Tanaka Kar98k Questions

I have posted before looking for a FPS reducing screw for my Tanaka k98 in the wanted section and had no luck. I contacted a gun smith call Mike Morecroft who has made me not one but a set of 3, each with a different sized hole in the brass screw. After a lot of testing using the different screws and with different gases and air temps he can get my 500+fps K98 down to 310fps so I can use at my local site. If anyone is interested further please contact Mike on 07914423646 or email him on theadj213@tiscali.co.uk. He has set the price of a set of 3 screws at £20 not bad when you can now use your gun a lot more often and don't have to try and make the screws yourself (not recommended).

Rob.

Just for reference mine was doing around 460fps on green at the same time. Although what ammo did you use to test yours? As we noted before there is a difference between using TM and excels and I think I used TMs.

I'm getting a bit confused now.

So even on a chilly day System-M's gun will fail chrono on pretty much anything except 134A?

But Lardy's was coming in at a legal 100fps less on Green?

Yeah pretty much. Although mine is a G33/40 not a K98 so the shorter barrel will make some difference.
The tightbore, M700 rubber set (has rubber seals around the mag etc to prevent gas escape as well as new hop) and I'm guessing excel ammo combination give his k98 a considerable increase in power. The ammo choice when chronoing might sound irrelevant when they're the same nominal weight but it we've noticed it can make up to a 20fps difference.

I'm hoping to get hold of a replacement Hop and tightbore barrel sometime. In standard form mine runs c.540FPS with Green gas, 480FPS on Abbey Ultra gas and 410FPS with 134a gas, all with BAW .20g BBs on a warm day without any restrictor, but prone to fluctuations of course. Been experimenting with Madbull 0.36g BB's, seem to be pretty good!

Slightly puzzled, slightly off track I know but - I thought the Mauser G33/40 was a full bore infantry weapon - merely a shortened K98 for mountain troops etc?
Just been looking through a 12 year old "The Complete Encyclopedia of Rifles & Carbines" by A.E.Hartink (firearms available in the US - I was looking for something completely different, as you do) and in reference to the Norinco JW25A .22LR clone it states "this carbine is an exact copy of the Mauser G33/40 SMALL BORE TRAINING RIFLE."

Is this correct, ie it wasn't a full bore infantry weapon, just a trainer? Pictures of mountain troops with them could be on exercise where a training rifle would be relevant I guess? Anyone throw any light?

It also refers to "the German weapons dealers Frankonia, and original telescopic sights and rifle slings are also available from them." This company is still trading and has a lot of interesting stuff on, albeit some is a bit pricey and all in german text of course! (search under "jagd Frankonia" - sorry I couldn't link it for some reason.)

I'm pretty sure the 33/40 used the same cartridge as the k98, it may be that a .22 training rifle was also produced based on the 33/40, I have a reference in one of my books to SMLE's being converted to .22 for training purposes, it's possible the Germans did the same.

I recently bought a secondhand-almost new Tanaka Kar98k. Which is, after a small investigation, the 'new' type. It has a restricted gas flow according to the Japanese law to stay under/at the 1.2Joule power.

With greengas, a warm day (25+degrees) and 0.20gr BB's (Hidd) I get an average fps of 380. The range is somewhere around 40/50+meters, a bit the same as my STG44. And that is not why I am using a sniper rifle

Any suggestions how I can get more range? Install a bolt which has an unrestricted gas flow? Other barrel or?

is the restrictor in the nozzle coming out of the bolt or in the mag to bolt flow area? i ask as there were a few ways it could be done, butI've not seen the full on japanese restricted versions of the bolt

back on topic and to answer System-M's musings , different FPS with different manufacturers BB's of the same weight does make perfect sense. I bet if you took a micrometer to the TM and Excel BB's you would find that the Excels have a slightly larger diameter than the TM's thus creating a better airseal in the barrel and thus a higher FPS. the difference in diameter would be tiny, for example 5.88mm compared to 5.95mm but it would be enough to make a difference.

In theory, thats why you pay more for "sniper" ammo as the tolerances between the BB's in a bag should be much tighter so your shot-to-shot consistency should be better. Of course all of that goes out the window with all the other variables of a gas rifle! temperature, humidity, gas type, day of the week, tides, solar flares, etc, etc

is the restrictor in the nozzle coming out of the bolt or in the mag to bolt flow area? i ask as there were a few ways it could be done, butI've not seen the full on japanese restricted versions of the bolt

The nozzle is different, smaller opening and you can not screw something in it compared to a non-restricted Kar98k, which had the threaded nozzle.

Sounds like a full on Jap restricted one to me. There are plenty of people on here who have upgraded their K98 hops to BGS ones, who may have the nozzles they removed laying about.

Sounds like a full on Jap restricted one to me. There are plenty of people on here who have upgraded their K98 hops to BGS ones, who may have the nozzles they removed laying about.

So basically with just replacing the nozzle (with for example an KJW/Tanaka M700 enhanced nozzle) the gasflow restriction is 'gone'?

I am totally replica-'smith' noob, since we are not allowed to have them where I live and my replica's are all stored in Belgium.

That style scopes a ZF41 isnt it? if so i think it looks rather ugly and would replace it with a more traditional scope

A bit of thread necromancy here. I have the pre-ban Kar98k. It was shooting stupid fps on green gas. I bought 144a with hope of running that, but with 144a it shoots fairly consistent 520fps, still too hot. The restrictors seem to be out of stock everywhere. Has anyone tried using HFC134a with Tanaka? What were the results?

With any gas on the Tanaka, fps varies with the ambient temperature, the hotter the temeperature, the higher the fps will be. Fps will also drop off after a few shots as the gas reservoir empties and, that drop off becomes more pronounced when the ambient temperature is lower.

You could also try reducing the hammer spring pressure (or even try a new spring) to lower the fps by reducing the impact the hammer has on the magazine gas valve.

I tried it at room temp (well, in my room). It is likely to get warmer soon and the fps will be even higher. The first shot is 540fps, the last is 520fps. Even if it fell below 500 on the second shot I would still be reluctant to shoot such a hot weapon at people.

Can you explain about the hammer spring pressure?

it would be fairly easy to fit an adjustable restricter like the one on the pps version , bit hard to explain but easy enough to do .

134a is now illegal and will be very difficult to get hold of. (If somebody can prove me wrong please tell me where, as it would help me with my 'hot' Enfield). Propane/green gas will lift the power in your Tanaka and should make it usable in the cold. Unfortunately, my experience of CO2 M1 carbines (I have two and a mate has one) is that despite being CO2, they do not like the cold at all.

134a is now illegal and will be very difficult to get hold of. (If somebody can prove me wrong please tell me where, as it would help me with my 'hot' Enfield). Propane/green gas will lift the power in your Tanaka and should make it usable in the cold. Unfortunately, my experience of CO2 M1 carbines (I have two and a mate has one) is that despite being CO2, they do not like the cold at all.

putting it mildly my co2 m1 does not even like a slight chill in the air lol , testing it again this saturday to see if we getting any better as normally it just vents the co2 after a shot or two