Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[car99]

The thing I didn't say when describing my new TK series 30 was that the stock seam gradually widens towards the butt. I took the plate off and saw what looks like a 7th grade shop project. the dove tail is not tight on all 3 sides and even has a shiv inserted on the right to fill the gap. My question: is this unusual, unexpected or did somebody monkey with it? I did manage to shake out some dirt and closed the gap a little. The seam is perfect behind the trigger guard and only starts to widen 3-4" back.

[gwsiii]

Some separation is inevitable, I agree, Its possible someone tried to 'shop fix' yours already, that is an early rifle and would have had very high standards so I doubt a 'shim' would have been used. They'd have rejected the stock and grabbed a new one.

I've had a few friends tell me that they had used elmer's and clamps to 'mend' this problem with good results. I haven't personally tried it, but have seen the finished products. One was able to slide the bottom half off, clean the dovetail(s), apply the glue (sparingly so it didn't bleed onto exterior) and slide back on, clamp, inspect closely for exposed glue, and left over night. It looked like a different gun. Another was unable to slide the bottom half off, so he cleaned what he could, then applied the glue to a hacksaw bladed, inserted it as far as he could into the stock, removed it and repeated where he could, then clamped it down over night, looked good as new. Be sure to protect the stock from the clamps, use some extra blocks of wood. You might try a 'dry run' with out the glue to see how far back together they'll go.

If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, you might contact John Wilshire, jwbattleflag=@=aol.com (remove the equal signs), he does good work reasonably. I'm always afraid I'll screw something up, so I just live with it, other than light cleaning, and flicking paint off, unless I send it to John. Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[car99]

Took off the butt plate to have another look and identified a TK5 inspection mark on the upper stock. I don't think I have the skill to make it better, and since it really doesn't look bad I'm willing to leave well enough alone. The shim appears to be as old as the rest of the stock from the color and crud around it; maybe a field repair?