Anybody using their Carcano for hunting?

Deano

Deano

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I am thinking of using my 1941 Carcano for bear hunnting this spring. Anybody used one? Likes, dislikes?

How do you find the Norma ammo in these? I found it didn't work very well in my carbine. Then again, the carbine could just be toast.
 
I came home from University unannounced a couple years ago because I got a chance to head up to a friends place to go deer hunting. His zone opened a week in advance of where I usually hunt.

However, when I got home I found that my dad had "helpfully" taken my rifle (and backup rifle) as well as my boots, orange, and almost all of my gear up north with him to get ready for our hunt the next week...

The only rifle I had shells lieing around for was my 6.5mm model 91/38 Carcano. I took it out for the two days and even had a quick snapshot at a deer that my friend had wounded. Hit it at about 70yds running, it dropped about 20yds from where I hit it...

A really light and short rifle if you're hunting in the thick bush, and almost no recoil so the second shot is usually right on target...

You just need to become comfortable and familiar with the ####-on-open bolt, of the carcano, if you dont hold onto the rifle with your nbon-bolt hand when you're working the action, the tendency is to pull the rifle off of your shoulder while rotating the bolt.... it's not quite as smooth as your K98k in other words.

If you've ever seen the Oliver Stone movie "JFK," you'll notice that the actor playing Oswald does just this in the scene where he's rapidly cycling the Carcano. It's hard to notice him do it, unless you've felt the rifle yourself, but if you watch here at 7:10, you can see him sort of fumble the second cycle of the action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPkCsLHK_FA
 
I've bagged a few deer with my carbines. I never went bear hunting with them before, although that is all my Grandad hunted with for Moose for many years. He never complained about them. I handload and have good results. Norma ammo shot good out of my carbines though. The accuracy isn't as good as with a long rifle BUT that extremely short sight radius on my tiny carbines may be the cause of that. I fired my long Carcano rifles at 150 yards with excellent results before . Norma ammo is loaded with .264 diameter bullets which are slightly smaller in diameter than what a Carcano calls for and if your bore is running a bit large or is fairly won, that could well be the answer to the inaccuracy. My carbines seem to shoot .264's just fine but the bores are very good.
Al
 
My great uncle shot 2 bears with his Carcano back in the 1930s. My grandad shot one with a M99 Savage in .22 Hi-Power. I guess bears did'nt wear body armor back then, like you read about these days.
 
Got pics of a lady settler in the Caribou region of BC with a .22 HP Savage 99 and two grizzly hides hanging on the closeline along with a recipe for soap/Gilbert's Lye made from the bear lard.They couldn't read ballistics either................Harold
 
6.5 Carcano round is a weak, underpowered piece of crap.

But according to my books, it is also a ballistic twin to the wonderful, deep-penetrating, light-recoiling 6.5x53 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, which everybody knows can be used on elephant, tyrannosaur and other backyard nasties.

Bullet placement COUNTS.... and there can be no argument that the Carcano uses a bullet with the highest sectional density of anything made. It WILL penetrate!

If I hunted, I would not feel undergunned with a Carcano.

BTW, some M1941 rifles, including mine, think that standard .263" - .264" bullets are candy.

Short, light, low recoil, instant packet-loading, quick unloading, effective safety (if a little unusual)..... really, I have NO idea why a lot more are not being used. One of mine has been out coyoting for the last few months and there are no complaints there, either.
 
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