serial 423,xx serial.
Overall condition is good.
Bluing is solid, with some areas having a light orange patina.
Barrel has a little pitting on the surfce under the hand guard.
Serials on bolt match rifle
Aircraft sights are intact and functional
has the original monopod
Mum is intact
About the nicest stock I've seen on an arisaka. One small chunk missing, but very good overall.

i -think- it's chambered in 300 savage. My original intention was to make this a wallhanger and not a shooter so I probably won't invest the money to find out.

You would have to rebarrel for the .300 Savage !....................

Back to wallhanger...

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Originally Posted by 303tom

You would have to rebarrel for the .300 Savage !....................

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Not necessarily. Could've had the chamber bushed. Might be worth investigating to find out. Could be as simple as a spacer type bushing like those used by the Navy to convert it's M1 Garands from 30-06 to 7.62mm.

The barrel is set back about the difference between 7.7 and 300s. Maybe i will cast the chamber.

Does this chambering ruin the value totally though?

Accuracy would not be worth a darn sending a .308 bullet down a .311 bore ! Are you sure there is not the front piece of a broken case in there ?................

Absolutely sure. next to an unaltered arisaka, the chamber is noticeably cut back/shorter and has a gap in the wood.

I took it back to the LGS and they tried to run .308 in it but the bolt wouldn't close. So it's very likely 300savage (they didn't have any on hand.)

So unfortunately, I have $400 wall art.

At least it has a good stock (maybe original) and aircraft sights and a monopod. Now I just need to find an intact-mum type 99 nagoya of the same series and build my own mixmaster.

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Originally Posted by DekaeS

the chamber is noticeably cut back/shorter and has a gap in the wood.

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Well, you didn't tell us about that to begin with. At least it wasn't bored out and sleeved then rechambered for the shorter round. I still wouldn't condemn it to wall hanger status just yet. It takes a fair bit of skill to set back and rechamber a barrel correctly so the conversion was most likely done by a professional gunsmith and as long as CHS is ok it would, IMO, be quite shootable. And yes, the mods do ruin it's collector value.

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Originally Posted by 303tom

Accuracy would not be worth a darn sending a .308 bullet down a .311 bore !

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One never knows. I have a 1909 Argentine and two Finnish Mosin Nagants that shoot .308'' bullets very well. One of the Finns is a supposedly scarce Tikka 91/30 that unfortunately got converted into a fake PU sniper by Century Arms but it actually shoots better with .308 bullets than it will with .311 or .312's.

300 Savage is still available although it is on the pricy side these days. I own one in a 99 Savage. Excellent deer cartridge, used to be widely manufactured but the 308 spelled it's doom.

So unfortunately you have one of the strongest actions ever built ! So unfortunately you have the platform for a great build ! Find out exactly what you have & shoot it, or here is a novel idea............Barrel, 7.7 Cal., Used Original Gun Parts | 499800 | Numrich Gun Parts

I notice he didn't mention the barrel is wore out which most don't realize 99's use Metford rifling. Perhaps its already been rebarreled to whatever? IMHO, this rifle isn't a wall hanger. Do a cast to find out for sure or swap the barrel for an original.

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Originally Posted by 303tom

Accuracy would not be worth a darn sending a .308 bullet down a .311 bore ! Are you sure there is not the front piece of a broken case in there ?................

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Accuracy is not that bad on many of them. I have a Korean conversion in 30-06. It hits the target at 100 yds but not a tight grouper. Thousands were converted by the US for issue to the ROK Army in Korea. Accuracy was considered acceptable. Some folks reload the 06 with a 0.310-0.312 bullet and use it in those conversions or in the considerable number that were reamed to 06 after WW2 since 7.7 was a tough round to find.

Gent showed up at our range with a pawnshop found $100 sporterized type 99 Arisaka to shoot for the first time. Had a green box of Remington 150 gr 30-06 ammo to shoot in the rifle. Curious, I chatted with the owner and checked the rifle. Still a military barrel on the rifle, but there was 30-06 stamped on barrel near chamber. Long story short, I too suggested to the new rifle owner that the rifle probably wouldn't shoot accurately, with a .308 bullet going down a .311 or so bore. After he'd shot the box of 30-06 in his scoped Arisaka, he hunted me down on the firing line to show me his target that he'd had set at 100 yds for most of his shooting. When he found me, said, "think this one is a keeper." LOL, there was nothing but cloverleaf groups on his target.