Carcano shooting

contact148 said:
just checked Numrich swedish mauser 96 have a 7.5mm front sight which is taller then my carcano which is 5.6mm
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That's good to know, thanx for the information.

Mig25, I agree, those groups would be acceptable for the ranges those Carbines usually fought in.

In all honesty, I've always wondered why there was such an obsession for standard issue infantry arms to be able to reach out to 1000 yards and more, under modern conditions.

I can see where it would be useful in trench warfare, where you could ''lob'' the bullets down into the trenches of the opposition, but not in modern warfare, unless it's a special condition and then proper weapons for such actions will be brought in, if they're available.

Most of the combat I was in happened under 50 meters, usually half that and it was noisy as hell as well as fast and furious.

There was only the odd time, we shot at anything further out and most of the combatants only made "lucky" hits with issue rifles and ammo. Specialized arms with scopes were another story but so was the ability of the shooters.

It's one of the main reasons I chose an SKS as my go to rifle, after weight/handling considerations of course.
 
I received my Carcano Carbine, dated 1943 today.

Rifle is at least 90% inside and out, with all cartouches sharp and clear with very few, very minor dents. Blue is 90% or better as well, including the butt.

Bore measures .257 in the grooves and .268 on the lands.

I would rate the bore at 95% over all, shiney bright with no sign of frosting or pitting, slight wear to the edges of the lands.

Rifling is gain twist.

Thankyou Marstar for a great looking rifle at a great price with quick delivery and excellent packaging.

After I've cleaned it up from the internal grease, I will load up some .264 diameter 160 grain, exposed lead base, cupro nickle jacket, round nose bullets as well as some exposed lead base 140 grain Spire point, copper jacket bullets to see how well they shoot.

I'll also load up some .268/160 grain Hornady bullets to see if they shoot better.

This will be a fun project, but it won't happen until mid to early February. To many irons in the fire right now, along with recovering from Chemo.
 
bearhunter said:
I received my Carcano Carbine, dated 1943 today.

Rifle is at least 90% inside and out, with all cartouches sharp and clear with very few, very minor dents. Blue is 90% or better as well, including the butt.

Bore measures .257 in the grooves and .268 on the lands.

I would rate the bore at 95% over all, shiney bright with no sign of frosting or pitting, slight wear to the edges of the lands.

Rifling is gain twist.

Thankyou Marstar for a great looking rifle at a great price with quick delivery and excellent packaging.

After I've cleaned it up from the internal grease, I will load up some .264 diameter 160 grain, exposed lead base, cupro nickle jacket, round nose bullets as well as some exposed lead base 140 grain Spire point, copper jacket bullets to see how well they shoot.

I'll also load up some .268/160 grain Hornady bullets to see if they shoot better.

This will be a fun project, but it won't happen until mid to early February. To many irons in the fire right now, along with recovering from Chemo.
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Sounds like a nice gun. Pics or it never happened.

What maker, what rear sight style?

Ps: pics maybe in the other carcano Christmas sale thread, this one's more for shooting talk.
 
Claven2 said:
Sounds like a nice gun. Pics or it never happened.

What maker, what rear sight style?

Ps: pics maybe in the other carcano Christmas sale thread, this one's more for shooting talk.
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Sorry Claven, my pic sending skills are not great and I'm havin issues with a Telus phone and a Shaw IP.

I sent some pics to Paul T, maybe I can get him to send them??? I'll ask him.
 
Has anyone else noticed the gold repop stripper clips are garbage and the last 2 or 3 rounds head almost straight up?

I've tried bending the sides in a bit but no better. The metal seems a bit thinner than the original item.

Anyone tried black stamped steel repops from Numrich or others?
 
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I have the blue repro clip and the rounds are loosy goosy, lots of care needs to be taken loading the rifle.
 
MiG25 said:
I have the blue repro clip and the rounds are loosy goosy, lots of care needs to be taken loading the rifle.
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The blue steel repro enbloc that came with the rifle I just received is ''tight'' in the magwell and won't drop out unless I pull it out or force it out by inserting another enbloc.

Luckily I have a half dozen original issue units and they work well.
 
I was in error - the two black repops I bought with the rifle are the ones that work fine. It is the original gold coloured one marked SM1 949 on the bottom that fails to feed on 3rd or 4th round and onwards.
All drop free after the final round but I have to push the tips down to load with the gold unit.

Round 1


Round 3
 
Your clip sides need to be bent further toward each other. It's sprung too loose.

Clip has to be tight enough that the tops of the clip become the magazine feed lips.

This is an easy fix.
 
Also, fwiw, the blued clips were originally meant for 7.35 ammo and brass for 6.5. They are interchangeable, but the idea was to visually have the ammo look different in the field.
 
Shot my 1898 TS yesterday.
With my cast 145gr powdercoated. 8.0grof IMR RED.
1250 FPS.
I raised the front sight with JB weld.
Shot 2 five rounds groups at 100m. Forgot to take pics but, 2.5" and 4.5". Not bad!



 
Nope, not a hint of bad taste there. Funny as hell though! I can forgive it's not an M38 for the awesome, yet subtle staging. A few books would have been a nice touch.
 
Claven2 said:
Your clip sides need to be bent further toward each other. It's sprung too loose.

Clip has to be tight enough that the tops of the clip become the magazine feed lips.

This is an easy fix.
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Not an easy fix with the gold one I have. Metal is garbage and the ends bend back too easily.

I've bent it many different ways including so the sides are almost touching at the ends. Springs back open when feeding.

The two repop black ones work fine. If I need more I know where to get them.
 
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well I finally got all the bits and bobs to cast decent lead projectiles and cast a few hundred projectiles.

These are using a .270" NOE dual cavity mold. 165gn. They are dropping at around .271" using wheel weights, water quenched. I'm sizing to .270" in a Buffalo Arms aftermarket die for my RCBS lubrisizer. Lube is just regular RCBS green stick lube. Hornady 6.5mm gas checks. After sizing, lubing and gas checks, these are weighing in at 165.8gn on average.

The gas checks are a bit tight on this bullet - they would not seat reliably in the lubrisizer, you have to use a small jeweller's ball peen and tap around the edges of the checks until they start onto the bullet base, supporting the nose on a thick leather pad, then they'll seat correctly in a lubrisized. Bit of a pain in the butt, but the results seem good. They mic at an honest .270" on the base and driving bands, .266" on the parallel section of the bullet nose.

Will need to load some up to try in the coming weeks.

zmhkf9H.jpg
 
wesson357 said:
Shot my 1898 TS yesterday.
With my cast 145gr powdercoated. 8.0grof IMR RED.
1250 FPS.
I raised the front sight with JB weld.
Shot 2 five rounds groups at 100m. Forgot to take pics but, 2.5" and 4.5". Not bad!



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Thanks for the pic showing the front sight. :dancingbanana:

I sure won't spend money on a new sight from Numrich which will probably be $50 all in for a $250 gun. I ordered 2, should come next week.
 
Sorry I am late to this chat gents.
I have done extensive testing and research on these rifles. Have an Oswald clone. Gone through the talk the myths and let me say Andy has a good grip on this caliber.
Problem with Europeans is that except for the Swedes when they say 6.5 it's not our .263. Be it the Italians, Greek, or Dutch - their 6.5s are all a bit wider than .263. And you need a long flat nosed not a modern military spitzer to stabilize the round for optimal accuracy.
And boy are they accurate! Even the Carcano carbines can blow your minds at 100-200yds.
Few things I'll repeat.
1. Lots of crappy surplus carcanos. Post war police use. If it's got a #### bore don't expect accuracy. Get a bore scope to see what you are dealing with.
2. Lots of copper fouling in these. You will smell like ammonia for a long time till you get thru it.
3. The Hornady 268s with their recommended load is a 10/10. I've come close with other mixes but that formula is the gold standard IMHO.
4. The weak point of the rifle are the clips. And spitzers don't load as easily. Using worn clips and Spitzer ammo is asking for frustration.
5. Lots of front sights are ground down. Making it shoot even higher. I'm baffled by this. Either people don't know how to adjust iron sights or something happened when it was surplused and some lackey at ACME Surplus ground down thousands of them in error.
I try to add some material to mine or aim really low. One of my projects is to source out a large stock of NOS sights from Italy and sell them here.

If you want a really accurate Carcano that may shoot .263s well enough find a reference refurbished 41'. They usually have the best bores. And they were held in storage in Italy post war. They gave the Carabinieri the carbines and most of those are beat up.

The best source of info on these rifles come from - wait for it. Wait for it. Italy!
Italians have a lot of shooters and they are online. Rather than seek some American guru for tips why not try our paisano first?

This rifle gets a bad rap. My favorite video that shows this on YouTube is Jesse the Body Ventura being asked to recreate the JFK shooting. They put him on a shaky crane 3 stories up where he's incredibly unstable. He's using modern spitzer ammo. He doesn't know how to load it - he's slamming the action like a brute. And he claims the rifle is #### and could never had done the shooting. Hilarious stuff.

Keep on pushing back on the Carcano is crap myth gents. Eventually it'll sink in!
 
sledge said:
3. The Hornady 268s with their recommended load is a 10/10. I've come close with other mixes but that formula is the gold standard IMHO.
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Discontinued - anyone have a source for NOS in Canada?

I've got .268 PPU 139gr FMJ boat tail on the way, best I can do.
 
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