So GNG is blowing these out for Christmas at $288 and I thought it might help show what you might get when you buy the Cheapest retail Carcano in Canada right now.
https://greatnorthgunco.ca/product/italian-carcano-m38-3/
Here is the ad copy:
Mostly I'll let the photos speak for themselves. These were taken after a disassembly, cleaning, stock rubbed down twice with BLO and ragged off, left to dry overnight. All active rust removed from the metal using brass scrapers followed by spot treatments of oiled bronze wool. The bore is actually VG+ to excellent. Maybe minor wear, but shiny and no pitting. There was no cosmoline in the gun at all, apart from some old dried stuff under the extractor. This example is a matching non-refurb Brescia from 1941, apart from the bolt, which is an early Terni Moschetto bolt. I suspect these guns were stored separately from the bolts though (bolts aren't numbered on Carcanos) and a matching factory bolt is likely luck of the draw.
As you can tell, stock has never been sanded (obviously) and there were two spots of deep crusty rust. One on the side of the magazine housing (you can see it post-cleaning in pics), and one around the edge and under the forward magazine housing tang. That patch didn't leave many deep pits though.
Screw heads in a few places (rear sight base and magazine screws for the follower and mag catch) were buggered up. I had to re-peen the slots back into shape. The rear sight bakelite button has some cracks and gouges but is holding up still.
No cleaning rods included in the butt. One brass clip was included, it arrived bent up, but I was able to re-form and salvage it. Gun had no bubble wrap, just a quick wrap in brown packing paper and into the shipping box. Packing held up OK though, CPC didn't mangle it.
I've seen many other where the stocks looked a lot better, but they could also be sanded refurbs - hard to tell on internet photos sometimes. Bores seem to rate from strong but dark, to excellent from the few reviews I've seen. Because of the beat up stock and pitted metal here and there, I'd call this one NRA surplus Fair (not good or very good). But it's functional, no stock cracks, and should shoot as well as these carbines can manage. I suspect some people are drawing luckier catches.
Photos:
Let's see what others are getting at this price point?
https://greatnorthgunco.ca/product/italian-carcano-m38-3/
Here is the ad copy:
Mostly I'll let the photos speak for themselves. These were taken after a disassembly, cleaning, stock rubbed down twice with BLO and ragged off, left to dry overnight. All active rust removed from the metal using brass scrapers followed by spot treatments of oiled bronze wool. The bore is actually VG+ to excellent. Maybe minor wear, but shiny and no pitting. There was no cosmoline in the gun at all, apart from some old dried stuff under the extractor. This example is a matching non-refurb Brescia from 1941, apart from the bolt, which is an early Terni Moschetto bolt. I suspect these guns were stored separately from the bolts though (bolts aren't numbered on Carcanos) and a matching factory bolt is likely luck of the draw.
As you can tell, stock has never been sanded (obviously) and there were two spots of deep crusty rust. One on the side of the magazine housing (you can see it post-cleaning in pics), and one around the edge and under the forward magazine housing tang. That patch didn't leave many deep pits though.
Screw heads in a few places (rear sight base and magazine screws for the follower and mag catch) were buggered up. I had to re-peen the slots back into shape. The rear sight bakelite button has some cracks and gouges but is holding up still.
No cleaning rods included in the butt. One brass clip was included, it arrived bent up, but I was able to re-form and salvage it. Gun had no bubble wrap, just a quick wrap in brown packing paper and into the shipping box. Packing held up OK though, CPC didn't mangle it.
I've seen many other where the stocks looked a lot better, but they could also be sanded refurbs - hard to tell on internet photos sometimes. Bores seem to rate from strong but dark, to excellent from the few reviews I've seen. Because of the beat up stock and pitted metal here and there, I'd call this one NRA surplus Fair (not good or very good). But it's functional, no stock cracks, and should shoot as well as these carbines can manage. I suspect some people are drawing luckier catches.
Photos:
Let's see what others are getting at this price point?
Last edited:
