this year the Arisaka type 99 made it back to the front of the safe in the rotation of my milsurps. This year one of my 99s will be used in a CMP Vintage rifle match. So I need to find a rifle and load that can at least hold the black of a 200 yard SR target... which has a 13" black bull.
My first reloading efforts for the 7.7 where reformed cases from HXP 30-06 cases. I happen to luck out and have a good amount of HXP 77 to reform into 7,7 jap.
Its not hard and I use Lee dies for the process. mainly because the lee dies are inexpensive and do what they are supposed to do. I ran Hornady .312"150 grain soft points and 174 grain .3105" match. Both did ok but for the cost of these bullets I moved onto cast... now just as I started getting into development of my cast 7.7 loads the great shortage started....now im getting back to it. more to come.
Now of course you can just buy factory brass but that's not always cost effective unless you find PPU on sale. Which I have done and stocked up but I still like to reload ammo as frugal as possible. Sizing some surplus cases I have large amounts of is something that sits well with my wallet.
Resizing 30-06 HXP is easy you just lube the case and run it through a 7.7 full length dies and trim to proper case length.
Few things I found out early.
Case necks would split about 80% of the time on first load shot through the 99. I found annealing the 30-06 neck and shoulder before reforming helped and I get approx 5 loads with out any case neck splits. I also only neck size after the case is formed and fired in the rifle.
Next I found if you cut approx half of the 30-06 case neck off you get close to the final trim size after forming.
Above
Left is a factory PPU load I was able to pick up a few boxes of PPU 7.7 for 16$ box before the prices went up
Middle is a reload with PPU brass and a hornady .312" 150gn soft point.
Right is a cast reload with 30-06 formed brass 200 grain lyman 314299 bullet these drop right at .315" and I size them to .314" I will be sticking with the cast loads from this point on.
The factory PPU round has a pretty good crimp. I did not crimp my jacketed reloads and will only be applying a light crimp to my cast loads.
My cast loads will be a test between 2400 and H4895 overall length is set just shy of the longest I can run in the magazine and feed well enough to shoot a match with. Even still the throat/lead on all my 99s is very generous and would need a fatter longer bullet to even begin to touch the lands. I need to shoot from the mag so this doesn't matter anyhow.
Here is the HXP before forming
Left once fired HXP 30-06
center is after a first step forming. I would form the case with out the expander in the 7.7 die thinking it would be easier. I found it not to matter and only adds a step in the process.
Right is all formed and trimmed to length
I use HXP with a date stamp of 77 which helps me ID my brass when sorting. between the shorter fat neck and the 77 stamp Its easy to pick up if it gets into the 06 bucket.
My starting loads will be "the load" of 16 grains of 2400 this load does very well and will be as accurate as you can shoot out to 200 yards. Well so far this has been true for my other rifles I hope it will be for one of my Type 99s. Second will be H4985 with around 28-30 grains. This was my better load for one of my 99s so far before powder ran dry.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article
my finished round. I might play with seating it a bit deeper but then the gas check is into the case as it sits the gas check is right at the end if the neck.
now to load up some test rounds and see which rifle shoots the best, I have 3 to choose from.
First rifle up for testing is my most recent purchase. The bore is pretty rough and I hope it shoot ok. I still need to bore scope my other 2 99s to compare.https://www.northeastshooters.com/v...ome-cheap-bore-scope-fun-mosin-and-M1-type-99
As for preparing the rifles. I will take down every rifle into a detail strip as long as the screws and pins will come out with out much effort. The stocks will get a quick warm dish soapy cleaning then when dry I will put a coat of 100% tung oil on it.
I will "clean" any loose dirt and rust from the metal parts and basically just use rags and some Kroil to remove surface rust. Then I just apply CLP generously. let it stand over night and give it a wipe to remove eccess.
I have a torgue screwdriver. I have learned over the past 8 years or so Im over tightening most fasteners on guns.
On the arisaka I will slowly tighten the action screws and watch what the receiver and barrel do. So far all my rifles sit nice and flat in the stock. oncle I get to finger snug I will torgue the front screw to 35" lbs all while watching to see if the action tilts at al. if the action doesn't move I will snug up the rear action screw to 35inlbs. The rest of the screws like rear trigger plate, sling loops, barrel bands get snugged up to 10inlbs. Check the screws after your first range trip the action screws will settle a bit. Fr the other screws like the sight screws and bolt release lever I go about 20inlbs.
My first reloading efforts for the 7.7 where reformed cases from HXP 30-06 cases. I happen to luck out and have a good amount of HXP 77 to reform into 7,7 jap.
Its not hard and I use Lee dies for the process. mainly because the lee dies are inexpensive and do what they are supposed to do. I ran Hornady .312"150 grain soft points and 174 grain .3105" match. Both did ok but for the cost of these bullets I moved onto cast... now just as I started getting into development of my cast 7.7 loads the great shortage started....now im getting back to it. more to come.
Now of course you can just buy factory brass but that's not always cost effective unless you find PPU on sale. Which I have done and stocked up but I still like to reload ammo as frugal as possible. Sizing some surplus cases I have large amounts of is something that sits well with my wallet.
Resizing 30-06 HXP is easy you just lube the case and run it through a 7.7 full length dies and trim to proper case length.
Few things I found out early.
Case necks would split about 80% of the time on first load shot through the 99. I found annealing the 30-06 neck and shoulder before reforming helped and I get approx 5 loads with out any case neck splits. I also only neck size after the case is formed and fired in the rifle.
Next I found if you cut approx half of the 30-06 case neck off you get close to the final trim size after forming.
Above
Left is a factory PPU load I was able to pick up a few boxes of PPU 7.7 for 16$ box before the prices went up
Middle is a reload with PPU brass and a hornady .312" 150gn soft point.
Right is a cast reload with 30-06 formed brass 200 grain lyman 314299 bullet these drop right at .315" and I size them to .314" I will be sticking with the cast loads from this point on.
The factory PPU round has a pretty good crimp. I did not crimp my jacketed reloads and will only be applying a light crimp to my cast loads.
My cast loads will be a test between 2400 and H4895 overall length is set just shy of the longest I can run in the magazine and feed well enough to shoot a match with. Even still the throat/lead on all my 99s is very generous and would need a fatter longer bullet to even begin to touch the lands. I need to shoot from the mag so this doesn't matter anyhow.
Here is the HXP before forming
Left once fired HXP 30-06
center is after a first step forming. I would form the case with out the expander in the 7.7 die thinking it would be easier. I found it not to matter and only adds a step in the process.
Right is all formed and trimmed to length
I use HXP with a date stamp of 77 which helps me ID my brass when sorting. between the shorter fat neck and the 77 stamp Its easy to pick up if it gets into the 06 bucket.
My starting loads will be "the load" of 16 grains of 2400 this load does very well and will be as accurate as you can shoot out to 200 yards. Well so far this has been true for my other rifles I hope it will be for one of my Type 99s. Second will be H4985 with around 28-30 grains. This was my better load for one of my 99s so far before powder ran dry.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article
my finished round. I might play with seating it a bit deeper but then the gas check is into the case as it sits the gas check is right at the end if the neck.
now to load up some test rounds and see which rifle shoots the best, I have 3 to choose from.
First rifle up for testing is my most recent purchase. The bore is pretty rough and I hope it shoot ok. I still need to bore scope my other 2 99s to compare.https://www.northeastshooters.com/v...ome-cheap-bore-scope-fun-mosin-and-M1-type-99
As for preparing the rifles. I will take down every rifle into a detail strip as long as the screws and pins will come out with out much effort. The stocks will get a quick warm dish soapy cleaning then when dry I will put a coat of 100% tung oil on it.
I will "clean" any loose dirt and rust from the metal parts and basically just use rags and some Kroil to remove surface rust. Then I just apply CLP generously. let it stand over night and give it a wipe to remove eccess.
I have a torgue screwdriver. I have learned over the past 8 years or so Im over tightening most fasteners on guns.
On the arisaka I will slowly tighten the action screws and watch what the receiver and barrel do. So far all my rifles sit nice and flat in the stock. oncle I get to finger snug I will torgue the front screw to 35" lbs all while watching to see if the action tilts at al. if the action doesn't move I will snug up the rear action screw to 35inlbs. The rest of the screws like rear trigger plate, sling loops, barrel bands get snugged up to 10inlbs. Check the screws after your first range trip the action screws will settle a bit. Fr the other screws like the sight screws and bolt release lever I go about 20inlbs.
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