The Japanese Arisaka rifles are famous for being ludicrously strong, and the Type 38 was proven to be the strongest of the lot by various post WWII tests. However, does a strong action alone mean that the rifles are fantastic? Well, we take a nice example of a Type 38 to the run and gun course to see what all the fuss is about.

For those interested, I made a short video showcasing the ammunition problems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTOTp1qB7yg

Transcript …

– [Voiceover] Hey guys, it’s Alex C. with TFBTV, and for today’s Run and Gun we’re going to be using an Arisaka Type 38.

The Type 38s fire 6.5 Japanese, which is a semi-rimmed cartridge, which is kind of cool actually.

By the time that the projectile leaves the barrel, it’s got a full powder burn and it has very low recoil, which is awesome.

For the the Type 97 sniper rifle, they basically just grabbed a Type 38 off the line, threw a scope on there and then gave it out to your snipers.

And that’s very unusual.

Usually sniper rifles are fitted with some extra doodads and features and what not.

But the Japanese just threw a scope on there and handed it out, which is very unusual.

So, it’s got that unique dust cover that’s, I would say the Arisaka Rifles are kind of famous for.

It’s a good idea really.

It rattles a lot and it’s very noisy.

But, I would probably trade that for the protection it offers against mud and sand and things like that.

Course they have the Imperial Chrysanthemum on there if it hasn’t been destroyed.

The sights are very simple with a notch and post.

And of course it’s got a ladder for volley fire.

And ah, I like the sight setup.

While simple, it’s brutally effective and easy to use.

But for the run and gun course we’re going to fire 25 shots at about 75 yards with four reloads.

Hopefully this one goes okay.

We’re had some bad luck with Japanese firearms in the past, but let’s hope that this one goes a little better.

Alright guys, here we go with the Type 38 Arisaka.

We’ve actually tried this before but we were using surplus Chinese ammo from the 50s I believe and it, it was all fail-to-fire stuff.

So, we got some new production Norma Ammunition and we’ll see how this one goes.

(gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) We have the worst freaking luck with Japanese guns on TFBTV.

(gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) Are you serious? (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun firing) (gun jamming) (gun firing) (gun firing) Okay, let’s go talk about this one.

Okay, so I do not feel good about that run at all.

The gun was malfunctioning like crazy, something we’ve run into with the other Arisaka, the type 99.

This one, it would feed from the right side of magazine perfectly.

But every single time, feeding from the left side, it would hangup on something.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s soft-pointed ammo and the military ammunition would have been a full-metal-jacket.

Or not, but…

You know this is really unfortunate, cause I wanted to showcase how good these rifles are.

What’s great is that the recoil is so low.

It feels like you’re shooting, like, 7.62×39 almost.

And rifles are so long and heavy.

With that said, I would really like to try this again after I get the kinks worked out.

I just don’t really know what to do.

It’s gonna be a tough one.

Maybe I have to make some ammunition or reload the ammunition i just shot with some round nose.

I don’t know, we’ll figure something out.

But, I’ll put the totals hits versus misses.

I’m not gonna be proud of this figure right here at all.

And I’ll probably put a sad face right here.

But, let’s go back to the room and finish this one up.

So unfortunately, it looks like our bad luck streak with Japanese firearms continues.

I would really, really, like to get the kinks worked out of this gun so that I can showcase, basically how it’s supposed to work.

And same goes for the Type 99.

It’s just, you know, it’s very disapointing when something like this happens.

I noticed when I was shooting too, that I was getting increasingly frustrated.

Which caused me to miss more than I normally do.

You know, of course I miss often in these deals.

But this one was an exception.

I’m not really proud of the 20 out of 25 figure.

I know I can do better.

It’s just a matter of the gun malfunctioning.

And my getting angry during the course of shooting.

So, take that as you will.

I know these rifles are better than we’ve shown you.

I’ve seen numerous versions of these guns function better than I have showed you during these run and gun videos.

But big thanks to Ventura Munitions for helping us out with the cost of ammunition.

Hope to see you guys next week.

(gun firing)