Japanese Type 97 6.5mm Sniper Rifle

In 50 years of writing about firearms, I have never felt like an apology was owed to any of the hundreds of rifles or carbines covered so far. That was until doing a video for Wolfe Publishing’s Handloader TV channel on YouTube. In the introduction to my Japanese Type 97 6.5mm sniper rifle, I fairly well trashed it in regard to all other World War II sniper rifles. That was primarily because the scope is mounted offset to the rifle’s bore and furthermore, there is no provision for zeroing its 2.5x scope. That was just too foreign to my American mindset.

Type 97 scopes were mounted on rifles at their arsenals and supposedly zeroed in some manner. In the 61-page booklet Japanese Rifles of World War II by Duncan O. McCollum, there are a mere two pages dedicated to their sniper rifles. McCollum indicated that Type 97 sniping rifles were chosen from the beginning of its manufacture for that purpose and scopes were zeroed at their arsenals. He stated that scopes were serial numbered to match rifle numbers.

As all experienced riflemen know, a rifle zeroed for one person will not with certainty be zeroed for everyone. Also, and especially with military-manufactured ammunition, zeroes will vary from lot to lot. Another factor unique to Japanese rifle scopes is the intricate display of hash marks on its reticles. As the photo shows, the marks are for elevation and windage changes as determined by conditions and/or range.

The only comments I can find of anyone who fought in World War II and actually shot a Type 97 6.5x 50mm comes from the book Shots Fired in Anger by Lt. Col. John George. He found an entirely unopened case of Type 97s on Guadalcanal early in 1943 and shot about 100 rounds through a single rifle from 100 meters to an estimated 400 meters. He goes on to explain the elevation and windage hash marks, although his Type 97 seemed to be well aligned windage wise. He was very impressed with the Type 97 and considered it a better sniper rifle than the Springfield Model 03A4s with 2.5x Weaver scopes that began arriving in American troops’ hands some months later.

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s Col. George theorized in his book and I agree, Japanese hitai (soldiers) or rickosentai (naval special landing troops) were trained to memorize the intricate set of lines and marks in the reticule in order to place bullets on targets at various ranges. Being raised with American scopes easily zeroed by means of windage and elevation adjustment knobs I snubbed the Japanese method as silly. Being more of a shooter than a collector, from the beginning I was flummoxed about zeroing this Type 97. In my mind, it should be zeroed at 100 yards, which has somehow become the American standard. Perhaps that’s where I started going wrong. Col. George in his book believed that the Type 97 he fired was zeroed for 300 meters.

For mounting its scopes, Type 97s have dovetailed plates screwed to receivers left sides. Scopes have integral mounts to slide into those plates. A lever pressed rearwards tightens them. After traveling about for so many years, or perhaps because my scope had not been issued with that particular rifle, there was slight play in the dovetail arrangement. No problem. A shim fixed that. However, my stubborn fixation in using more shims to get it zeroed for 100 yards wasted many hours and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

My Type 97’s bore is not pitted; its exterior is not rusted and its mechanical function is fine. Many Americans consider Japanese World War II firearms as poor-quality junk. However, their rifles, carbines, handguns and even machine guns made prior to or shortly after they managed to enmesh themselves in an unwinnable war are usually of fine quality. In some regards, they were not as well thought out in the design stage such as having rattling dust covers or flimsy wire monopods. As for manufacturing quality, they were much better than Soviet or perhaps even some British military rifles of that era.

 

There is a sure way to determine if a Japanese military firearm was picked up off a battlefield or handed out as a souvenir to Americans from Japanese stocks postwar, All Japanese rifles were stamped with a chrysanthemum atop its receivers indicating it was the property of their emperor. If the “mum” is intact, the rifle was likely picked up off a battlefield. If the mum has been hit with a grinder, then it was handed out from armories to American troops postwar. My rifle’s “mum” had been ground. If it wasn’t issued during the war, it certainly got plenty of knocks and dents to its stock in the years since Japan surrendered.

Type 97s were simply Type 38 infantry rifles fitted with scopes. As such, they were a knockoff of the Model 1898 Mauser. Instead of the usual Mauser lever safety, the Japanese adopted a round knurled knob at the bolt’s rear, which was intended for operation by the shooter’s palm, not his fingers. Also, bolts cock on closing instead of opening. Standard Type 38s had straight bolt handles but Type 97s differed with a slightly bent handle. Retained are the Mauser’s five-round integral magazine, steel floorplate beneath the magazine, strong extractor alongside the bolt and turnbolt operation. Having been introduced circa 1905, a feature shared with most contemporary bolt-action infantry rifles was its length. The barrels are 31.5 inches and overall length is 50.25 inches.

Another feature obviously important to Japanese ordnance officers was that by side-mounting the scope, open iron sights were still perfectly usable as was the ability to load magazines by five-round stripper clips. Most other World War II bolt-action sniper rifles with center-mounted scopes had to have their magazines replenished one cartridge at a time.

One thing Col. George admired about the Japanese weapon was exactly what troubled me. That was the lack of adjustment in the scope. In his opinion, and I certainly respect his experience, the non-adjustable scope was an asset. With Japan having no tradition of rifle shooting, making their sniper rifle “soldier proof” was likely the proper move. Matters would have been better had I read George’s chapter on the Type 97 before attempting my wrong-headed sighting-in attempts with mine!

Another feature of the Type 97 that George was likely correct was its chambering. He thought the relatively mild 6.5x 50mm Japanese cartridge was well suited to sniping. He believed its mildness was an asset for the short ranges of combat on jungle islands because its muzzle blast would not disturb foliage as much as American 30-06s. Japanese snipers were notoriously hard to spot on Pacific island battlefields. With that long 31.5-inch barrel, muzzle flash or powder smoke was negligible.

The Japanese 6.5x 50mm cartridge is a bit out of the mainstream compared to our modern rifle cartridges. Its rated velocity with 139-grain bullets was 2,500 feet per second (fps). Its case is semi-rimmed with a length of only 2.008 inches and an overall loaded cartridge length of 2.992 inches. The only reloading manuals supplying data for it currently are Hornady’s and Sierra’s. Here is a conundrum. Sierra’s manual lists a rim thickness of 6.5x 50mm as .050 inch. Hornady lists .059 inch for that dimension. The Norma brass that I began loading this round had a rim thickness of only .046 inch. That may have contributed to the short case life I experienced. However, a batch of Prvi Partisan 6.5x 50mm brass was purchased from Buffalo Arms of Idaho. These rims are .059 inch. Time and several loadings have not resulted in separating case heads as I had gotten with Norma 6.5x 50mm cases.

After a considerable amount of load testing, I’ve settled on Sierra’s 140-grain BTHP bullets for this particular article. Both manuals mentioned above list powders from IMR-3031 to IMR-4350 (Sierra) or H-4831 (Hornady). My particular favorite with 139/140-grain bullets is 37 grains of IMR-4350, but with the current component shortages, I found myself shy of it. So 38 grains of IMR-4831 was substituted for the following exercise with good results. The velocity of five test rounds was 2,512 fps.

Here’s where I admit mistakes. In my obsession to zero my Type 97 at 100 yards, I began shimming the scope mount with pieces of brass. Eventually, and with the expenditure of many handloads, I achieved my desire. When shooting for Handloader TV with Jeremiah Polacek, I was proud that it hit center at 100 yards on steel plates. On the last day of filming, we put some water-melons at about 220 yards on my private range. I was determined to shoot the Japanese way by using the hash marks. Two sighters were required and then only two more to show how a 6.5mm 140-grain HPBT blows up watermelons.

My first range session thereafter proved my previous foolishness. It was a hot August day so the rifle barrel heated quickly. To my irritation, its 100-yard zero shifted at least 6 inches left. That’s when I determined it was time to start over from scratch. All shims were removed, which made the scope loose in its dovetail. One shim returned and secured it tightly. Now, things got complicated. Remember the scope is side-mounted and not parallel with the rifle’s bore. That means the point of impact should be to the left for a distance, then hopefully on at some point and thereafter point of impact is right.

As said, my Type 97 scope does not carry the same serial number as the rifle. Was its original mated scope a battlefield casualty? Or, when handed out to Americans post-war, were scopes just grabbed out of bins randomly and put on any rifle fitted with a mount? That is something we will never know. Regardless, it is obvious this scope was never zeroed at some arsenal.

Already known was that this Type 97 shot about 1½- to 2½-MOA groups at 100 yards. Therefore, no paper targets were used for this exercise. All rounds were shot at 18x24-inch PT Torso steel plates made by Action Targets of Utah. The first shooting was done at 50 yards using the primary crosshair lines in the scope reticle. I discovered that holding to the right edge of steel but center for elevation resulted in constant hits on the left side about 3 inches in from the edge.

The next shooting was done at 100 yards. Again, the aim point was the steel plate’s right edge. This time, hits were centered for windage, albeit perhaps 2 to 3 inches low. This was following the script in my mind because the impact was further left at 50 yards than at 100. Next was the 200-yard shooting and brother, did that target get small in a 2.5x scope. In order to make hits elevation-wise, I had to go to the first hash mark under the primary lateral crosshair. That resulted in hits in the top one-third of the plate. For windage, aiming had to be a few inches inside the plate’s right side and I admit, hits were a bit scattered laterally. Please keep in mind that aiming a few inches on steel is very difficult to do repeatedly. Also, I must stress that arriving at the point hash marks was not done with a single shot. Once satisfied, I was “on,” many rounds were expended to verify my point of impact and cement in my memory my point of aim.

To this point, I was fairly satisfied. With careful aiming and trigger pulls, bullets were hitting steel about 100 percent at 100 yards, about 90 percent at 200 yards. Hits at 300 yards became more difficult. Using the same elevation hash mark resulted in hits in the lower one-third of the plate when there actually was a hit. Holding on to the steel for windage often resulted in a hit, albeit there wasn’t real consistency as to calling where I thought the shot would go and where it actually went. I’d say my hit rate at 300 yards was only about 50 percent.

The Type 97 was set aside for a few months while working on other projects and then pulled out for a final test to see if my memorized hash marks were valid. The first shot at 100 yards was a hit centered but a bit low. The first shot at 200 yards was a hit in the top one-third of the steel plate. But I called it left and it was. At 300 yards, a hit required three tries, but when the steel rang the bullet landed nigh-on dead center. Shooting the Type 97 as Japanese ordnance officers designed it worked better than I expected. I’m sorry I denigrated it.

Check out this video and others in our World War II series on Handloader TV.