Ammo for a Cavalry Carcano

loose noose said:

Since when did the odd ball calibers become so popular?

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It's never really been around in high numbers and a large number of Carcano surplus rifles made available lately has only made things worse.

Todd.

Don't hold your breath on the oddball restocks. My guess is that the most popular and profitable cartridges will have priority for some time to come. My advice is to set up an account at Huntingtons, Grafs and Buffalo (if you haven't yet) and click the 'notify when available' for the Priv Carcano brass and a suitable .266 bullet mold. When it comes time to restock, my other guess is they will do it first:

http://www.huntingtons.com/store/product.php?productid=17178&page=1
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/74693
https://www.buffaloarms.com/6-5x52-carcprvi-partizan-brass-ppu6552.html

@loose noose

Depending on how much you want to reload for it there are a couple of options below for die set as you said you have everything but the dies correct?

Herter's Set
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Herters-6-...613207?hash=item4dbe440f57:g:JZQAAOSwLEJgO5RV

Lee Pacesetter
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEE-90749-...200596&hash=item524810647f:g:~sUAAOSw661gCznk

loose noose said:

Man was I ever mistaken, in purchasing the above rifle. Thinking that because of the unique ammunition (6.5X52) I wouldn't have any problems with the ammo shortage, in getting ammo or at least reloading materials for the that odd ball character. Well I checked all the local as well as internet sites for just about any type of supply to get it shooting, but to no avail.

Since when did the odd ball calibers become so popular? Any way, the bright side to my tale of woo, I found time to completely tear that rifle down and make it look rather acceptable if I do say so myself. Thankfully I've got plenty of other calibers and ammo to hopefully get me thru this nonsense. Incidentally I've got all the ingredients to reload, I just don't have the dies for that caliber.

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Don't want to break the rules but i can help you a little. PM me.

I have two boxes of PPU I have no use for. I'll give them to you if you want them They're loaded with .264 dia. bullets instead of the proper .268 dia, but it still is good brass for reloading. And they might shoot accurately, you never know. I have a type 99 Arisaka that shoots just fine with .308 dia. bullets. If you want them shoot me a PM and they're yours. Call it an early Christmas present.

loose noose said:

BreechFace, I do have everything I need to reload other than the dies, but I'm not about to pay $125.00+ for used dies, when I've got Hornady Dies on back order for $53.00 at Mid South.

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Yeah $125 for dies is crazy, just posted it because it was there. The other set of Herter's dies for $53 + 9.10 shipping were what I was referring to on whether you wanted to purchase or not.

If I remember my Nonte correctly you can form the brass from 6.5 MS brass if that is easier to find.

-kBob

loose noose said:

. Thinking that because of the unique ammunition (6.5X52) I wouldn't have any problems with the ammo shortage, in getting ammo or at least reloading materials for the that odd ball character.
.

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yep caught me off guard also, this is the worst ammo shortage ever, with every caliber and cartridge being effected and as said common ammo is going to the priority with makers and the shortage is because some know that, also the COVID production shortage, most oddball ammo is imported and many worry imports will be a easy hit list for Biden to ban.

Prvi made7.65 Argentine pre panic was $.75 round, for the last year it only crept up to $.95 a round (got some two weeks ago) and now in the last week bumped up to $1.50 a round. All the more common milsurp ammo like 8MM, 6.5 Swedish and 7.5 Swiss has been gone for a while now mostly

Yep, I've been waiting on a backorder of 6.5 Carcano Hornady dies from Midway since December, supposed to be January, then end of March, but might be end of April. Yeah, I'm not paying over $50. I will just wait. I am shooting some Steinel ammo I bought for like $1.50 a round, while I wait. But, I think they are now backordered many, many months. There is a flood of Carcano surplus rifles for sale now for cheap, which I bought one from Classic. Nice shooter for the money, but haven't really had a chance to break it in. Signed up many months ago for notification for Prvi ammo from a bunch of sites, but never received any in stock notifications... I found everything to reload in stock, except for the dies... Not a good time for the Carcano.

If you search around you might find the 6.5x52 Cacarno reloading dies. Hornady used to make a short run every year of 160gr .267 round nose bullets just for the Cacarno. I do use them in my 6.5 Grendel sub loads to achieve full function in my AR action. The penetration is quite phenomenal, 11 phone books and 6” of compacted road bed clay.

One thing about the actual rife, the bore diameter can very greatly, so you might want to swage the bore with a pure lead slug to see what the actual bore diameter of you rifle is. They are not normally .264

loose noose said:

BreechFace, I do have everything I need to reload other than the dies, but I'm not about to pay $125.00+ for used dies, when I've got Hornady Dies on back order for $53.00 at Mid South.

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I have Lee dies for a 6.5x52mm (M1891) rifle. They seem to serve.

kBob said:

If I remember my Nonte correctly you can form the brass from 6.5 MS brass if that is easier to find.

-kBob

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6.5mm Arasaka cartridge cases are dimensionally close to the M-S and the Carcano as well. I have PPU cases, so I've never done the experimentation. However, the Arasaka cases are probably not easier to find than the other two.

The original bullets are 156gr Cupra Nickel FMJ RN. The jacket is thick and as tough as woodpecker lips. I was given a paper sack full, about 500 bullets, of the bullets to try in my first 6.5x06, by Dick Riley. Dick had gotten a large wood case of bullets, and the 7mm powder and brass from an outfit that was re-manufacturing the rounds with US powder and hunting bullets.
I ran various tests with the original 6.5 bullets, accuracy was pretty much average, about 1” @ 100. However, penetration was interesting. The steel wheel test on a bare 60s PU truck wheel, at every angle went right through. Finally I sat the wheel on edge and shot the center weld, on edge. The bullet went through 7 layers of separated and angled steel in the center of the wheel and never deflected from its path! Yeah, bad to the bone. On the edge of and parallel to the shooting area was a 48” in diameter spruce tree, I figure, well now, this will stop you. Nope, small hole in, small hole out and ended up somewhere in a hill out beside the range, in the forrest floor.
What was very clear is that it would not have mattered one little bit if there was a top on the car.

$50 for 40 once fired casing? Im glad I got lucky and my LGS had 5 boxes of PPU rounds that I got for less than $20 a box.

Now can you use converted dummy rounds? I bought some off eBay to use as snap caps and the seller used old brass to make them and they came with either no primers, spent primers or rubber primers. They are probably all gone now since there was a huge influx of Carcanos.

Could be worse, like if it was 7.35x51, like mine...