7.35 Carcano

[jonk]

I have one, and a nice mold from CBE that drops at .301. Bore slugs at .2995 across the grooves. I also have a .301 sizer to seat gas checks (standard .30 cal ones work just fine if annealed first).

It is, however, a fairly light mold. It drops a 130 grain bullet. At cast velocities this kind of peters out at 200 yards. The bullet gets there but the group size isn't that great.

On the other hand, both some 128 grain Hornadys and some old 170 grain Herters I got from somewhere shoot good groups at 200 with jacketed velocities. Buuut...

The 128s shoot high by about a foot, the 170s low by about a foot- and just to mention, the 170s are kind of 'once they're gone, they're gone'.

I'd like to try sizing some surplus .308 150 gr bullets and try to split the difference. Question: if I went with a mild load to start, do you think the bullet being sized in my .301 die would pose any problem for the .2995 bore? If it works with any accuracy then I'd order a .299 sizer and maybe a .304 as an inbetween step.

What do you think?

[Buckshot]

"................2995 bore?"

You mean Groove right? :-) The problem with simply sizing down jacketed slugs is having the jacket possibly springback away from the lead core.

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

[Gerry N.]

I had a Finn marked Carcano in 7.35 for a while. I had Lee make up a .300 push through die set and for a joke, I sized some Hornady Cor-Lok 130 gr. flat nose .30-30 bullets. The longest distance at the range I infest is 200 yards. I could keep those bullets in a 12" bull from the bench. I don't remember the load as I gave the data cards to the guy I sold the rifle to. The powder was 3031. I have a Lee mold for the C309-130R (Discontinued) that I cast Boolits for M1 Carbine. I sized some of those to .300" for that Carcano as well. With 1cc of Unique they would hold about 6" at 50 yds. I tumbled 'em with mule snot and shot 'em without checks.

I have to give the Italians good marks on their barrels, that one was unleadable.

The brass I used was Norma 6.5x54 M-S necked up and trimmed. Much cheaper than their 6.5 Carcano for some silly reason. I also sized the M-S cases for my 6.5 Carcano.

Gerry N.

[NickSS]

The original 7.35 carcano cartridge can be called the first intermediate cartridge. The Italians determined that their average engagement ranges never exceeded about 200 meters and an average soldier could not hit anything beyond about 300 meters by aiming at it. So the Model 38 carcano has a fixed rear sight and is in 7.35 caliber. The cartride fired a 128 gr bullet at about 2300 fps and the sights are regulated with that ammo to shoot to POI at 200 meters with the front sight blade held midway up the V rear sight (not at the top of the sight. It will shoot to POI at 100 M with the blade held at the bottom of the V and 300M with the blade held at the top of the V. The rifle will shoot minute of man out to that range. I have two of these rifles and both shoot about the same. I have an NEI GC 140 gr mold that I bought for them and size to .301. With 8 gr of Unique my rifle shoots slightly low at 100 yards with the sight held at the top of the V. I get about a 4 inch group so figure that is OK for this type of rifle.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/058EDB5DDBDF445/standard.jpg

These are a few targets shot with my M38 Fucile Corto, 7.35x51. All 5 rnds at 50 yards.

1) 8.0 Red Dot, Lee C309-150F. TL, lube/sized .308" then through a .301" push through die. 1286 fps, 22ES.

2) 17.0 2400, Same boolit and treatment. Dacron. 1827 fps, 28ES.

3 & 4) 17.0 2400, Lee C309-160R. Same treatment as above. Dacron. No chrono data. Target #3, hole in 10 ring is a double.

5) 23.0 H4198, Lee C309-160R. Same treatment as above. Dacron. 2009 FPS, 17ES

6 & 8) 32.0 Surp 4895, Lee C309-160R. Same treatment as above. Dacron. 2075 FPS, 60ES

7) 17.0 2400, Lee C309-160R. Same treatment as above. Dacron. 1825 FPS, 35ES

9) 12.0 SR7625, Lee C309-160R. Same treatment as a bove. Dacron. 1583 FPS, 15ES

I don't have photo's of other experimental loads, but boolits used have been:

Lee C309-130R
Lee C309-150F
Lee C309-160R
Lyman 301136 (Original Carcano design) .301"
Lyman 311291, 175gr

The rifle is for sure capable of some very useable accuracy, but using the rear sight as it was designed to be used makes it very hard to hold consistently from shot to shot. There were other load combinations that have shot as well as most of these and some even better. The front sight was temporarily modified by the use of epoxy to raise it up to where it was useable as customary which resulted in much better shooting.

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