I recently dropped by a local pawn shop, and they had a 6.5X52mm Carcano Model 1891/41. It was in great shape. The stock only had one small ding on it and was very clean. Bore looked very good. Could not see any pitting. Crown looked good as well. It came home with me.
I immediately ordered a set of Lee dies and some 6.5X52mm Carcano brass from Graff.
I cleaned the bore thoroughly and did not find any indication of copper filing (blue patch) when using an ammonia-based solvent. Maybe the previous owner had already removed any copper filing in the barrel.
I slugged the barrel and it measured 0.2682. Looks like this is in the expected range.
The dies and brass arrived. I put the new #2 shell holder in my hand primer and the rims would not stay in the shell holder. Could not prime the brass. I had a couple of old #2 shell holders in my possession and I tried them. They both held the rims in place, and I primed the new brass. I sent an email to both Graff and Lee on my discovery and they both responded quickly with Lee placing a new #2 shell holder in the mail.
The only 6.5mm mold that I have is a Lyman 2660469. With powder coating, it only measures 0.2660. With a gas check snapped on, I can get it up to 0.2685. Basically, the same as the bore slugged measurement. Turns out, the new brass has an OD of 0.290 and an ID of 0.264. I loaded some rounds to see what I had bought.
I loaded some 5 grains Red Dot and 7 grain Red Dot loads. At fifty yards with iron sights, both loads gave 5-shot groups less that 2 inches. POI was a little high with the lowest sight setting and off the left.
I neck sized one of the fired cases. The fired case had an OD of 0.299 and an ID of 0.273. The neck-sized case had an OD of 0.286 and an ID of 0.261. The decapping pin expander measures 0.263. No chance of the PC-ed, GC-ed 0.2685 boolit working with the unsized case ID and the neck sized case ID was too small. I thought about paper patching the unsized cases. I remember seeing a post about someone using Teflon tape to paper patch. I found that an 1.5 strip of Teflon tape will bring the GC-ed boolit up to 0.2777; about two complete wraps. I can seat the boolit, my hand, then give it a very light crimp and it will hold in place. A little overlap of the boolit base, by the tape, appears to hold the GC in place. A 10-shot group, using 7 gains of Red Dot, gave a 50 yard group of slightly less than 4 inches. Not as good as the new-case grouping.
The new #2 shell holder arrived from Lee. I decided to try it. Same problem with the replacement shell holder. I considered that the brass make be the problem. I measured the rim on five cases. They ranged from 0.4470 to 0.4480. I believe the design dimension is 0.440. Dont think the brass is the issue. Not sure what is going on with the new shell holders.
I need and will be buying a new mold. I am looking at the NOE 270-147, 270-151, and 270-165 molds. Anyone have any suggestions on which is the better mold for a 6.5mm Carcano? Barrel is 27.2 with a 7.9 twist. Would love to find a used mold but that may not happen.