Carcanos are fun, they are easy to load for and you can get some darned decent shooting out of them. They also happen to be a nice, relatively lightweight rifle with an action which is much stronger than generally appreciated and the recoil is relatively gentle. I have several, including the Carbine type, the Special Troops rifles, old-type Long 91s and even a Model 41. The Model 41 is the only one which likes regular 6.5 slugs; it also is the only one with constant-twist rifling. All the rest are gain-tweist and seem to want the Carcano bullet as made by Hornady. Stay with a fairly-fast powder; the cartridge was designed around a quick powder. Besides, if you tart loading with a slower powder, the accuracy might be okay but then there is always the temptation to buy a Special Forces rifle (21-inch barrel) or a Carbine (17-inch barrel) and these will give you monstous fireballs and thund'rous reports if your powder is too slow! The Western amo that was made for the US military and was released here back in the 1960s was loaded with a slow Ball powder; I used to get a 2-foot fireball out of my Carbine, every shot, visible in broad daylight. Fast powders are MUCH nicer: easy on the ears and they don't scorch your cap. My Model 41 really likes a light charge of 4198, of all things! I would recommend 3031 or 4895 for the Carcano, myself.
Trade-Ex (banner advertiser with link at the top of this page) stocks the correct Prvi Partizan brass in bags of 50 and they have the Hornady bullets in stock as well. This is good to know; I have had bullets on order from one local shop for the past 4 years and they haven't arrived yet due to the Canadian distributor not wanting to bring in just a small order. I had them from Trade-Ex in 10 days. Everybody and their dog makes dies for this number, ranging in price from about $35 to about $65; they all work. There are no tricks to loading it, no incantations, no spells, no virgins require sacrificing (alhough it can be fun, it isn't needed for this purpose): you just load 'em up and go to the range.
And a clip or six are necessary: the action is a modified Mauser and you can damage the extractor by tossing a round up the pipe and closing the bolt on it. Learn the right way to load the clip: they are expensive these days. If you run into clips for a 7.35mm Carcano, grab them: they are identical to the 6.5 clip. You load the clips by pushing the round straight backward into the clip at the TOP, then sliding the round downwards with the extractor groove held by the clip, then add the next round. You can unload a rifle in an instant by opening the bolt, ejecting the round on the boltface, then pushing the clip release (inside the triggerguard) and ejecting the clip, with remaining rounds, upward. To load, just open the bolt, shove a clip down into the magazine until it loks into place and close the bolt. No tricks. The safety is a bit odd, requiring pressure AND rotary movement to set or unset, but it is quite positive and removes spring pressure from the striker: very safe. Salvatore Carcano designed it back about 1867 and it still works.
Go get 2 or 3. Have fun.
See you at the range.
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, I'd say the "gamble" is worth while ! 
