Help with Carcano

JoshuaWorrell

JoshuaWorrell

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I have a Carcano with only one marking I can find which says 6.5mm on top on the barrel fluting
From what I see online it looks like a Cooey Carcano with the dual triggers
Am I able to restore this from a Sporter state? Or is this how it came? It’s pretty rough....



Not for sale/trade



 
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I think the coey carcano’s have been rechambered for 6.5 MS (6.5x54) instead of the original carcano round (6.5x52). Id say no for the restoration

Looking at the picture barrel was most likely cut, front sight does not look original
 
Cooey Carcano for sure, otherwise called an Eaton's Carcano.

These were surplus Italian WW1 rifles which were rebuilt by Cooey, complete with the Cooey 8-groove barrels, and sold as sporters. Dedicated ammunition in pink boxes of 20 also was available.

FWIW, my take on these is that they are a distinctive piece of Canadian history. To me, anyway, they should be preserved.

Yours is in a LOT better shape than many I have seen!
 
It's actually a much better rifle than most realize.

That double set trigger is a real gem. It removes my main complaint with Carcano rifles, that horrible, gritty, creepy, ten pound let off trigger.

These little rifles are light, handy and have very little recoil.

Their biggest issue has always been ammunition availability, 6.5x54 and the charger enblocs to hold the cartridges in place. That's why so many of them ended up in the trash and abused. They quickly became single shot rifles after the ONE charger that came with the rifle got lost.

They also came out at a bad time, right in the middle of the Great Depression of the 30s.

Mine has the Cooey barrel with 8 lands and a 1-7 twist rate. It's marked only 6.5mm.

The custom work on these was quite extensive. I don't know where it was done. I suspect Italy. The craftsmanship is excellent throughout.

OP, if you decide to keep and shoot that rifle, consider how much effort/time/money was put out to turn that rifle into a decent hunting rifle for the period. That conversion now, would cost a minimum of $500 just for the parts.

If it shoots like mine, it's a sleeper. The main drawback for me are the fixed sights and that a scope has to be mounted offset to allow loading the enblocs.
 
bearhunter said:
It's actually a much better rifle than most realize.

That double set trigger is a real gem. It removes my main complaint with Carcano rifles, that horrible, gritty, creepy, ten pound let off trigger.

These little rifles are light, handy and have very little recoil.

Their biggest issue has always been ammunition availability, 6.5x54 and the charger enblocs to hold the cartridges in place. That's why so many of them ended up in the trash and abused. They quickly became single shot rifles after the ONE charger that came with the rifle got lost.

They also came out at a bad time, right in the middle of the Great Depression of the 30s.

Mine has the Cooey barrel with 8 lands and a 1-7 twist rate. It's marked only 6.5mm.

The custom work on these was quite extensive. I don't know where it was done. I suspect Italy. The craftsmanship is excellent throughout.

OP, if you decide to keep and shoot that rifle, consider how much effort/time/money was put out to turn that rifle into a decent hunting rifle for the period. That conversion now, would cost a minimum of $500 just for the parts.

If it shoots like mine, it's a sleeper. The main drawback for me are the fixed sights and that a scope has to be mounted offset to allow loading the enblocs.
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Interesting. This one seems to have a nice bore. It also came with 2 enblocks with ammo!
The stock is cracked in a few places and lifting off the barrel
Maybe I should just find another similar stock and keep it as a little piece of history
 
They can be usable and accurate rifles. The offset scope mounting isn't ideal but for closer range it works just fine. Another option, which is what I had done to my Cooey Carcano years ago, was to have a set of adjustable irons installed.
 
I’ve got an old sporter that may be of interest here. The rifle started out as an M38 Calvary carbine. It has a unique scope mounting system that I have no knowledge of.
I’m not sure if it’s a factory sporter mount or someone’s homemade answer to the problem of scoping a Carcano. If nothing else it can be the head scratcher of the day ! 8DB412D2-6A92-478C-BE0F-62E7DE31C3D2.jpg
 

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I spent way way too many hours on one of these little guys as a Christmas present for my ex wife. Like six months worth of early mornings spent in the garage working on it. They can be quite a beautiful rifle with a bunch of work. I managed to get a box of brass, dies, a couple hundred bullets and maybe half a dozen en block clips for it back then too. She only ever shot it once, and has never given it a second thought since. Guess that’s why ex’s are ex’s lol

If I remember correctly, these use a new barrel screwed into a barrel stub from the old Carcano barrel, and could come loose. Was this not why they got the reputation as the ‘dangerous Cooey Carcano’?
 
kirbodog said:
I’ve got an old sporter that may be of interest here. The rifle started out as an M38 Calvary carbine. It has a unique scope mounting system that I have no knowledge of.
I’m not sure if it’s a factory sporter mount or someone’s homemade answer to the problem of scoping a Carcano. If nothing else it can be the head scratcher of the day ! View attachment 252272
Click to expand...

You may have bought yourself an old Italian rabbit hole.

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=237984

interesting book on the Carcano:

The Model 1891 Carcano Rifle : Detailed Development & Production History, New!

This book is a complete history of the Italian Model 1891Carcano rifle and variants that served as Italy's standard service rifle in World War I and World War II. It describes each major component of the weapon, as well as addressing the development of each variant in detail. One section of the book is devoted to all markings that have been identified, including those on the receiver, barrel, sights, magazine, and stock. Profusely illustrated, extensive appendices list serial numbers, production totals, inspection procedures, ammunition types, ammunition clips, ammunition boxes and packaging, ballistics data, accoutrements, and the Model 1891 as used by Italy's national marksmanship association.

Author Alberto Simonelli
Publisher Schiffer Publishing Ltd. -
Pages 320
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s-l1200.jpg
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^The pdf directly above may shed some light on your carbine.

Would the Italian Army have bothered with an elaborate target sight on an M38 carbine?
 
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