Carcano expert

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I bought some cero safe from brownell, gonna do a chamber cast to confirm it's still 7.35. Anyone have any experience using this? I'm told you can reuse it multiple times
 
It also includes a 139 grain FMJ 6.5mm nominal bullet with .268" diameter designated B-605.
Good!! Thanks. Just ordered some FMJBT from SGAmmo; they've been out of stock for months so I hope that's the new bullet diameter production.
 
Good!! Thanks. Just ordered some FMJBT from SGAmmo; they've been out of stock for months so I hope that's the new bullet diameter production.
I'm not sure how to check PPU ammunition for specific bullet number used in this case. If you look in that 2016 PPU catalog you'll see 6.5X52mm Carcano ammunition loaded with .264" bullets also.

The PPU 2020 catalog only lists 123 grain and 139 grain factory ammunition options for 6.5X52mm Carcano but doesn't detail bullet number designations like the 2016 catalog does.

https://ppu-usa.com/media-bank/catalog/

No way of telling what "vintage" PPU 6.5X52mm Carcano ammunition any seller is offering online IMO and how old their warehouse stock might be at any given point in time. I hope you receive what you want, but I'd check the bullet diameter in the cartridges once they're delivered if it was me.
 
Question for the board:

Am I going to regret not buying one of the $250 Carcanos currently available?

I really don't think so. Its just that there is NOTHING else on the milsurp scene right now and runaway inflation is scaring folks witless. I inspected an RTI import and it made me ill and my hands exceptionally dirty. Would not take it it for parts for free ( and i have handled tons of junkers)
 
... Its just that there is NOTHING else on the milsurp scene right now and runaway inflation is scaring folks witless.
Oh, there is, too. You're not looking in the right places. Try J&G Sales, AIM Surplus, DK Firearms, Empire Arms, Edelweiss Arms, Robertson Trading Post, Mosin Crate, Old Steel, Axis Arms, Victory Arms, and then of course the old standby: Gunbroker. Ignoring everything RTI offers, there's still an absolute flood of Arisakas and Schmidt-Rubins on the market right now, and a fair number of Mausers. If you just gotta have an M39 Finnish Mosin or a Waffenamt'ed K98 then you'll have a tough go. Look for something other people aren't running after, and there's plenty offered.
 
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PS - today I picked up from my FFL a very nice Carcano M38 (1941 original 6.5 as purposed short rifle - not 91/38, not rechambered, and NOT cavalry) that I bought from Empire. A little pricey but there have been none on GB. So clean I won't have to do a dang thing to the furniture.
 
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PS - today I picked up from my FFL a very nice Carcano M38 (1941 original 6.5 as purposed short rifle - not 91/38, not rechambered, and NOT cavalry) that I bought from Empire. A little pricey but there have been none on GB. So clean I won't have to do a dang thing to the furniture.
That's just like what my dad bought for me to use as a deer rifle decades ago except I don't precisely recall the year stamped on the receiver of the one I had, and furniture wasn't pristine but also wasn't hacked up by anyone.
 
Oh, there is, too. You're not looking in the right places. Try J&G Sales, AIM Surplus, DK Firearms, Empire Arms, Edelweiss Arms, Robertson Trading Post, Mosin Crate, Old Steel, Axis Arms, Victory Arms, and then of course the old standby: Gunbroker. Ignoring everything RTI offers, there's still an absolute flood of Arisakas and Schmidt-Rubins on the market right now, and a fair number of Mausers. If you just gotta have an M39 Finnish Mosin or a Waffenamt'ed K98 then you'll have a tough go. Look for something other people aren't running after, and there's plenty offered.

Yeah if you wanna pay big/huge bucks. Those of us who stocked up on $25-70 k98s, Gew's, Turks, K31's, m44s, m39's. m91s, smles, etc might disagree. Last Arisaka i sold brought near 400, same with M95's and even lowly Turks. Its bad enough that shipping alone is double what many items originally cost. Even if masses of milsurps do appear prices will be high. If inflation continues, and the left succeeds in destroying what was a booming economy a loaf of bread may become your first "collection" priority.
 
Those of us who stocked up on $25-70 k98s, Gew's, Turks, K31's, m44s, m39's. m91s, smles, etc might disagree.
You were fortunate to do so. Those days will never return. There are two ways of dealing with it: 1) get all bitter and bummed out and walk away; 2) accept reality and deal with it according to how it is. When confronted by a situation you have no control over and can't change figure out some way to benefit from it. Else you just spend your life pissed off. That's my philosophy.
 
You were fortunate to do so. Those days will never return. There are two ways of dealing with it: 1) get all bitter and bummed out and walk away; 2) accept reality and deal with it according to how it is. When confronted by a situation you have no control over and can't change figure out some way to benefit from it. Else you just spend your life pissed off. That's my philosophy.
Too true Wiscoster!! I agree wholeheartedly and may complete a book on what i have experienced. I chose to benefit long ago (and have handsomely). I cannot even look at stuff without the thought of what the dollar used to be worth and the base fear of where it might go. In our move i found catalogs and invoices from 1983 to 2010. Just to add to "grandpa stories" how about finding the lowest price we paid was 7.87 for a complete rifle SHIPPED!!!!!
 
I was fortunate and know it. My job allowed me to travel and spend time with some of the "biggies" in the buis. Hotlines to Century, SOG, FEDORD etc were a dream and spent every spare dime. Based in Calif got to deal with smaller importers like OLD SAC Armory ( and its many "subs"). Now having sold off everything i really know i did the right thing. For those interested in milsurp history i refer you to the book called "Deadly Business". Met many in the book and some that did not know they were alluded to in it. A sequel is needed. FWIW SHOT show meetings were memorable as well. All the heads of the milsurp industry were a handshake away. Good times now gone.
 
You were fortunate to do so. Those days will never return. There are two ways of dealing with it: 1) get all bitter and bummed out and walk away; 2) accept reality and deal with it according to how it is. When confronted by a situation you have no control over and can't change figure out some way to benefit from it. Else you just spend your life pissed off. That's my philosophy.
I think it was Napoleon Hill who called that “look for the seed of an equivalent benefit.” The more something sucks, the greater the possible benefit, if you can just figure out what it is.

As much as I don’t like the new lifestyle we’re being ushered into (the permanent covid era), some of the changes are hugely helpful to my life, so I try to focus on that and not on what’s being lost.
 
They are much better rifles than their reputation suggests. From an engineering perspective, they are very good infantry rifles indeed
Hey! Doc! We can agree on this! I had a 6.5 years ago that shot 1" at a hundred with surplus ammo. It was a long rifle, made by Terni (?) I think. It was smooth feeding and had a very mild recoil. I seem to remember Frank DeHaas mentioning the time somebody screwed a 30-06 barrel onto a 6.5 , opened up the bolt face, removed the extractor and starting shooting heavy 06 loads in it, one at a time. They even fired a proof load in it. The gun held.

I view Carcano's the same way I view Arisakas Not too pretty on the outside, but well engineered, strong and very capable of doing their Job.
 
Returning late.

The enbloc clips for 6.5mm and 7.35mm ammunition are dimensionally identical.
They will be stamped with the last three digits of the year of manufacture and the ammo will be head stamped with the last three years of manufacture. I was gifted a 6.5mm Carcano clip with five rounds all stamped SMI 952. SMI arsenal 1952.

Reload for my 6.5mm Carcano rifle M38, .264" 160gr bullets reloaded in factory Norma casings originally loaded with .264" 160gr bullets give me the same accuracy as the "correct" .268" 160gr bullets handloaded in Graf casings sold for the .268" bullets.
I do not load .264" bullets in Graf casings (or FNM casings either) ; the bullets will be loose in the casings. 6.5 Carcano casings sold with .268" bullets have thinner necks.
I do not load .268" bullets in Norma casings because I suspect the chambered round might impede release of the bullet and raise pressure (I suspect).

I did handload a couple of 100 round batches of what were sold as pulled bullets from military 6.5mm Carcano and they were not as thick as .268" bullets. The alleged Italian military bullets would drop through my 6.5 Carcano Lee Loader die for bullet seating same as .264mm bullets did; the .268" bullets would not.
 
Early 1950s 1960s 6.5 Carcano rifles were imported as scrap metal in one shipment, stocks and other parts in another, haphazardly assembled, sold dirt cheap.

Think about the photos of WWII surrendered guns, rifles in one pile, bolts in another. THAT is where the early reputation of Italian Carcanos and Japanese Arisakas came from. Literally imported junk.

Those were not rifles that had been arsenal reconditioned and put in reserve, or subjected to factory thorough repair and imported as firearms as a lot of US allied firearms, American, British, Russian, were imported.

What gets on the market today are arms that the exporting countries had in reserve for their own national defense. That's why I had few qualms about buying a Mosin 91/30 in 2008. BUT I was strongly warned away from buying a Carcano in the 1960s and heeded that warning.
 
Received a M38 from IO.Turned out to be an interesting piece with the early single band stock.Probably a replaced stock as the receiver is dated 1939. Opinions?
 

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Stock markings are indescript.Can only see that there were some markings and the faint outline of an oval. This rifle was pretty grimy but cleaned up well. The only thing that I did to the stock was to hit it with alcohol and a toothbrush and once dry a single light coat of linseed oil.
 
The chamber markings are for Terni. Perhaps one of those later assemblies of old stock and new barreled action, or did the Italians not do that similar to 98k Mauser production late war?
 
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