Source for 6.5mm Carcano Ammo?

You can set up with a BASIC handloading outfit for not much more than the price of 2 or 3 boxes of ammo.

Ammo is gonna cost you $30 a box: $1.50 shot.

Head for a gun show, pick up a second-hand press for 30 clams and an RCBS 505 scale (excellent scale in my opinion) for 50 to 75, set of Lee dies for $40 new.

You're in business. Rest of the stuff you can pick up later. Try the EE: lots of it there.

Start with fresh brass from Trade-Ex: $35 a bag of 50.

SPECIAL Carcano bullets also from Trade-Ex: $39 for 100..... and they are SOFTPOINTS: you can hunt with them!

Pound can of powder, $30. For a Shorty such as a TS, I would go with a fast powder. PM Tinman204; he loads for one of these and they work fine.

Box of primers: $4.50 for 100.

You are now loading your own ammo and it costs 4-1/2 + 39 + 20 cents a shot = 63.5 cents shot. You don't count the money for brass because you re-use it another 15 times.

So: you load your 50 rounds of brass. You have enough primers left over to do it again, enough powder to do it 3 more times (Carcanos are easy on powder) and enough of the special bullets to do it again. And the ammo you just loaded is MUCH better than factory stuff because you are using the right bullet!

Welcome to The Carcano Club!

Hope this helps.
 
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@ FONESTAR:

You must be a relatively-new collector! Those of us who have been at it a long time are happy that there is ANY Carcano ammo coming in AT ALL.

We just went through a 50-year drought of this stuff in which the ONLY ammo was Norma at $60 a box. Prior to that, there was some Western stuff, but that supply dried up completely shortly after Kennedy got popped. The military stuff nearly all was sold off in the US. Carcanos were relatively-unknown and generally-despised for a very long time.

NOW, at last, they are starting to be appreciated once again.

Right now, we should all say a big 'thank-you' to Prvi Partizan! And to Hornady for the right slugs!
 
Prvi Partizan loads 6.5 mm Carcano and 8x50 mm Lebel, but for some reason the Canadian Importer will not bring those calibers in. So the only option for loaded ammo is Norma at $60.00 a box.
 
"...this popular rifle..." Who told you that? The Carcano hasn't been popluar since November of 1963.
"...some reason the Canadian Importer..." Not enough demand. Order a few thousands rounds and it might change. Try Epp's.
 
@Sunray:

Really hate to mention this, but 5 years go you could barely give a Carcano away. Matter of fact, I have one here that was on its way to the municipal dump to be disposed of: 1918 rifle, Marksman's marking on the Barrel, all matching, perfect bore, shoots like nobody's business.

But the Rest Of The World has been WAKING UP to the fact that these are EXCELLENT, ACCURATE, LIGHTWEIGHT rifles which pack enough power to down a Moose with a single low-recoiling round.

Prices are on their way UP to where they belong.

And they ARE becoming popular.

As to Kennedy, I never did like him. He damn near got me (and the rest of the Army) killed for his BS.
 
Thanks for all the information guys! I will probably just look into getting a reloading kit soon, $2 a bang is too much. And no, I have not been collecting that long.

It's interesting that you can't bring up the Carcano without someone bringing up the Oswald associations. I'm not entirely sure that's where the rifle got all of it's bad rap from? There was a lot of very racist attitudes towards the Italian people held by my grandparents generation and when they joined Germany in WW2 I am sure that did not help things either.
 
The carcano is very well made. I am close to trying my 1903 dated M1891 at the range, but I too have to locate some ammo to give her a try.
 
You can set up with a BASIC handloading outfit for not much more than the price of 2 or 3 boxes of ammo.

Ammo is gonna cost you $30 a box: $1.50 shot.

Head for a gun show, pick up a second-hand press for 30 clams and an RCBS 505 scale (excellent scale in my opinion) for 50 to 75, set of Lee dies for $40 new.

You're in business. Rest of the stuff you can pick up later. Try the EE: lots of it there.

Start with fresh brass from Trade-Ex: $35 a bag of 50.

SPECIAL Carcano bullets also from Trade-Ex: $39 for 100..... and they are SOFTPOINTS: you can hunt with them!

Pound can of powder, $30. For a Shorty such as a TS, I would go with a fast powder. PM Tinman204; he loads for one of these and they work fine.

Box of primers: $4.50 for 100.

You are now loading your own ammo and it costs 4-1/2 + 39 + 20 cents a shot = 63.5 cents shot. You don't count the money for brass because you re-use it another 15 times.

So: you load your 50 rounds of brass. You have enough primers left over to do it again, enough powder to do it 3 more times (Carcanos are easy on powder) and enough of the special bullets to do it again. And the ammo you just loaded is MUCH better than factory stuff because you are using the right bullet!

Welcome to The Carcano Club!

Hope this helps.


A surprising amount of milsurp ammo is being priced in that nosebleed-range these days....:(
 
@ FONESTAR:

The Oswald thing had a bit to do with it, but the Carcano was already junk by that time.

Italy adopted the Carcano rifle as the Model 1891; it entered production in 1892 and continued until late 1943/early 1944. Some continued in Italian service MUCH longer than that because they were just so damned accurate if you fed them what they wanted.

A great deal has to do with war-time propaganda. In World War One, the Carcano was that lightweight, accurate, long-range rifle used by our glorious Italian allies in their struggle against the bullying Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Beastly Hun.

But then came il Duce, who re-founded the Roman Empire in 1922 (that is why the Roman number on every rifle made or rebuilt since then: I have a Vetterli here with a Roman date on it!). In May of 1940, the Duke attacked France, likely hoping to get some of the spoils which Italy was promised and then denied from the First War.

Well, the first thing you do in a war is denigrate the enemy, so the Italians became the Fascists or a bunch of blackshirt Wops who couldn't do anything right and all were cowards. (This ignores the fact that some Italian outfits fought VERY well indeed and that plain foolhardy bravery was more than a bit common in their ranks. Ask anyone who was THERE.). And World War 2 is the first war in human history in which the HATE has been kept alive, 2 whole generations following the PEACE. It just makes too much MONEY to be allowed to die.

And so the poor Carcano, which had not changed at all, suddenly was transformed into that ill-fitted, poorly-designed, piece of junk that the cowardly Wops were using: complete piece of crap. And that was the COMMON KNOWLEDGE even BEFORE Oswald bought his from Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago.

But that's the whole ugly story. It's not fair to the Italian people, nor to the brave men who served in the Italian forces in the Second World War..... and by NO means is it fair to the Carcano, which happens to be an excellent design.

The rifle which got me into gun collecting as a hobby is a Vetterli from Torre Annunziata, dated 1883 and with a Roman rebuild date and marked to AOI: Africa Orientale Italiana: Italy's 6-year East African Empire. I bought my first Carcano 6 months before Oswald bought his. I have been playing with them for a long time now and my respect increases almost daily.

Hope this helps.

BTW: for some of us, the war is OVER.... and the old Carcano came out of it a winner, even if not on the "winning" side. It is still a dandy rifle for its purpose.
 
I'd like to add some of my own (although very limited compared to Smellie's) carcano experience to this thread.

I've now gotten to try 4 different models of carcano. Here's my thoughts on them.

They are light recoiling, handy little rifles that fire a round that hits harder then it should. They can be VERY accurate if you feed them the right ammo. The biggest problem with carcanos is they can range from tight bores that will fire .264 bullets to oversized bores that want the large .268 diameter projectile.

So the thing is in my experience, they are indeed a handloader's rifle. Feed them the wrong diet and they tumble bullets or shoot all over the place! Feed them what they want and you will have a very light, VERY accurate rifle!

My favorite part is they come in every size from the Model 38 Cavalry Moschetto Modello 91/38 Cavalleria with a short 17 1/2" barrel all the way up to the Model 1891 Fucile Modello 91 which sports a 30 1/2" barrel.

So one load doesn't work in all of them as you can't use the same powder in a 17" barrel as one that is 13" longer.

I guess that's why I enjoy carcanos as they seem to take more work to figure out what they like load wise, figure out the secret recipe and they will drive tacks! That being said if you have 3 or 4 carcanos in different lengths with 2 or 3 different bore diameters you have to be prepared to source out 2 or 3 different powders and maybe another 2 different bullets to get the job done!
 
Just so you guys know, and coming from a guy that ended up with his dads Carcano he apparently bought for 13 bucks from Eatons a long long time ago - the amount of info I have gleaned from these forums, both historical and reloadingwise totally keeps me coming back and searching out "Carcano" and copying all the useful crap from the threads into a binder that my kids will probably throw out when I kick but in the meantime - totally having fun. You can't buy this info in a book so hey, thanks for sharing. And this despite knowing how scary lookin' you dudes are from the Virden Visitor thread.
 
Just so you guys know, and coming from a guy that ended up with his dads Carcano he apparently bought for 13 bucks from Eatons a long long time ago - the amount of info I have gleaned from these forums, both historical and reloadingwise totally keeps me coming back and searching out "Carcano" and copying all the useful crap from the threads into a binder that my kids will probably throw out when I kick but in the meantime - totally having fun. You can't buy this info in a book so hey, thanks for sharing. And this despite knowing how scary lookin' you dudes are from the Virden Visitor thread.

Buffdog and Walter Sobchak are the big scary guys, I'm the "little tattooed" fellow hanging around in the back!!
 
I'm the Fat Old Phart with the white (White? What's happening to me?) fur on his face.

The good-looking one with the Musket is TWOSTEAM: Janice. Jan owns the only currently-residential place in Two Creeks, population now 2 humans (Jan and her brother James) and 3 Cats, one of which lays eggs. Yes, the Chicken has been learning how to be a Cat; it now purrs and catches mice.... but it still lays eggs!

And you think YOU are confused!

If you are out this way, bring along the Carcano and drop by for coffee!
 
Thanks for the invite - I'm also starting to notice more silver in the dustpan when I sweep up after my haircut. A trip across Canada is on the bucket list after retirement - I notice Two Creeks is not too far off #1 and since there is 0 likes and 0 people talking about it on Facebook, it appears to be a fairly laid back place. Its been a while since I've seen a purring chicken.
 
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