Chamber Bore Casting

HuskyDude

HuskyDude

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Needs to be edumekated...

Have a Carcano 6.5 I think. (not here yet)
I know old man Cooey bought some surplus Carcanos, cut the barrel off and pressed their own barrels in and pinned them.
I'll be looking for a pin when is shows up. Have to do some more reading.
Think Cooey's were 6.5 x 54???
Have some Prvi 6.5 x 52 Carcano sp-123 gr. but want to make sure.

Like to try to bore cast it.
Mostly for the experience

Care to share???

Guess I could try to chamber a Prvi round... tie a string to the trigger go sit in the truck and pull...see what happens...
Naa...:rolleyes:
 
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Two method I have used other than the "industry standard" of ordering a chunk of Cerosafe from Brownells is to use molten Sulfur...but be very careful to stay "down wind" of your melting apparatus and do it outdoors, direct inhalation of sulfur fumes is not good for you...an understatement to say the least.

The safest way other than Cerosafe is, if the cartridge you have will easily chamber, is to pull a bullet-pour out half the powder (or use 8-10 grains of fast pistol powder if you have some avail.) and fill the remainder of the case with cornmeal...now fire it, safe as can be without tying the gun to some object out in the field.
 
I have never used the sulphur method, but read of it being done several times in older gunsmithing books. I just did a cerrosafe casting to confirm a chamber was indeed 7.65x53 - is about 4th or 5th time I have used that material - just followed the instructions from Brownells - accurate measurements won't happen until the cast has "swollen" back up.

No reason the COW (Cream of Wheat, or cornmeal) method wouldn't work, but I would not use partial load of any existing powder in the case - severe underloading often described as hazardous with some rifle powders - use pistol or shotgun powder as described above. The fire-formed case won't be exact size to take detail measurements from, but likely sufficient for an "eyeball" comparison of what went in versus what came out...
 
Cerrosafe is not available in Canada?
Not a problem ordering from the States.
Just a crap shoot with brokerage/CBSA these days.
Last 3 parcels I got hit hard...before that, it's been almost a year since I paid extra.
Wondering if my address has been flagged by CBSA now????
 
577/450 said:
Carcano is 6.5x52
Click to expand...

Thank you 577.
I'm aware of this. I have a Carcano M1891 Long Rifle in 6.5 x 52.
I just purchased another Carcano that I believe might be a Cooey. Not sure till it shows up.

The Eaton Carcano was a Carcano sporterized between the wars by Cooey (1930). The action was untouched, but it was rechambered from 6.5x52 Carcano to 6.5x54 MS, had double set triggers added, and the stock was modified.
Along the way, the original barrel was cut off and left a stub, a new Austrian made barrel was press fitted in to the remaining stub.
Click to expand...

mVmgyDc.jpg


If this is the case I would like to Chamber Cast it to see.

Found the Cerrosafe at Rusty Wood Thx Ashcroft
 
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Potashminer said:
I have never used the sulphur method, but read of it being done several times in older gunsmithing books. I just did a cerrosafe casting to confirm a chamber was indeed 7.65x53 - is about 4th or 5th time I have used that material - just followed the instructions from Brownells - accurate measurements won't happen until the cast has "swollen" back up.

No reason the COW (Cream of Wheat, or cornmeal) method wouldn't work, but I would not use partial load of any existing powder in the case - severe underloading often described as hazardous with some rifle powders - use pistol or shotgun powder as described above. The fire-formed case won't be exact size to take detail measurements from, but likely sufficient for an "eyeball" comparison of what went in versus what came out...
Click to expand...

This is quite true if your just pouring powder out and re-seating a slug, that much empty case space can be a problem but in my "offering" I am filling all case space with the cornmeal and no slug is re-seated...there should be no danger at all.
 
Just arrived...gotta find a pouring ladle.
Could steal the wife's...ya maybe not.
Ya know "Peace on Earth" and all the other crap over the holidays right!!!

urgl6ci.jpg


Edit: Back in the 60's remember watching my Dad pour lead...too bad I couldn't find that ladle....
(like this)

 
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I'm looking forward to casting a lot of my old milsurp rifles.
But really not knowing the calibre of these Cooey/Carcanos is kinda exciting.
 
Thought I'd add to this old thread.
Finally put some time into Chamber Casting my Cooey/Carcano's
To prove to myself it was 6.5 x 54ms and not 6.5 x 52 Carcano.
First two cast I did turned out fine. Enough to take some measurements.
I plugged the bore with a wooden dowel even with the second shoulder only.
Thinking it might help with ease of removal.

RCgdsGC.jpg


Then I did some reading and found that if you drive the dowel down a bit further, you could also get a casting of some of the bore at the same time.

I think this is also called Slugging the bore. Usually done with a small piece of soft lead which is hammered into the bore to get a bore diameter reading.

So my third cast turned out with some bore casting too.

3gWTLaH.jpg


You can see there is rifling right to the second shoulder.

CKPRUtB.jpg


I thought all rifles came with a "Free Bore" space? Where the is no rifling between the second shoulder and where the rifling starts.

When you're setting your bullet depth in your brass you want to be 1-2 thou from the start of the rifling.

What I see here is your bullet has no choice but to engage with the rifling right up to the second shoulder.

Or am I missing something.
 
You would be right in most cases.

The Cooey Carcano rifles were "bastards". The barrels on most of them were set back enough to be rechambered to the 6.5x54ms round.

Supposedly the rounds sold for this rifle by Eaton's Canada, were loaded light to make up for the lack of freebore/leade.

This could be possible because the bullets were pushed into the rifling a long way.

They got away with this because they were loading .264 diameter bullets and pushing them into a .268 bore.

I've heard rumors some of them had catastrophic failures when loaded to normal 6.5x54ms pressures. I've never seen one though.

I shot a lot of Norma 6.5x54ms, which is on the higher pressure side, through the rifle I had, without any issues and reloaded it later with no problems.

Husky Dude, to get good accuracy out of your Cooey Carcano, you will likely need to use .268 diameter bullets. However, you may have issues chambering the long, heavy bullets because they will be very tight in the bore. This might lead to excessive pressures
 
I just used to push a tight patch down in front of the chamber from the muzzle... and then continue pushing it out after pouring...
 
I use cerrosafe now but before I had some, I used paraffin wax. I would tie a piece of string to a cloth wad and push that a short ways into the rifling then pour in the melted wax and let cool. The purpose of the string is that if the wax casting breaks as you are knocking it out, it keeps the pieces together

cheers mooncoon
 
A few decades back I bought for cheap at an auction a nicely gunsmithed Mauser 98 barreled action (bolt properly lowered, drilled and tapped, etc.) with an excellent bore. It was cheap because the auction had no idea what the calibre was. So I drove into town to the Co-op and asked if they could sell me some sulfur. The guy at the Co-op wanted to know how much I needed and when I said, "about a cupful" he just laughed. I told him what I wanted it for and happily he understood. He took me outside and under their huge sulfur (fertilizer) bin and gave me a cupful. No charge, but plenty of laughter. I guess most guys buy it by the truckload. I plugged the bore just in front of the chamber, heated up the sulfur in a tin can on a hotplate and poured it in. It hardened up in no time and I easily popped my casting out. I measured it and it turned out to be a .257 Roberts, which was a desirable calibre for me at the time. It didn't seem all that hard to do...just so long as you don't take a major whiff of the sulfur fumes, there should be no problem.
 
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