So far I know when the Japanese rifle powder was compared to American with equal powder charges it wasn’t superior in being flashless. model 1905) has 2,24g powder charge giving muzzle velocity 730m/s (from Arisaka 1905 rifle) with 9,0g bulletĦ.5mm Swedish Mauser has 2,33g powder charge, MV: 710m/s, bullet: 10,5għ.5mm French (for Chatellerault machine gun) light bullet has 2,89g powder charge, MV: unknown, bullet 9,0għ.62mm American light bullet has ~3,25g powder charge, MV: 850m/s, bullet 9,8għ.7mm British with bullet Mk.VII has 2,31g powder charge, MV: 745m/s, bullet 11,3għ.92mm German with S bullet has 3,14 powder charge, MV: 890m/s, bullet: 10,0g This is caused by very simple fact that Japanese 6.5mm rifle cartridge has smaller powder charge than other current military rifle (data from Альбом конструкций патронов стрелкового оружия):Ħ.5mm cartridge type 88 (i.e. I might add that my own (sporterized) 6.5 x 55mm Swedish Mauser, even with a 20″ barrel, has significantly less signature than a typical. “the 6.5mm rifle was very hard to spot at ranges greater than 150 yards or so, even when it was actually shooting at you. Having learned their lesson from the war- by losing it. The Japanese logistics system was much less organized and effective than you would think looking at Japanese commercial manufacture and shipping today.īTW, the Japanese car makers, etc., patterned their logistics in the postwar era on those of the U.S. While they were supposed to be “mated up” at the far end, there was apparently no guarantee that the correct crate of rifles and its matching crate of scopes would arrive at the same time, or even at the same unit. During the war, when the rifles and scopes were shipped from the factory to the frontline units, they were shipped in separate crates, with the scopes in their cases carefully padded to protect them from being damaged. The scope/rifle mismatch may not have been the fault of U.S. My prof confirmed that the 6.5mm rifle was very hard to spot at ranges greater than 150 yards or so, even when it was actually shooting at you. The snipers did not like those dogs, even though Hollywood to the contrary, they were trained to lie down at a safe distance and point, rather than attack. One of my college profs, a Marine Recon veteran of the campaign, said that their usual method of ferreting out said snipers was to use their dogs, who could sniff them out. The would wait for an American unit to pass their position and take it under fire from behind. According to Jack Coggins in his book The Campaign for Guadalcanal (Doubleday, 1972), Japanese snipers on “the Canal” often operated from “spider holes”, foxholes about 2 1/2′ diameter by 5′ deep, with camouflaging covers.