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| Article Written by: R. Ted Jeo | |||||||||
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WARNING! This article contains information on modifications of reloading ammunition that requires some reloading experience. This technique works for our weapons and reloads. As we have no control over others shooting needs, techniques or materials, we cannot assume any responsibility if you decide to use the technique on loads and/or rifles of your own. As always, reloading ammunition is a serious undertaking and needs to be carefully examined at each step to make sure all safety precautions and inspections are adhered to. |
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This is the second part of an article regarding the shooting and reloading of the Type 99 Japanese rifle in 7.7mm. Previously, I talked about how to convert both 30-06 and 8mm brass into a usable 7.7mm substitute and then made up some ammo using our standard Surplusrifle.com cast bullet load. If you recall, I did not get to test out the load for a long distance 100 yard shoot because it got dark. (you can review part one of this article at: http://surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/srtype99/index.asp) In this article, I will test the standard load at 100 yards. In addition, I go about installing a Huber match replacement trigger into the Type 99 also. Finally, in the range report, I present the overall results of the reloads, trigger and the S&K scout mount previously reviewed. After the first part of this article was published, I received an email from Parry Jones. He pointed out an interesting observation that he has seen when converting 30-06 brass to 7.7 brass. Being that I did not load jacketed bullets for this project, I did not run into the problem. He states: |
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“When loading jacketed bullets you will find the neck thickness of the newly reformed 30/06 brass is too thick to chamber due to the thicker shoulder area being pushed up into the neck. With lead bullets this will not be a problem as the thicker brass will compress the shank of the bullet. The tougher jacketed bullet will push the thickened brass outward when inserted into the neck. This can lead to high chamber pressures. To alleviate this situation I inside ream the brass neck with a .311 reamer and then resize. One could also push a jacketed bullet in and then outside neck turn it. The .311 reamer is a standard straight flute design available from any tool supplier like KBC and MSC (they are online also). I believe 5/16 = .3125" and would also work. Hornady makes a .312 150 gr. spire point bullet that is slightly larger then the standard .311 bullets sold by the other manufacturers. This fits the 7.7 bore much better. It is very accurate in my 7.7 shooting .5" groups.” |
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Thank you Parry for bringing this issue to my attention! I appreciate your help in this matter greatly. In my particular case, I will probably stick with shooting the cast bullets that I have 100’s of for the time being. Reloading the Fire Formed Brass Once I fired the converted brass in my particular rifle, it is fire formed to my rifle’s chamber. Really, I do not want to, nor have to, full length size it again, unless, of course, I use the brass in a different rifle. Being that I do not own nor figure that I will ever own, another 7.7mm rifle, I can now safely reload this particular brass using the neck sizing technique only. This saves lots of wear and tear on the brass, extending its life and number of reloads that it can be used for. The problem is that a neck sizing die for the 7.7 Japanese is not something that you can pick up easily, if at all. Enter a recent article by fellow editor and reloading MASTER GURU…Mark Trope. I had read the article on neck sizing the 7.62x54R round (http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/colletswap/index.asp) using a .308 Lee Collet die. At the time, I did not think much about it other than it is yet another example how Mark can adapt and think outside of the box. However, when I took a look at reloading my fire formed brass for the 7.7, it suddenly dawned on me that why couldn’t the technique that Mark used be adapted for the 7.7 as well? So I shipped him some of the fired brass and he worked it through his procedure. Sure enough, using the .308 Winchester Lee Collet dies (which only neck sizes), and his washer technique, one can neck size the 7.7 brass. (I also attempted using the .303 British Collect dies, which also worked, but did not neck size as far down the neck before pushing the shoulder of the brass back). |
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Stack w/ homemade washer. Homemade washer is from old piece of aluminum, .029 thick. Notice where collet stops sizing, it leaves that desirable ring just in front of the taper of the shoulder. |
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Stack w/ homemade washer. |
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Another view where collet stops sizing, note the band just above the shoulder. |
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Amount of neck un-sized. Perfect! |
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Thickness of stack. |
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Each one is a different thickness. You can number them so that in the future you can easily recreate your needed stack thickness. |
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Homemade washer. |
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Another view, you can see where collet stops sizing, so shoulder won’t be pushed back or shape changed. It has to be stressed that every rifle chamber is different, every press is different, and every shellholder brand is different so, the stack height has to be adjusted by trial & error. |
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Using the collet sizing technique mentioned, I reloaded the 7.7, 30-06 and 8mm converted brass back to the same original loads and factory crimp that I used from part 1 of this article. That load uses a 179gr 20:1 alloy cast bullet from the Lee mould # 90371 sized to .311”, powered by 22gr of IMR 4198 with enough PSB buffer to fill the case to the bottom of the bullet. At the same time I loaded up these rounds, I also tried out another load that I had been reading about on the Surplusrifle.com forum site and one that I had seen in an article by C.E. Harris. This load uses the same Lee bullet, but is powered by 16gr of Alliant 2400 powder with no filler. Harris calls this load a “100-200 yard” load. I figured that I’d try it and made up five rounds just for test purposes. All loads used CCI 200 large rifle primers. Huber Trigger Installation The trigger on my particular Type 99 is not all that bad really. Measuring it with a Feather River Sports trigger gauge, it broke at about 6 lbs. Fairly cleanly I may add. But I decided to install the Huber trigger anyway. John Huber has made a number of replacement match triggers that allow for pull weight, over travel and creep adjustment. Like others, the Type 99 trigger he makes uses a ball bearing surface to control the let off, making it very smooth in operation. Installation is straight forward and simple and MAY require some minor wood inletting. |
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Huber’s replacement trigger is on the left, the standard Type 99 is on the right. Note the two set screws for controlling creep (left one) and overtravel (right one). |
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As in all cases, make sure that the rifle is unloaded before you proceed. Remove the bolt. |
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You will have to remove the barrel nose cap and barrel bands to remove the top wood. Click here for the S&K scout mount review article. After you have done that, you can remove the three screws of the trigger guard (as shown in photos above). |
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Use the magazine floor release to release the magazine spring. |
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Flip the rifle back over and the action should come out. You may have to tap it with a wooden dowel to knock it free. |
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Using a punch, tap out the pin that holds the trigger assembly to the receiver. Note, there is a spring under the front of the assembly. |
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Just before the pin is free, you may want to place a finger on the front of the assembly so that the spring is not lost. |
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Drift out the pin that holds the trigger in. |
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Remove the old trigger and replace it with the Huber trigger making sure the trigger is facing the correct direction. Replace the trigger pin. Note the ball bearing at the top of the trigger that acts as a smooth near frictionless surface for trigger release. |
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This part takes 3 hands. Replace the trigger spring at the front of the assembly. Insert the assembly and press downward to align the holes with the assembly pin and drive it back in. |
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Here I have reinstalled the bolt to test the operation of the trigger. |
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You will have to try to install the action back into the stock several times to test the trigger operation and clearance. In my case, I had to inlet a bit of the wood at the front of the trigger hole so that the mechanism would clear. At this point also, you would make adjustments to trigger creep, left off and over travel. |
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From directions sheet:
In my particular case, oddly enough, I did not have to do any adjustments to the set screws. I was happy with the initial results and the perceived trigger pull dropped down to a 3 lb weight using the Feather River gauge. |
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Look carefully at the gap between the trigger and the receiver and you can see the ball bearing that the trigger floats on. |
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Once you have the trigger adjusted and functional, you should do a safety test to make sure that the trigger is not set to light. With the bolt cocked, tap the rifle butt onto the floor several times to see if the trigger releases. If it does, you have an unsafe situation with too light a trigger setting and you should back off on the trigger until you can safely tap the buttstock on the ground without the trigger releasing. Range Results You would figure that with all the install directions above that this results section would be just as long…but it isn’t. Basically, I managed to test all three components at one time. Now, first off, let me tell you that the weather was not very cooperative with a temperature of 15F. My big problem is that my trigger finger gets so cold that I lose feeling in it and my trigger control goes to pot. Still, any day at the range is better than a day at the office… |
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Remember when I mentioned that you should use Locktite on the screws on the mount? Well, I did not, figuring that I wanted to remove the scout mount. And I paid for it. Once I figured out where the rifle was shooting, I settled down for some string shots. What I did not realize was that the mount had come a little loose. The results of a loose mount are seen above. I lost a lot of ammo because of this oversight and it cost me in time and effort to recover from this goof up. A lesson to be learned….. |
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After I tightened down the mount, here are the results of a shot string at 100 yards. As in the results from Part 1 of the article, it did not seem to matter whether the case was a 7.7mm, or converted 30-06 or 8mm. |
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This final image shows a group of rounds fired that were loaded with the 16g of Alliant 2400 powder. The recoil of this round was substantially less than even that of the 4891/PSB load. The point of impact at 100 yards was about 6-7 inches lower than with the 4891/PSB load. |
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In conclusion, reloading the 7.7mm Type 99 rifle can be quite an undertaking that you can make as easy or as hard, as expensive or as cheap as you wish. Whereas I did not test more than one powder charge or type (other than the Alliant 2400 powder), the tests do show that there is potential to this rifle and reloading using the converted 30-06/8mm cases compares favorably to true 7.7mm brass. Results that I got using the three cases were similar enough to say there were no differences and that the accuracy comparisons that we saw at 25 yard targets held true for 100 yard target distances as well. The S&K scout mount (Click here for the S&K scout mount review article) is a very solid and effective way (if you make sure the screws are tight…DUH) of putting glass on your Type 99 without drilling and tapping your rifle. I was very happy with the quality and ease of use of the mount and would recommend it to any user. The Huber trigger does give you the option of making a gritty/creepy military trigger into a smooth adjustable match trigger without seriously or visibly modifying your rifle. It is also fairly simple to install and can be done using common tools. When you end up working on a rifle as long as this took me, with the multiple times I had to take things apart to install/uninstall and take photos and all that, I really got an appreciation for the engineering and strength of the Type 99 rifle. The simplicity that you see in these (and other mil surp) rifles is just plain amazing to say the least. Added to that, the fact that there are individuals and companies that make products that allow us to “tweak” the rifles without changing the original, making them more comfortable and accurate, you just have to agree there is no reason not to take the rifles out and enjoy them at the range. And now, no longer is a reason of, “no ammo available” a reason either. Enjoy your rifle. |
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| Article Written by: R. Ted Jeo | |||||||||
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