"New" Carcano; you're bad influences!

[JeffinNZ]

Team.

While visiting my home town at the weekend I dropped into the only remaining gun shop actually worth visiting and there on the rack was a very tidy 6.5 Carcano. I will post photos soon but best I can work out it is a 1891/41 that has been made into a carbine with a 22 inch barrel and a ramp/post front sight. Really tidy job as you will see. Bore is crisp and bright and there is not a mark on the stock. All sling attachment points are in place and it has the adjustable rear sight. Oh, the trigger MUST have been worked as it is sweeeet. I was pretty happy to pay only USD130.00 for it which in my part of a the world is not very much for a milsurp. Still, not everyone wants a Carcano. Their loss.

I gave it death last evening with the electro bore cleaner and she slugged at 0.2685 but I have yet to do a chamber cast. Jim at CBE has a .268 bullet mould but I am thinking depending on the throat I might go to a .270 bullet and size back.

Open to suggestions as this is my first venture away from .31 calibre.

[StarMetal]

Jeff,

Jeff Jeff Jeff, [smilie=b::groner: If it was a rifle and then was cut to carbine length you're poop out of luck. They have gain twist rifling which starts very slow and then gets very fast near the muzzle end. If they cut out the fast part there's not very much chance of it stabilizing the bullet enough. Sorry...I can only hope it was manufactured as a carbine, then you'll be okay.

Joe

[swheeler]

Jeff- GOOD FIND, hope it is an 1891/41 cut down you will do just fine, they are NOT gain twist but have a standard twist of 1 in 8+, sweet rifles. I've measured my twist several times and get about 8 1/8 and should cast up to about 175 grains.

[StarMetal]

Let's hope it is the 1891/41 because they do have the standard non progressive type rifling. I had forgot they changed in the later years.

Joe

[JeffinNZ]

SWHEELER: I believe you are right. I have looked down the barrel from the breech end and it certainly does not look like a gain twist. That and the adjustable sight had me confused for a bit as the whole carbine thing did not make sense then it suddenly dawned on me the front sight was not issue.

[StarMetal]

SWHEELER: I believe you are right. I have looked down the barrel from the breech end and it certainly does not look like a gain twist. That and the adjustable sight had me confused for a bit as the whole carbine thing did not make sense then it suddenly dawned on me the front sight was not issue.


That's great Jeff. You're good to go.

Joe

[swheeler]

Mine came with a 27 inch barrel, but the first 1.5 inches was egged from cleaning rod wear so I took it back to 25", put some sights on it from my junk draw and went shooting. I find it shoots best with bullets of .270" and have been using the Lee 277/125/R sized to .270. Enjoy!

[StarMetal]

Mine came with a 27 inch barrel, but the first 1.5 inches was egged from cleaning rod wear so I took it back to 25", put some sights on it from my junk draw and went shooting. I find it shoots best with bullets of .270" and have been using the Lee 277/125/R sized to .270. Enjoy!

Scot,

That was from those Italians running those spaghetti cleaning rods down the muzzle end.

Joe

[swheeler]

Scot,

That was from those Italians running those spaghetti cleaning rods down the muzzle end.

Joe

That's funny Joe! Before I cut the barrel and recrowned I had tipping bullet holes in the target. I also owned one of those cut down 91's, that was gain twist, it went down the road as quick as I acquired it, got my 60 bucks back anyways. One daughter can put six 160 gr Hornady, 39.0 gr AA3100 @ 2140 fps into 1.5 inches at 100 yds with open sights, about same groups I get with it at 50 yds. Neat, light little rifles.

[StarMetal]

That's funny Joe! Before I cut the barrel and recrowned I had tipping bullet holes in the target. I also owned one of those cut down 91's, that was gain twist, it went down the road as quick as I acquired it, got my 60 bucks back anyways. One daughter can put six 160 gr Hornady, 39.0 gr AA3100 @ 2140 fps into 1.5 inches at 100 yds with open sights, about same groups I get with it at 50 yds. Neat, light little rifles.

That's pretty darn good. Remind me not to ever make her mad.
Keep up the good work.

Joe

[peterthevet]

As we are poking fun at the Italians I thought I would join in (I'm allowed as one of my best mates is Italian and also have Italian brother-in-law).....the joke went like this..........who fired the two shots that killed Mussolini.............5,000 crack Italian marksman.......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[swheeler]

The original mil stock, glass bedded, redwood forend tip and cheek piece(I know redwood is too soft, but I had a couple pieces left over) RCE dakota bolt handle, Remington rear sight and some ramped front I had left, blasted it with silica sand and gave it an ML Express blueing. Fun Gun!

[StarMetal]

The original mil stock, glass bedded, redwood forend tip and cheek piece(I know redwood is too soft, but I had a couple pieces left over) RCE dakota bolt handle, Remington rear sight and some ramped front I had left, blasted it with silica sand and gave it an ML Express blueing. Fun Gun!

I see someone makes those knitted blankets in your house hold too.
Nice little carbine.

Joe

[StarMetal]

As we are poking fun at the Italians I thought I would join in (I'm allowed as one of my best mates is Italian and also have Italian brother-in-law).....the joke went like this..........who fired the two shots that killed Mussolini.............5,000 crack Italian marksman.......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Italian but can appreciate the humor. I had a boss at this one job I worked at and we became real good friends. He was German and escaped from East Germany when the wall was still up, with his family to the U.S.. I use to joke with him about how the Italians and Germans got along and were part of the Axis power in WWII. He said yeah, but you turned coat when you saw we were going to lose. I said hey, we're smart.

Did know that Italian ships during that war were heavily reinforced in the stern end so when firing the stern cannons wouldn't tear up the deck? Yup....that's because the Italian Navy probably did most their firing while running away!

Oh to keep this on topic they had Carcano's in the gun lockers.

Joe

[peterthevet]

We had a flood of milsurps available in Australia in the late 70's early 80's.......we would look down our noses at them and spend our hard earned on the latest and greatest from the US of A........now I wish I had purchased a pile of them.....yep....even made in Italy specials!!

[StarMetal]

We had a flood of milsurps available in Australia in the late 70's early 80's.......we would look down our noses at them and spend our hard earned on the latest and greatest from the US of A........now I wish I had purchased a pile of them.....yep....even made in Italy specials!!

Peter,

From some of the reading I've done on the early Carcano's the Italian tried to use the finest materials. For example the barrel steel was from Bofors which is the same steel that SAKO use to use. The rifles really are fine for the calibers they were chambered. Yes they are more difficult to scope, but they weren't thinking of that for a military rifle back then. Just like any other country that was at war their quality went down hill in order to keep up with demand.

The 6.5 Carcano cartridge is one of the most balanced 6.5's out there.

Joe

[crazy mark]

Does it have a SA in a box somewhere on the rifle. The finns bought a lot of them.

[Buckshot]

Does it have a SA in a box somewhere on the rifle. The finns bought a lot of them.

.............I think the Finn's recieved the M38's in 7.35 as the majority of those were re-imported from there, and bear the SA property stamp. Never heard of any of the M41's going there.

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