Are .303 Enfield surplus bullet components transferrable to a 7.7 Arisaka?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

There were THREE "7.7" Japanese rounds.

7.7 x 56R is IDENTICAL to .303 Brit. It was, like the entire Japanese navy, based on Royal Navy practice. This extended to "traditions" (delete rum, insert Sake) and uniforms.

The Japanese ARMY was modeled on PRUSSIAN practice and doctrine, with a big chunk of Bushido thrown in

The army (and, by extension, the Air Force) did things their own way. There is a 7.7. "semi-rimmed" round, basically a semi-rimmed, "improved" .303, developed originally for machine-gun use, and a 7.7 RIMLESS, basically the semi-rimmed MG round with a less prominent "rim", for rifle use.

What were they thinking? Especially as the 6.5 x 50 was still ubiquitous.

Because the "initial" 7.7 x 56R was a straight copy of the .303, it used a .312" bullet. In a rare bit of logical thinking, the later two Japanese 7.7mm rounds used the same bullet diameter.

The same "Mk Vll" .303 bullets work well in 7.65 Argentine and variations on that theme, AND 7.62 x 54R, if you feel a desperate need to waste valuable .303 Mk Vll bullets in a Mosin Nagant or DP, etc.

For the truly obsessive, Russian 7.62, be it x 54, x 39 or x 25, is REALLY, "7.62"mm BORE diameter, exactly the same as the .30-06 AND 7.62 NATO, share a .300" nominal BORE diameter. The difference is the nominal GROOVE diameter, 9plus or minus engineering / manufacturing tolerances.

Note that those crafty Finns developed their own variation for their TKIV sniper rifle series; the 7.62 x 53R. This is EXACTLY the same basic cartridge as per the parent 7.62 x 54R, BUT topped off with a .308" diameter Sierra Match King and fired through barrels optimized for the x 53R loadings

KNOW YOUR AMMO SPECS!

What's a few thou among friends? See also: "Close enough for Government work".