Originally Posted by
falcon
Most of the soldiers and Marines who fought in the Pacific in WWII called it "the .25 Jap". Many of the old gunsmiths called it that too.
Well, be that as it may, I'm 56 years old, my grandfather was a gunsmith, and an old timer at that. He practiced his trade in Detroit in the 50's-70's and did most of his work for the police and hunters and collectors. He sporterized many many Mausers and Arisaka's, among other military (just before he died he fell in love with sporterizing Swede's)
I've never hear it before, not from my grandfather or anyone else ..... I'm sure it's true, as many wrong labels get used .... and while I don't doubt the authenticity of the nomenclature being used, it is still wrong, as no Japanese Arisaka was ever produced with a 25 caliber bore. They may have been labeled or called that, but I'm mighty sure you won't be able to find a record of any Japanese weapon from 1900 on using a round of .257 diameter.
In all fairness though we're talking about a difference of .007 between the 6.5 and the 25 caliber, so I guess I'm just a stickler.
And Pygmy is right about the Arisaka's strength as proved by Ackley. I read that he repeatedly tried to blow up the Arisaka action by shooting 30/06 through the 6.5 rifle ... That's right... he repeatedly fired the 30/06 ammo until the barrel was sent down range with no apparent damage to the action except for the threads being toast. If i can find the link I'll post it.
I was never aware of a common use of misnaming the 6.5 X 50 as "25" caliber ... You learn something new all the time.
And while we're at this topic, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that this kind of number misnaming goes on all the time with firearms. I'll bet we could fill a book with the long list of misnamed calibers, diameters, etc that fill the gun world with opportunities for confusion.
That's what makes it a hoot to try to stay focused on the myriad of facts and tidbits in the firearms industry and history.