I've heard a lot of good things said about the 6.5x50 cartridge recently and I've also heard good things about the M38 carbine. One shooter even told me that Australian soldiers fighting in New Guinea would try and capture Arisaka rifles & 6.5 ammo from enemy casualities and use it instead because of it's low recoil compared to the .303 British, excellent accuracy & also due to its lack of muzzle flash, a problem of the .303 which gave away many positions.

I did however speak with a guy who owned a M38 years back and he commented that they often had head space problems.

What is people's experience with Japanese 6.5 rifles, M38s in particular?

Brass is easily come by as Norma makes it and dies are also not too hard to obtain but I'm hardly going to try and buy a rifle that has inherrent headspace issues.

Of the 5 or 6 that I've handled none of them demonstrated excess head space. I have seen a few type 99's with excess head space, but these were late wartime production, and two of them had mismatched bolts. Usually if the firearm and the bolt carry matching s/n's the headspace will check out good, but it is always wise to have a gunsmith check out any military firearm for headspace.

Lee L.

Neraly all .6.5 X50 chambers are bored larger in diameter. That's not headspace...the measure from shoulder to bolt face....but a diameter increase. Headspace hasn't been any worse or better than any other military round. Lot of guesses as to why the cases are under diameter....could just be becasue jungle fighting and green crsted ammo still has to go in and fire.

Will find Norma cases swell at the base...not something you have to measure, can easlily see the swelling. It's jut the way of Jap rifles...cahmbers large, cases small, going to get some swelling.

Have a 6.5X50 jap, but made cases to fit the chamber (need either swaging dies or a lathe to convert more common brass). Can make passable brass by necking down .35Rem, but the necks come out too short.

Ballistics pretty well match the 6.5Mannicher-Schoenaur carbine...and that little rifle had quite a following. A 160Gr. bullet at 2200fps isn't any great shakes on paper, but ti takes a whole lot of meat to stop one.

Will find Norma cases swell at the base...not something you have to measure, can easlily see the swelling. It's jut the way of Jap rifles...cahmbers large, cases small, going to get some swelling.
Ribbonstone, is case swelling an issue in terms of safety or is it much the same as the way cases normally fireform to a chamber?

Ballistics pretty well match the 6.5Mannicher-Schoenaur carbine...and that little rifle had quite a following. A 160Gr. bullet at 2200fps isn't any great shakes on paper, but ti takes a whole lot of meat to stop one.
What sort of loads were you using to get this i.e. bullet, powder?

Someplace arround here have the "Handloader" article on making 6.5jap cases and some load data....but Hornady lists data for the 6.5X50 Jap and their data has been pretty much on the money.

The cases are too small in diameter at the head...or all the chambers are too large. The article compared modern Norma rounds to 1930's 6.5Jap ammo...were pretty close in dimentions. A list of chamber measurements showed most all 6.5Jap chambers are larger that ideal for the ammo produced.

The swelling probably isn't a real safety issue so long as you stay iwth listed data...but it has an effect on reloading. The cycle of tight tides pushing brass back to original dimeter and then expadning during firing is going to lead to case failure. IF you don't size the case all the way back to it's original size, leaving it as close to the fire formed diameter as possible, they will last a lot longer.

Would be better if the cases did fit better...that bulge is worrisome and a weak point in the system.

Tests have shown that this particular 6.5 likes the 160gr. Hornady round nose. Prefered powder is hard to guess...the Hornady data shows 6 difgfernt powders maxing ut at 2400fps. I happen to have an excess of IMR 4350 so that's what I use (36gr....that's a bit under max).

So...if 160gr. at 2230fps (with a misted max of 2400, but that's from a 32" barreled rifle) seems weak, let me assure you that it takes a whole bunch of critter to stop one of those long slugs.