Arisaka.

[The Queens Medalist 8687]

Competted against Aussies at Bisley and Connaught, and was told in the 80's, you received little funding for your dedicated national army team, so you trained on a large ranch of a shooter. That is dedication that would have existed 40 years earlier too!
The Japaneese soldiers acording to vets in, Shot fired in Anger,and ,My 30 year War, would move their bodies about trying to function their bolt actions, during a firefight, they would rarely aim, and waisted their efforts screaming a charge during full frontal attacks on entrenched ready Allies.
The Type 99 is a very good, spartan like, rifle. I am sure they would make handy sporters, in the right hands!

 

[kombi1976]

It's come to a very sad situation.
It seems that in most sectors of community marksmanship comes in a distant last behind control and safety.
The fact that to attain a high level of marksmanship involves significant understanding and safe methods has passed our anti-gun legislators by.
Our police seem to have little grasp of how to use their handguns and also seem to have little encouragement to improve this.
We consistently win Olympic gold medals and yet Suzy Balough, the woman who won trap gold in Athens, couldn't even find a sponsor 3 months before the Olympics because shooting isn't politically correct.
The politicians are quite happy to make platitudes and congratulations after we win medals and press the flesh for publicity pics that make them look good.
But it doesn't stop them continually blocking us in with new legislation or spewing rhetoric about how guns kill people, not that criminals with unregistered arms kill people.
But I digress.
Let's get back to the more cheerful topic of Arisakas.

 

[f_soldaten04]

The Arisakas were excellent rifles, thats for sure. Both Arisakas(38) and Carcanos have been bashed as weak and underpowered, but really its all up to the firer to make the best use of it. Although never realised in their countries of origin(except the Breda 35 semi-auto rifle) these cartridges were adequate for semi-automatic weapons and even, dare I say, assault rifles(ie: the Avtomat). I dont know why the Japanese did not produce much more sophisticated weapons(their airforce attests to their genius). The biggest problem with the Japanese were, firstly, their arrogance, which caused them to lose many firefights. Secondly, their lmgs and mgs were atrocious. THe Type 99 was acceptible(based on the ZB 26), but im puzzled as to why the Japanese picked the Hotchkiss as a model for their outher machineguns. Its feeding mechanism needed oiling, as did their other hopper fed designs. Also, standardisation of the 7.7 mil cartridge was never realised. Because lets face it, machineguns played an enormous role, and the Japanese wnet up against the Brownings. And, of course their tanks left MUCH to be desired. Oh yes, and im sure Arisakas can make superb sporters. sorry for digressing
kombi, why would the Australian govt disarm the public of military calibers after the war? was there unrest?

 

[kombi1976]

kombi, why would the Australian govt disarm the public of military calibers after the war? was there unrest?

It was only the NSW State Govt that did it actually but that's an excellent question.
The only conclusion that I can come to is that there were HEAPS of No1. MkIIIs floating around after WW2 and perhaps they didn't like the thought of a lot of armed people.
It's been said that there'd never be a revolution in Australia because we're too apathetic and on those grounds it's unlikely there was unrest.
No, I just think it was the staggering amount of 303 rifles in the community and a little backward thinking in Macquarie Street(where State Parliament is).
Apparently there was a big fight in the early 50s to legitimise shooting as a sport and various civilian bodies got together to establish it.
One was the SSAA of which I'm a member and I'd reckon they had a hard time on their hands.