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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Carcanio 6.5 Carbine


tinkerfive

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Hey fellas.

 

 

Dad brought this back from WWII, older brother had it for many years.

Older brother passed it along to me at deer camp.

 

Now that I have it what, if anything, should I do with it?

I'll clean and oil it.

Anyone know any idiosyncrasy's about it?

Is the ammo 6.5 X 55 like the Swede or is it a different 6.5?

If different are headspace gauges available?

 

Any links to diagrams?

Haven't figured out the safety yet, let alone disassembly.

 

Tinker

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I have one, and in this particular case, I should have listened to Bill and his clan. You see, I sporterized it (at least as much as you can do with one of these).

 

The bullet diameter for the 6,5X52 Carcano is larger than the standard 6,5mm bullet. Using standard 6,5mm bullets will give erratic results, especially in the worn bores of these old curios. The correct bullet is .263.

 

PRVI PARTIZAN makes 123 gr softpoints for this caliber, and they are the correct bullet for it. I have not shot mine yet with these cartridges, but I found them at a decent price at Graff's last year.

 

Yes, the safety is about as hard to operate as the Russian Mosins. Reading from the old book put out by Williams Gun Sight Company, on how to convert military rifles, there are so many problems involved in sporterizing them that maybe Bill was right (at least on this one).

 

fritz

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One I had years ago I used to teach one of my step-sons how to shoot after we moved up from 22's. It was worn with a dark bore but reasonably accurate enough he got a standing jack with it. It might have been the old surplus ammo I had. Tremendous muzzle blast and noise but the recoil was pretty mild. He was about 11 or 12 when he shot it and didn't have any problems handling it. I can remember when clips for these were dirt cheap, maybe 10 cents tops but I hate to even guess what the clips might fetch today. If dad brought it home from the war, I'd say leave it as is, as a keepsake.

 

Any good war stories attached to it?? My former father-in-law had a good tale to go with every rifle he brought home from WW2. A portion of them not coming from heroics or combat but rather some shrewd gambling on the boat on the way home. He had a beater 7.35 Carcano he claimed he found in the invasion of Sicily.

 

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I would keep it as is and if you can pick up a cheap set of dies from obay and some brass I would see how it responds to handloads. As Fritz said, the bullets are larger than regular 6.5's but he had a typo in that the proper size is .268. In fact Hornady has a .268 dia x 160 grain slug for this rifle. I have a friend who has one and it is the most inaccurate rifle he owns. It was the first centerfire rifle that he ever owned some 50 years ago. He said he paid like $24.95 with a scope mounted. He did manage to kill a buck with it at about 10 yds. It now resides in his vault as a piece of history.

 

Spiris

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For us older guys, my friend bought his carcano from Flaigs, that place in PA that sold milsurps and such before the mailorder ban was in place. The rifle was $19.95 and for 5 bucks more they installed a mount and 4x scope. I remember seeing ads from that place in most of the gun magazines of the time.

 

Spiris

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Yeah, I made a mistake on the proper bullet diameter. Combine a standard 6,5 mm bullet with a worn bore in a Carcano, and you get very erratic results. Might be good if you are prone to flinching on every shot (and can get off as many shots as Oswald was credited with).

 

If there was ever a "magic bullet", like the one that went through both Kennedy and Connaly, and it just happened to be found in the secrecy that went on in the autoposy of Kennedy, it might as well have been from such an obsolete weapon.

 

At least that made it look better than "finding" a 30/06 slug. Or any caliber besides the one Oswald used. He must have been one helluva shoooter! Or extremely lucky. Or just a patsy.

 

Make your own decision on that.

 

fritz

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And even with the proper clip (which used to be a dime a dozen) there can still be feeding problems.

 

Oswald was extremely lucky. Or was he?

 

 

fritz

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Tinker,

 

Check out http://personal.stevens.edu/~gliberat/carcano/ for info on the Carcanos. There's a pretty good technical paper there called "shooting the Carcano" that covers about all you would want to know, including some reloading information.

 

I have a 91/38 short rifle with standard cut rifling (not gain twist) that is also know as the "Oswald" rifle. The barrel is pitted, but with the .268 Hornady bullets, 37 grains H414, mag primer, I can routinely hit a softball at 100 yds.

 

Carcanos are "different" but once you get used their quirks and the clip loading system, I think they're as simple and rugged as any other military rifle of its time.

 

Right now I'm casting up some lead projectiles from a Lee "Cruise Missile" mould from Midsouth that drop at 170 grains and shooting them over 10 grains of Unique. Accurate and should be a good small game/javelina killer.

 

Nels

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