Bedding for a Cooey Carcano, updated with pics of the restored rifle

flying pig

flying pig

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Hey guys, I'm getting closer to wrapping up a project I've been working on for a couple months now, I know it sounds silly but I've put a ton of time into my wife's first center fire, a old Cooey Carcano I bought here for her back in the summer. I've put a ton of work into the stock, re finishing it and really taking my time, doing a nice hand rubbed BLO finish on it, preserving the checkering, fixing all the damaged points, removing all dents, sealing grain etc. I also rust blued the steel, probably making it a much nicer rifle than when it left Cooey, but she loves it so the look on her face Christmas morning will be well worth the effort.

Question is, how should I bed this thing? I have about a half pound of Devcon left, but on some of the older guns I'd prefer just using sandpaper and a dowel or building up with cardboard shims. I did my last SMLE restoration this way and its the best shooter I have, putting 10 shots into 2" at 100m. Do I just add a bit of up pressure at the tip of the fore end and see what it does?

*disclaimer, this thing was bubba'd before bubba pig decided to 'improve' it yet again.
 
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I would bed it solid around the action and to halfway up the chamber, then float it after that, possibly 3 to 5 pound upward pressure at the tip of the forestock.

That seems to work for most half-stocked rifles.

Hope your Lady likes it. They are fine old rifles.
 
Smellie, thanks a bunch, I'll have no troubles setting it up like that.

Pics on the way, the metal parts are all done bluing. I have them bathing in some oil that was run in a diesel pick up for 25,000km (sic) for a day or two and then it'll be on to bedding and final assembly, pics to follow. I've put probably 100hrs into this thing, hopefully she loves it!
 
"...hand rubbed BLO..." That won't do anything. Tung oil gets rubbed in. BLO gets swabbed on.
"...cardboard shims..." One hunt and you'll have a soggy mess. Use brass. Mind you, you're spending a lot of time and money on a rifle that you'll never get back. You have an ammo source?
 
Well Sunray, I hate to prove ya wrong, but if you have enough patients and some willpower you can do anything.

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The rear sight needs replaced though. It mounts via dovetail. I have no idea what would be available to replace it with. I'll make it work for now though if I have to.
 
sunray said:
"...hand rubbed BLO..." That won't do anything. Tung oil gets rubbed in. BLO gets swabbed on.
"...cardboard shims..." One hunt and you'll have a soggy mess. Use brass. Mind you, you're spending a lot of time and money on a rifle that you'll never get back. You have an ammo source?
Click to expand...

Yes he's spending time and money but so what? That is a nice rifle and worthy of a rest, not to mention that it's a gift for his wife so it's a worthy cause.

As for ammo, that's easy buy some brass from trade ex, RCBS makes dies and some .264 flat base bullets and he's off to the races!!
 
I have enough brass here to last 10 years and enough bullets for at least one summer. Also dies etc. Could use a couple spare chargers though as she only has one.

Better pics:

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Wow! Nice job on the Cooey/Carcano. First one I've ever seen....and now I want one!
I've owned milsurp Carcanos way back, but the one you have should be a tack driver for
sure, provided the bore is .264" and not the larger .268" that Carcano's normally had.

Were these Cooey modified rifles merely rechambered to 6.5 x 54 or rebarreled.?
Love the set triggers!:)
 
SHELL SHUCKER said:
Wow! Nice job on the Cooey/Carcano. First one I've ever seen....and now I want one!
I've owned milsurp Carcanos way back, but the one you have should be a tack driver for
sure, provided the bore is .264" and not the larger .268" that Carcano's normally had.

Were these Cooey modified rifles merely rechambered to 6.5 x 54 or rebarreled.?
Love the set triggers!:)
Click to expand...


I can't remember for sure but I think they kept the chamber stub off of the original barrel and re chambered it then added on the .264" barrel ahead of that. Smellie has said how they did it on here previously but I'm not 100% confident I remember it right. These little critters can be had very cheap. This one was $100, although it looks very very different now than it did.

Thanks for the compliments guys, I hope after all this work that she'll let me try it out!
 
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ACHTUNG! I just did a quick search on these rifles. If it has an Eaton stamp on it, you best not fire it with your
standard 6.5x54 ammo. Turns out these post WW1 rifles were made by adding a .264 barrel by means of a sub chamber inserted into the original chamber. In otherwords, you have a 3 piece system of barrel attachment to reciever held together by a short stub screw. These are not properly sleeved and are dangerous to fire with industry standard loads.

You did nice work on the beasty, but if you must fire it, use a cast lead bullet ahead of about 8gr. of Trail Boss to be safe. Better yet, order up a nice McGowen barrel from Mystic Precision to the specs you prefer.

Don't shoot factory stuff or milsurp from that rifle!:(

I still want one though.....to fix up right.
 
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Dude!!!!!! SERIOUSLY nice restoration job! Depending on the size of the dovetail, you should be able to acquire some nice Williams replacement rear sight. I'd also love to see a range report and the final product pics. Lovely work! I hope your lady appreciates it.
 
Nice job Pig -- they are nice rifles - the double trigger makes it nice if she can get used to them.
The old myth about the shank bbl is a myth - if the set screw is in and its tight - its good to go.


I gotta admit I will have to look at re-slugging mine or look at my notes to see the bore diameter.
 
Ok, did a whole bunch more research on these conversions and Andy's test shows that
while his brass came apart, the action of the rifle held up fine. His test load put
pressures into the 100,000psi range.

So shooters should be ok to shoot factory as well as reasonable handloads through these
rifles, provided the rifle is in good, servicable condition and with tolerable headspace.:)

Myth Busted. Now I want one even more.;)
 
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