I've been collecting guns of all types for the last 65 years and I picked up one last week that has something I've never seen before.
It's a pre WW2 Type 38 Arisaka, nothing special, mismatched, fair condition. What's different is it seem to be magnetized.
(Barrel and receiver) and is strong enough to pick up a small screwdriver.
Anybody seen this before??


How would I go about degaussing it? (I see degaussing coils for sale at around $50. I don't know if it would even work or would be worth that for what will end up being a wall-hanger

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

I’ve never experienced a magnetized gun, but I wonder what difference it would make in a wall hanger or a shooting rifle.

Admittedly, I may not be imaginative enough to figure it out.

Of course, if you just need permission to buy a degaussing gizmo, you have it!

Doubles as a compass. Tie it to a life preserver, chuck it in the lake, and it'll point north.
Pretty ingenious.

I wonder how it got that way?

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No baby we aint

Never say never when dealing with milsurps. I now have to go to the safe with a paper clip to test mine.

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Release the Kraken

Being in close proximity to an electric current for an extended time, or somebody deliberately stroking it in one direction with a magnet.

Of course you’d need to adjust for the declination for true accuracy.

But seriously I’ve gotten excellent tools that were like that. Mostly screw drivers. It can be maddening.

My brother has this “ring thing”, (?,) that you can pass magnetized things through to demagnetize them. It’s pretty big in diameter and might be able to work on a rifle. It sure worked on my tools anyway.

Jim

Can magnets hurt watches? Rolex has/had a model to avoid that, supposedly. Probably meant for people working in high magnetic fields.

Would quartz watches be affected?

I have an ICD so magnets are on my social distance list.

Look at this video of a magnet temporarily stopping a quartz watch.

Pacemaker Safety

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Check with electronic tinkers. Might be able to borrow one.
Long long ago degaussing coils were common.
Used when servicing color TVs with the old fashioned picture tube.

Bekeart

Repeated tapping is one way to de-Gauss something. You'll have to determine how many taps it will take and you'll want to do it in a way that it doesn't dent or ding anything. I'd use a wood handle or broomstick and see what happens.

Another way is to apply a magnetic field oriented in the opposite direction of the one on the rifle. Maybe try passing a strong hand-held magnet repeatedly over the action and barrel and see what happens.

I'm curious how you end up correcting this, please keep us posted.

I found this on the net. I need to pick up 4 rare earth magnets to make it and I will give it a try.


Will post any results....

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

You wanna get a Geiger counter when you pick up that degausser. I betcha that rifle was in a warehouse down in Hiroshima when the original MOAB shook the ground and set off some fireworks.

I bought mine on the SnapOn truck...

In the war diary for my Uncle's ship in WWII, mention was made of a degaussing range set up on most of the islands in the Solomons where they passed through before departure...Sometimes they had to make multiple passes before clearance to proceed...The range was about 100 yards long for the smaller ships like his......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

We had a 40,000 pound load of pipes loaded on our plane for shipment to Trinidad. Preflight confounded us for a while since all the compasses and nav gear were fouled up.
Finally figured out that as they were loading the pipes and sliding one atop the other, it magnetized the whole mess. They had to unload and degauss them all before reloading them without the sliding action.
It worked and we left the next day. I didn’t observe the procedure so I don’t know what they actually did to degauss the pipes.
That’s my only experience with that phenomenon.
It’s possible that your rifle was stacked and slid around with many others over the years which caused it to become magnetized?

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“Look life in its iron face”

^^^THIS^^^

Or at Bikini Atoll

Take it into the closet with you and close the door, does it glow?

Most "modern" mechanical watches are "antimagnetic". I still remember when that was a feature that was written in the dial.

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Expect the unexpected

Oil well drill stem, pipes, sometimes become magnetized, I was told from spinning in the earth. Once we bought some, used, to make some gate frames, they are he!! to weld on, the molten puddle splashes all over.
Steve W

I demagnetize screwdrivers and punches and other assorted small tools including gravers which often become magnetic from use.
I use an electric soldering gun, the type with a loop w/soldering tip on it.
Pull the trigger on the soldering gun and slowly pass the tool into and then back out of the loop of the soldering iron w/o touching the loop and it'll be demagnetized.
You can feel the item being pulled by the magnetic field as you pass it through.

Maybe the Arisaka bbl would fit through the loop of some of the pistol grip soldering guns, but I doubt the recv'r would!

'DeGaussing'...never heard of the term before. Learned something new today!

On the plus side, instead of having to get hangers to wall mount it, you can just put it up on the refrigerator door.

De-gaussing ships became a big deal after this piece of heroism.

Obituary: Commander J. G. D. Ouvry | The Independent

Naval mine - Wikipedia


The British dismantle their first magnetic mine




Wind on to time 12:30.

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Release the Kraken

Turn it on end and you can use it for the door handle.

Does it glow in the dark?