Took my Arisaka to a gunsmith to see if a probable headspace issue could be fixed. Answer- NO! Definitely had a headspace issue, but the worse part was the chamber was eggshaped and the bore oval as well. Smith said it would take a minimum of $350 to $400 to even get it in decent shooting shape. Gun not worth it to say the least. Will take that money and get a better functioning rifle that does not require any repair (as long as financial manager- aka "WIFE" approves). Was really looking forward to using that rifle for the local deer population and to possibly whack a piggy or two and varmints. Now have to see if the rifle is worth anything (& if any interest)as a "parts only" sale.
Have the rest of the 6.5 items for sale in classifieds if anyone interested.

Too bad on the rifle, have only shot one of those and it was rechambered to 6.5X57. It was a good shooter and those are one strong action. IIRC Ackley determined it was one of the strongest actions of all he tried to blowup.

Can it be reamed to 257 Roberts to clean up the chamber? Assuming the headspace can be sorted.

.257 vs. .264 unless I am missing something here? I would make it a wall hanger.

Bore and chamber being oval are not good things or cheap to fix, basically a new barrel is required at the least.

There are a lot of Arisaka rifles out there which were rechambered to 6.5X57 which the brass for that round can be made from 7X57 or 257 Roberts brass. The one Arisaka I have loaded for was chambered in that round.

An oval bore ? I never heard of such a thing or how it would happen short of running it over with a tank . Type 38 rifles all have an oversized chamber , made worse by shooting undersized Norma ammo . The case comes out looking oval . That is not a headspace problem . I think you might need a new gunsmith ?

kmon1,
That was what I thought could be done. REALLY wanted to keep the 6.5mm bore

Classic,
That is the same thing another smith wanted to do (for $250). As TEXASTEACH said, could not understand how an undersized bullet could be accurate enough. Seems to me that velocity would be down from gases escaping around projectile.

Diablodog,
Actually was THIRD gunsmith to tell me same thing.
Headspace problem for sure- blowing primers almost completely out of brass. One smith said the headspace was about 0.031mm (?? I think that was the correct measurement??). Was told bore oval (out of round) at chamber start and barrel opening because metal ramrod without spacer used VERY aggressively.

The quality control late in the war was almost non-existent. If it would chamber and fire a round, it passed muster at that time and place.

I had an Arisaka that was rebarreled for 7x57. It was quite accurate but had feeding issues and looked pretty ugly. A girlfriend ran off with it, and I philosophically decided to consider it a favor on her part.

Back to the rifle in question . What ammo was fired with the backed out primer ? There are several type out there that under loaded enough and have small enough cases to make a primer back out about .030 . I have seen that often with rifle that are fine . Cleaning rod damage is not an oval bore , it is damage . There is no way for me to say much about that with out seeing it . It may still shoot ok ????

I agree; get a second opinion from someone familiar with Type 38s. I'm working on acquiring parts for mine before I decide on setting back the original barrel or rechambering.