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View Full Version : The 7.35 Carcano and the Ly 311410



Buckshot
08-22-2005, 06:41 PM
..............Last week I had an urge to excersize the 7.35 M38 FC Carcano. I had a bunch of the Lyman 130gr RNPB 311410's all lube-sized to .310" and figured I'd give them a go, never having shot them in this rifle before.

I got out the ho-made .301" push through die and reduced them further. They drop from the mould at about .313", and as mentioned had been sized to .310". I didn't have the die down far enough and each slug just DIDN'T clear the .301" restriction. The air compressed by the next boolit being sized as it was run up ino the die would cause the first boolit to fly up in the air about 3 feet with a moderate POP!

So if I pushed the lever on the press down real fast, I had time to let it go and then catch the boolit in the air. I heard the door to the kitchen close and looked but no one was there. I found out later Donna had heard the pops and looked to see what I was up to. She said she watched me for a bit. Wonder what she thought [smilie=b: Doesn't take much to entertain me!

Anyway, since these were plain based I figured I'd load'em light to moderate. I loaded up 10 rounds each of 5 loads, none with any filler or wad, and all were fired as they were stripped from the clip.

All were with WLRP. Pistol primers might have been better. I loaded:

10.0 Unique
8.0 Red Dot
5.0 Bullseye
12.0 WC820
12.0 Blue Dot

Actually they were all "Plinkworthy" and would have easily boinked a rabbit in the head at 50 yards. Well maybe a couple might have gone through the base of an ear or so. But basicly not bad. Recoil was nil for the most part pretty much like a 22RF. Each batch of 10 was fired as a group so the barrel did get a tetch warmish toward the end of each group.

Looking at the groups, maybe a couple had one stray outside 2", but for the most part 5-7 went maybe 1-1/4", with the balance at one & a half to maybe three quarters inch. Actually the best was the 5.0 of Bullseye with 7 rounds in a little clump and 3 just a tad lower like a smile. At the first shot I was glad to see a puff of dust behind the target board as I wasn't for certain it made it all the way out :rolleyes:

This rifle was a REALLY nice light crisp trigger and a REALLY sucky sight picture. Also the chamber and throat is very tight. In order to get a .301" cast slug to chamber, I'd had to turn the casenecks to .010" and sometimes you can see yet, where it's rubbed. At that diameter, the boolits rub in the throat all the way around. I showed Deputy Al the slug in an extracted round and how it was all bright and shiny:-)

That afternoon when I cleaned it I got a few sparkelies on the first patch, but that was it.

So there it is. No big deal. Wanted to shoot the thing and did. It did okay, and I had fun. It's a neat little rifle and very simple. It's not gonna wow anyone sitting there on the bench, that's for sure[smilie=l:

................Buckshot

Frank46
08-23-2005, 03:59 AM
Buckshot, sawone at the gun show sunday. About the kindest thing you could say about it was that the hole in the bbl went all the way through. Has mucho rust and was available for the glorious sum of $75. Did have the SA in the box mark on it indicating finnish use. I have one carcano 6 round brass clip. Maybe it will get used one day. Frank