Old Eatons Cooey Carcano Adds

Thanks for posting the pics and all the info. It seems that a lot of shooters didn't get the memo about these rifles being unsafe to shoot. I bought one from an old fellow. He gave me a part box of 6.5 Jap to go with it. IIRC, a few had been fired, but I don't recall if I measured them up to see if they had been fired in that rifle or not. Back in the 1930's, my Dad had a "6.5", but I have no idea what it was.
 
Ok, fair enough but I am waiting on a law prof at the University to get back to me on whether a suite was filed. Yes, you are right, they are just as safe to shoot as any other rifle, all of mine are tack-drivers. I think what happened was that some people fired 6.5 (.268) Carcano through a .264 bore, probably got a little blast of hot air and singed eyebrows but for sure the action held. I chamber cast two of mine and there is a good lead on the throat so some fools may never pay the price.
 
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Great ads - thanks for sharing.

As for studying this, I'm about 12 years ahead of you......

I have John Belton's (RIP) book and corresponded and spoke with him a few years back on the subject of the "Cooey Carcano". While I disagree that these rifles are of weak construction and are not safe to fire, I wouldn't say that he published "false statements", rather I'd soften it a bit to "unverified". The info he published regarding law suits was essentially hearsay, heard first-hand from someone who had worked for Cooey as I recall. Mr. Belton was never able to verify any law suit.

The other part of the "folklore" was that "many people were injured". Several tales of "someone knowing someone who was friends with someone who overheard a conversation about an injury" abound - again, nothing verified. All that said, I have owned several over the years and when I heard that they were "unsafe", I was skeptical, so I conducted some tests and disassembled two of them. I published my findings here (in 2006):

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...on-Carcano-quot-A-Myth-Busted-Updated-2-June? Good discussion, although the original pics were "confiscated" by Photobucket

http://www.milsurps.com/content.php?r=303-Myth-Busted-Proof-Testing-an-Eaton-Carcano-Rifle Pics are here!

All of the 10 or so I've owned and/or examined, were constructed the same way as the one that held together under ~100K psi. That isn't to say that someone wasn't injured (as there are many stupid things possible), but I would not agree that it was due to faulty unsafe construction.

Here's a pic of one of mine:

ABDlAEp.jpg


Here's the piece from Belton's book that got me to investigating for myself. There is no proof that: "injuries (including death!), litigation and a recall attempt took place".

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sorry should have added quote
 
Up date... there is no record of any lawsuit filed against Eaton's over the Cooey Carcano. My law prof. friend couldn't find any record of a law suit; that said. He didn't check if one was filled against Cooey but I don't think they would have been the liable party in that dispute.
 
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