Kind of modern kind of old thought I'd share.

[Half-Cocked]

Hey folks so my collection has grown substantially. I recently acquired what I feel is the pride of my collection. I purchased a Carcano carbine. I got mine from Royal tiger imports.

The one I received was manufactured in early1918. Which means it was most likely used in both world wars along with a number of conflicts. Giving it super cool mysterious Provenance.

The story is that these rifles were stored by the Italian police huge plastic bins. I can tell you when I receive mine it had the smell of old books that had been stored for many many years.

Years ago I owned a nagant and a Turkish 8 mm. Unfortunately I had to let go of those things. Ever since I have I wanted my vintage rifles back however I'm not willing to pay what they're asking for now. These things used to be a hundred bucks.

So I came across these rifles attractively price at $179 when I bought mine I believe they're $199 now. I had low expectations. I can say for a hundred year old rifle this thing is in decent shape. My main concern was the bore and if it would be shootable at all. Once I cleaned and inspected everything and ran a borescope down it including removing the stock to check for rust underneath the barrel I determined that this gun is indeed shootable. The rifling is worn but not gone the muzzle will not swallow a bullet it stops way short of swallowing the bullet.

The problem with these guns is the ammo. I need 6.5 Carcano ammo furthermore I need the diameter of the bullet to be .267 I believe. those are hard to find what you can find is a 264. The 264 commonly used for the 6.5 Grendel and 65 creedmoor works with the Carcano however accuracy is affected.

Anyway on to the pics for those who are interested...

 

[CatamountRob]

I’d start by looking on the Buffalo Arms website. They carry a lot of obsolete, or near-obsolete stuff. They may have the correct bullets, brass and dies and if you’d prefer loaded ammo, they might have that.

 

[anonymouscowherd]

Old western scrounger and sgammo both have/get carcanonammo on the regular

Reloading press can always go chunk-clunk

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Carcanos are fine rifles. Sadly under rated. Frank deHaas in his book " Bolt action rifles and actions" goes into great detail about them. Great steel in those ol girls.
My personal favorite is the M38 7.35mm. Second is the M41 6.5mm
Avoid cut down M91's like the plague! They had gain twist barrels and cutting them down totally boogers accuracy.
Hornady made, and may still make .268 165 grain.
Curiously, during the 1950's, the Italians trounced our fellow's in the European military matches. M41 Carcano vs U.S. Caliber 30 M1...
Feed them right and they WILL shoot.
There's always cast bullets too...

 

[anonymouscowherd]

Here's some weirdness to consider....


The bolt face of the 6.5 carcano round happens to match 762x39

The threads on a carcano action happen to match those of a SMLE

A 303 Brit round - which the SMLE is chambered for - has a front halt that happens to match most of a 762x39... and it has the spec 311 bore diameter.

You can cut a bit off the back end of a 303 barrel and thread it into a carcano action and then use a finish reamer (or just trim tiny amounts and fit/check headspace frequently)

 

[Confederate rifleman]

And make a feed tray to sit in the magazine. Should avoid trying to chamber a round and close the bolt. Can break the extractor doing that. The Carcano is a controlled feed.
Most .303 barrels will slug .312 or larger. Had a 2 groove .316 once...
Another caliber that will work is...
The .35 Remington!
Block the clip to hold 5 and you'll have a repeater. 6 won't quite work.