Quote Originally Posted by dave View Post
That Jap rifle being the strongest action has never been proven or really tested. One or two incidents where they survived severe abuse speaks only to the individual rifles involved. Just like the low number '03 some blew (80 or a 100?) and many more are still being shot.
Well, yes, and no. There has been testing done that shows the early to mid war and even all but the last of the late war rifles had incredibly strong actions. Some anecdotal evidence and some scientific testing has generally backed this up. As you point out though. No one has ever taken a consistent sampling of, lets say 100, of each rifle ever made and tested the metal for composition and hardness and then done well documented tests to see what the failure point is. I will say this. Just like the Enfields "weak" action. Out of the hundreds of photos of "blowed up" actions I have seen. I've never seen a Jap "blowed up". I still hear stories from time to time about how on Ijjy Jeemy, Bubba's granpa seen dead Japs all over the place with the bolt stuck through their forehead. I attribute that to granpa being entirely full of horse$@#*.

Just looking at how it works and the engineering side of it. I'd say the T99 should be on par with any Mouser. The T38 has recoil lugs that border on wasting strategic material. Those are actually the only two actions they built from 1905-1945 as every bolt action model they made during that time was either a Type38 action or Type 99 action which is really just a slightly modified Type38 with several parts being completely interchangeable.

In summary, I am more skeptical of claims of weak Japanese actions than of claims of them being the strongest (excepting very late war). And yes I know Mouser is spaelled Mauser.