Recent Import of Carcano Carbines

Oswald used a Carcano M38 Short rifle in 6.5x52 MM and none of those have been imported in many years. Recent Imports were Carcano M91 and M38 Cavalry Carbines, also some M91 TS and M91/24 TS Carbines.
 
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I got one that was in decent mechanical shape but certainly not a collectable beauty, and another one had no rifling and I had to return it. Overall, I'm happy I got one. I just with there were more M38 TS models in the batch
 
I had a chance to handle one on the weekend.......are you serious ???? Do people honestly give real money for these rusted broken boom sticks LOL
I laughed, the guy beside me laughed. and the other fellow just shook his head.
Are these even safe to fire ?
I grew up with milsurps and love them.....this is Junk !
 
lone ranger said:
I had a chance to handle one on the weekend.......are you serious ???? Do people honestly give real money for these rusted broken boom sticks LOL
I laughed, the guy beside me laughed. and the other fellow just shook his head.
Are these even safe to fire ?
I grew up with milsurps and love them.....this is Junk !
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Funny, I can remember seeing same attitude about K98's, LE's and M/N's.
The Carcano Carbine I handled was in top shape...I thought it OK as far as a weapon. Didn't shoot in truth though
 
lone ranger said:
I had a chance to handle one on the weekend.......are you serious ???? Do people honestly give real money for these rusted broken boom sticks LOL
I laughed, the guy beside me laughed. and the other fellow just shook his head.
Are these even safe to fire ?
I grew up with milsurps and love them.....this is Junk !
Click to expand...
They are that bad eh? I’d like to go check them out in stores, but everything is closed.
 
i just recieved one today. It has quite a few spots of surface rust, was quite dusty, some blueing wear on the magazine, and the bore is slightly dark but not terrible. I cleaned it up the best i could and will see how it looks after i put some rounds through it. For the money i think it could have been better spent on a 91/30 for slightly more but i just thought what the heck.
 
I bought one from wolverine supply, made in 1936 at Terni, Fair condition, stock has standard dents and dings, but no cracks, definitely dirty. The bore needs a good scrub before I can give it a proper assessment, but has strong looking rifling. The stock is numbered and matched to the rifle and a faint Arsenal stamp is there. The first bad thing I found is the bolt was assembled incorrectly and the cocking piece had to be pressed off, in addition the tip of the firing pin was slightly bent, that was easily corrected. The rifle is currently completely stripped and begin cleaned, also steaming out some of the dents. Also found some light rust to the tang or the receiver and to the magazine under the wood line, but appear very superficial.For $350 shipped I’m happy. My only other criticism is the enbloc clip that was included was packaged poorly (just throw in box) and got all bent and deformed.
 
Riflechair said:
All of the examples I have looked at have been in terrible condition.
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lone ranger said:
I agree. LOL
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Saw one of these poor condition pride of ownership guns, keyholing at the range (yes, they used the correct bullet size).
As I said in another thread, wouldn't take one for free.

You can still find Yugo Mausers in excellent condition for the same price.
 
polaris said:
Saw one of these poor condition pride of ownership guns, keyholing at the range (yes, they used the correct bullet size).
As I said in another thread, wouldn't take one for free.

You can still find Yugo Mausers in excellent condition for the same price.
Click to expand...
Where can you find a yugo for under 350? I’d buy them all haha
 
The recent batch of Carcanos flooding into the NA market were held by the Italian police forces.

So you can imagine some are in quite poor shape. Mistreated, not cleaned, and no inkling they would be surplused to collectors in the future.

However it's possible some small quantities just sat in an armory in cosmoline and will be in very good condition.
It is a bit of a lottery.

Personally I have resisted the temptation to buy one as I think any police surplus has been abused. I think many had high expectations and will be disappointed, and it will just feed into the narrative by some, even experienced collectors, that Carcanos are junk.

Yet they were used for a very long time. No complaints from ww1 histories like what the Ross had, and I love Ross rifles btw. And even our beloved gun Jesus has a video calling the Carcano M38 as possibly one of the best bolt action rifles from WW2. Is Ian's opinion not worth anything?

But if you use the wrong ammo, damaged clips, and had a poor bore in any other rifle you would not blame the entire class as the problem, but just that individual one. Like French rifles, the tropes about Italian small arms are a bore - pun intended.
 
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