Forming Cases for Japanese Rifles

If the 6.5 Arisaka commercial cases are unavailable, you can make reasonably long-lived cases with either 35 remington (I usually use a 308 winchester sizing die first and then final form with my 6.5x50 sizing die.) or with 220 Swift cases (trim to 50mm and then neck up to 6.5mm.  The Swift's semi rim case allows me to fireform very easily after that.)  Load data for the original 6.5x50 Japanese military cartridge with its updated 140gr Spitzer bullet at 2,500fps (just 42K PSI also!) is easily replicated with today's powders and bullets.

For 7.7x58 Arisaka cases, the scotch tape trick on the bases is easily the best way to get a consistent form of the base of the trimmed down and necksized 8x57 or 30-06 cases as many Type 99 chambers are "generous" compared to Mauser barrel chambers. My Type 99 rifle that hs not been rechambered to 311-06 has a chamber that after firing brass for the first time, the reformed cases look like the chamber is a 7.7x58mm  Ackley Improved...That rifle's brass always stays separate and firefomed for that rifle only    Folks who reload 7.7 Arisaka should use 303 British load data as the original Japanese military loads were designed to replicate that lower pressure cartridge with both 200gr Round Nose and 160gr Spitzer jacketed bullets. When you do that, those 30-06 and 8x57 reformed cases seem to last forever even with full-powered 303 Brit jacketed bullet loads.  

Have fun!  I enjoy shooting my T38, Type I and T99 Arisaka rifles a lot.

For cast bullet information,
For the T38 and Type I rifles, I use Lyman's 130gr 266455 (discontinued Loverin/Rounded Spirepoint) and Lyman's 140gr 266469 (Loverin Roundnose) molds.  Both molds are gaschecked versions and I polycoat my bullets to allow me to get close to the actual service velocity of the original bullets so I don't have to adjust the sights too much on those battle rifles.  All three of my rifles shoot the bullets sized at .268 equally well although had to experiment with .266 and .267 sizing dies before I found the right size.  My T38 has Metford rifling and it prefers that wider bullet for its shallow rifling design.  My Type I uses a standard rifling (Beretta manufactured) barrel but the .268 works fine in it also.

For my Type 99, I use Lyman's 314299 200gr Round nosed and sized at .314 to better fit its Metford style rifling and the heavy bullet matches the weight of the first version of the 7.7x58 cartridge and the cast velocity almost matches the velocity of the heavy jacketed bullet as well.  Lee sells a 160gr Spire Point mold for folks with Enfield, SKS and AKs and those .312 bullets work well in my T99 although I usually give those Lee bullets a second coat of PC to ensure it meets the .314" need of that particular rifle barrel also. 

These rifles are usually hidden gems for accuracy once the proper bullet diameter is determined.

Bruce