The buyer was an old man and he was buying an Arisaka, a Japanese WW2 bring-back from the Pacific. The gun store actually had three in stock.
The older guy was a veteran of the Pacific and wanted one to make a hunting rifle out of. He was a retired machinist and over the years had made a number of them for some of his grandchildren to hunt with.
One of his grand daughters wanted one so he decided to build her one. We got to talking and he said he was going back home with his new purchase and offered to show him one of the hunting rifles he had made out of one of the Japanese bring-backs.
Normally I am no fan of butchering historical military rifles but this guy was an exception and had talent as I found out when I followed him home. He showed me a beautiful hunting rifle in caliber .308 and unless you saw the Japanese markings on the receiver you would have had no clue that it was an Arisaka.
He had stripped the rifle to the bare action and gone from there, reworking everything and turning a basic WW2 souvenier into a fine unting rifle. It was simply amazing.
He said this was going to be the sixth one he had built.
Most shooters think that the Japanese Arisaka was a piece of junk and in many ways they are probably right. Still what they do not know is after the was the Army ran tests on several and found the action was exceedingly strong.
An ordinance officer ordered a 6.5mm Arisaka chambered for the American .30 cal cartridge and test fired. A 6.5mm bore is about .256 in diameter and the .30 bullet the American army used has a diameter of .308.
They expected the Arisaka to blow up. It didn't. They fired several more rounds through it before the bolt locked up too tight to open. The internal ballistics must have been horrendous.
The old man knew of this which is why he wasn't afraid to turn the old Japanese riflles into modern hunters.
Maybe it was a year later I was in the same store and was talking to the owner. I asked if he had heard from the old guy that built the hunting rifles out of Arisakas and he grinned.
The old timer brought his finished product in and was looking for another Arisaka to build yet another hunting rifle for a grandson.
The rifle he had built was a thing of beauty according to the shop owner. Having seen his work before I could just imagine.
He had also taken another Japanese rifle and reworked it for another shooter to use in a military bolt action rifle match at Camp Perry. He had just polished up the parts and did a trigger job on it.
The shooter had taken it from there and it was reported he did fairly well with it. He had made brass out of 30/06 casings.
The reason I wrote this is because the subject came up the last time I went to the gun store. Apparently he is still doing gun and machine work and spending time with his grandkids.
It strikes me that spending time with a grandparent actually doing something with him or her is rare and one of those things we ought to see more of.
It's kind of nice watching someone retired do something useful.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
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