Arisaka Type 99 30-06 Conversion questions/concerns

[deerefanatic]

Ok, I'm just starting to get back into the gun hobby.. I was raised around guns, my dad, grandpa, uncles, cousins all had rifles and shotguns and shot them quite a bit.. I was 12 when my grandpa passed away and inherited his guns... Mostly some nice shotguns, a Remington 7400 30-06 Semi auto, and a variety of flavors of 22's.. I regret not being older when he was alive and into them as I'm sure he died with more info than I'll ever know. (He was a Marine in the Korean war)

So I bought my first gun of my own this winter... picked up a fairly nice looking sporterized Arisaka Type 99 at a gun show. Clean gun, has a Lyman peep site on it. It was stamped on top of the receiver "30-06" and sold as an -06 gun... Brought it home that day and fired a few shots through it at the burn barrel to quell my excitement, then cleaned it and put it in the cabinet.

Fast forward to tax time, I blew the bank on a Lee reloading setup. Breech lock press, scale, powder measure, and dies for all my gun calibers. I'm really wanting to get serious about this and start to hone my skills. I bought a copy of Modern Reloading which was a very informative read, that I keep handy.

But, back to the topic at hand.. The Arisaka

From what I gather, this was not a US 30-06 conversion as those are always stamped "US .30 Cal" and not simply "30-06" as mine is. I shot some rounds through it last Sunday (beautiful weather.. Nearly 80!) and to say it kicks is an understatement. I shot two magazines (4 round) of ammo through my 7400 and barely felt it. After 4 rounds in the Arisaka I had marks on my shoulder and couldn't shoot any more. I know I'm out of form/shape and that's probably alot of it.. But I seem to be getting fairly severe case bulging. I've attached a picture of cases. The top was fired out of the Arisaka. The middle was fired out of my Remington. The bottom is an (obviously) unfired shell.

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Here are the specs as measured by my General Digital Caliper:

Neck Diameter OD: .3430
Neck Length: .3875
OAL: 2.4900
Case diameter at shoulder: .441
Case diameter at extractor rim: .4660
Case diameter .300 from base: .4760
Case length from base to shoulder: 1.9740

Compared to a casing fired from my Remington 7400:

Neck Length: .3585
Neck OD: .340
OAL: 2.495
Case Diameter at shoulder: .4425
Case Diameter at Extractor rim: .4685
Case diameter .300 from base: .4655
Case length from base to shoulder: 1.9395

What do you guys think? I'm thinking maybe it would be prudent to have the gun checked over by a Gunsmith. I found a guy that does work at his home after his day job. He didn't seem to be to familiar with the Arisaka's when I was talking to him. But he did seem to be open minded....

Or, the other question is, should I attempt to do the setback and rechamber myself? I have some experience with machine tools. I have my own mill and have access to a large Lodge & Shipley lathe that a friend of mine owns (which is tight).. But, the lathe does not have metric threading capability..... I wonder about cutting the extra barrel threads with a die?

Or, would I be better off getting a good used barrel in original caliber off of eBay and having it installed? I can find good chromed barrels on ebay for less than $100 extremely easily...

I guess I'm just looking for input here.. Trying to weigh all my options. Or am I overthinking this and the case swelling isn't such a big deal?

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