Carcano Opinion

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MattE93

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I just received a carcano I bought from auction. The rifle is a matching 91 TS carbine made in 1899. The metal under the wood is pristine with good blueing and the bore is shiny with sharp lands and groves. The wood is in nice shape but needs some oil as it is definitely a little dry, I think I’ll use the BLO for this purpose.

The only not great thing about the gun is some surface rust/pitting on the left side of the receiver above the wood and on the magazine well. What are people opinions on this? Is it just surface rust or is it pitting. If it’s rust I may tackle it with 0000 steel wool and oil. If it’s pitting is fixable/salvageable or should I leave it alone and how can I stop it from spreading? Aside from these spots this rifle is in very nice shape

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Oil er up son.

I see no problem taking the 4x steel wool with some thick oil and getting it stopped. Looks like a combo of a bit of pitting and some gentle corrosion.

I'm looking forward to my auction arrivals too...I got one of the Mannlicher Schoenhaurs. I wanted the 1903 but I clicked a little to slow.

If you're reading this 1903 guy, DM me let's do a deal lol
 
What Coffice said- oil her up with some fine steel wool.

Oily/greasy rag works afterwards works wonders,there are some modern, possibly better,alternatives for that but I'm too cheap to try them.
 
Defintely don’t want to deteriorate it any further but want to stop it from spreading and remove what I can in terms of rust. The gun is 121 years old so a little rust and pitting is understandable
 
Anyone know what the stock finish on Carcano rifles was? The stock on this is dry and needs some moisture added back. Is boiled linseed oil appropriate?
 
MattE93 said:
Anyone know what the stock finish on Carcano rifles was? The stock on this is dry and needs some moisture added back. Is boiled linseed oil appropriate?
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For dry wood just put some raw linseed oil on the stock, let it sit. If its really dry the oil will penetrate the wood you can add more until you are satisfied or the wood stop to absorb it. Then wipe it all down and let dry and voila. BLO will dry and get gunky if you dont wipe it in like 5 min. Raw linseed oil can sit on the wood for as long as it need too without issue

And like tiriaq said, bronze wool is the way to go

Edit: Gun look like it was in a water damaged basement, rusted all over by humidity and buttstock soaking in water you can kinda see what look like a water mark. I might be wrong but this is how it look to me. Give her a good home, she had a long life lol
 
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Sadly, there is no way to remove the pitting.

However, there is a really simple way to get rid of the rust and scale on the metal.

This is the method I use.

First, Get a bottle of liquid WIPE OUT.

Take everything out of the stock that you intend to work on.

Clean all surfaces with alcohol.

Soak large patches in WIPE OUT and rub it all over the areas you want to clean. Set it down and come back in half an hour, with a bunch of 000000 steel wool.

Soak a 2cm clump of the 000000 steel wool with WIPE OUT and start rubbing down the areas you want to clean. YOU DON'T NEED TO RUB HARD. By this time, the wipe out will have softened the upper layers of the rust and you will have a rust colored film on the metal. Wipe it off with an alcohol soaked rag and start the process all over again.

Repeat until everything is where you are happy with it.

Sometimes this process will take a couple of days. Depending on how long the rust has been there, it may only take a couple of treatments.

Don't use the 000000 steel wool as an abrasive, by pressing to hard on it, while wiping the area. It is just about perfect for the job, simply because it is just harsh enough to pick up the softened rust, without harming the remaining blueing.

There is one thing you may not appreciate. The WIPE OUT solution is aggressive enough that it will penetrate right down to the shiny metal at the bottom of the pits.

From your great pics, I would say that lovely rifle is now in the "shooter grade" collectible class. If it were mine, I would prep the metal by boiling it in water, letting it air dry, then apply some cold blue solution while it's still to hot to touch with bare hands.

The pits will still be there, but you will have to look for them and you will have a great shooter. That rifle should have gain twist rifling.

Nice rifle, enjoy it before passing it on to the next care taker.
 
The weird thing about the rifle is the receiver and mag well look like they weren’t taken care of with rust on them. But all of the metal under the wood is pristine with not a trace of rust and the bore is one of the best I have ever seen on a milsurp. It’s like it was neglected but also treated well at the same time
 
Good thread.
Like others have mentioned starting to shy away from steel wool except for maybe buffing up some cold blueing.
Found some Bronze Wool on Amazon. Really like that. Buy a couple bags at a time. Once you start using them, ya quickly fine other uses.

Rifle looks like it sat in a damp basement, maybe even on a wet carpet.

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Yeah looks like a water mark, butt plate was very rusty but it was surface rust and came off easy with no damage. Whats everyone’s opinion on touching up putting marks with cold blue on old rifles?

Destroy value or a good way to stop the rifle from further damage.

From what I gather my two options are remove the scaling to white metal and cold blue touch up or leave it as is and oil it regularly to stop the advance of further rust.

Weirdly enough the barrel, sights and bands didn’t rust like the mag well and receiver did but appear to be of a different steel composition
 
MattE93 said:
Yeah looks like a water mark, butt plate was very rusty but it was surface rust and came off easy with no damage. Whats everyone’s opinion on touching up putting marks with cold blue on old rifles?

Destroy value or a good way to stop the rifle from further damage.

From what I gather my two options are remove the scaling to white metal and cold blue touch up or leave it as is and oil it regularly to stop the advance of further rust.

Weirdly enough the barrel, sights and bands didn’t rust like the mag well and receiver did but appear to be of a different steel composition
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Please god no dont
 
MattE93 said:
Yeah looks like a water mark, butt plate was very rusty but it was surface rust and came off easy with no damage. Whats everyone’s opinion on touching up putting marks with cold blue on old rifles?

Destroy value or a good way to stop the rifle from further damage.

From what I gather my two options are remove the scaling to white metal and cold blue touch up or leave it as is and oil it regularly to stop the advance of further rust.

Weirdly enough the barrel, sights and bands didn’t rust like the mag well and receiver did but appear to be of a different steel composition
Click to expand...

The damage you show to the wood, as well as the rust are from storing the rifle improperly, after cleaning it up and putting it away. That butt and some of the corrosion is from a damp concrete floor. The is only on the metal that was exposed to a damp atmosphere.

As for putting some cold blue on it, the real potential value of the rifle is already GONE. That rifle will never bring a premium price on the markets and IMHO it's a prime candidate to use as a shooter.

If you clean off those rust spots, down to the bare metal underneath, you will have SHINY PITS instead of dull looking pits and that will look even worse. Clean the rifle up, using a cleaner that won't be abrasive and enjoy it. If you're looking for a collectible sell it.
 
I don’t think the stock is water damaged now that I look again. A lot of carcano rifles seem to have a little bit of black near the butt plate and when I pull the plate off the wood is in great shape underneath.

As for the rust, I think I’ll remove the light surface stuff but leave the scale over the pits. I think the shiny pits will look worse than it does now. How do I best stop the rust from spreading? Just oil it up?

I think this one still has some collector value being a 1899 carcano carbine. That was the first year they were ever made
 
I would leave that stock just the way it is, maybe the raw linseed oil approach until I was satisfied.

It's all character marks, and I wouldn't reblue anything. Shoot it, enjoy it, it's probably got plenty of stories to tell if it could talk - don't let it's character diminish in the pursuit of aesthetic!
 
Your rifle looks good, sadly the previous owner likely had issues maintaining his firearms before they were sold/passed on. You should be able to neutralize the rust per some of the suggestions above. It looks to be all external from what i can see in the pictures so should once treated be a very functional piece still. That being said I have never shot a Carcano….

If you could ask him today, i bet he would say he doesn't like them very much.

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Thanks for taking me off the ledge guys. I’m going to leave it just the way it is. Netrualize the rust, give it a good oiling and oil the stock a bit just so it doesn’t crack from firing. The internals and the metal hiding beneath the wood are all in exceptional shape. It’s only the exposed metal that has some rust. My priority is ensuring the rust doesn’t spread

Here are some bore pics

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MattE93 said:
Anyone know what the stock finish on Carcano rifles was? The stock on this is dry and needs some moisture added back. Is boiled linseed oil appropriate?
Click to expand...

Just spray G96 on it, let it sit, and then wipe off. You will be amazed.

Steel wool with oil is fine, go gentle and slow, make sure its very fine. Otherwise use bronze wool to lessen the risk of removing bluing.

Then wipe with rag.
 
Cleaned up decently. Only part that still isn’t very attractive is the mag well but the rest turned out pretty good. This photo shows that the rust didn’t eat all the way through the blueing and didn’t leave very deep pitting at all.

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