Carcano conversion opinions

[Dambugg]

My step dad was given an m91 carcano rifle that was in a house fire. The stock is irreparable but the rest of the rifle is in good shape. He is considering converting it to another caliber. he is really considering 35 Remington for the conversion as it seems to be the easiest and a great hunting round for our neck of the woods. Has anybody ever converted one of these to another caliber? Thoughts?, advice,? I should mention he does a little gunsmithing on the side and has a little machine shop on his property.

 

[rcmodel]

You are pretty limited to what the Carcano can be converted to by the enblock clips necessary to make them work as more then a single-shot.

The other thing is, the unique head / rim size of the 6.5 Carcano cartridge.

The .35 Remington case rim & extractor groove is enough larger that it would not fit the enblock clips.
And it would be necessary to alter the bolt face and extractor.
And that is difficult to do on a Carcano bolt.

The other thing is, The Carcano is a very weak action to start with.
If the rifle got hot enough to burn up the stock, the heat treatment & strength of the receiver & bolt may be further compromised.

In all, probably more trouble then it is worth, especially considering the fire damage.

rc

 

[Dambugg]

Your probably right. It just seems like such a shame that the rifle can't be salvaged or given anew life.

 

[rcmodel]

6.5 Carcano ammo is available from Hornady loaded with a 160 grain RNSP hunting bullet.

If the striker spring & other springs survived the fire and are still strong, it would probably be safe with those loads.
If the springs are annealed soft and lost thier heat treatment, the bolt & receiver did too.

Of course if you reload, dies, cases, and bullets are widely available for it.

rc