The Japanese used two rifles in WWII: one using a 6.5 mm bullet and another employing a 7.7 mm projectile. Of course, as normal for that time, rather than adopting the cartridge of another country, the Japanese used their own proprietary ammunition. The 7.7 mm cartridge is interesting because it uses the same size and weight of bullet of the .303 British, and was intended to mimic the .303 in performance. However, the Japanese employed a rimless cartridge.
A friend of mine recently acquired a 7.7 mm Arasaka rifle. Loaded ammunition appears to be currently unobtainable, and even unloaded brass is difficult to find and expensive (my friend was quoted a price that comes to $2 per case). However, it apparently is possible to convert .30-06 brass to the dimensions necessary for the 7.7 mm without too much difficulty. I have .30-06 brass, and even a couple handfuls of .312 diameter bullets that someone gave me, so my friend has decided to try this route. He's not planning on shooting the rifle a lot--but he does want to shoot it just to see what it is like. He was going to order a set of 7.7 mm reloading dies in the next few days, so we will try it out and report afterward. Hopefully we will have all of this done in the next few weeks.
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