Pictures will hopefully be coming soon. I picked this unusual rifle up at a local pawnshop today, it's the 70/87/15 version in 6.5 Carcano. It's in pretty good shape for a rifle made in 1885! The bore is fair to good I'd say, the bolt is a little rough to cycle though. I'm not sure if that is normal, or if there is more cleaning to be done. The exterior metal is a little rusty, not really pitted but one hell of a nice patina to it. The stock is pretty nice, it looks like it was re-lacquered or coated many many years ago, and taken care of since then. LOTS of dents, dings, and a few obvious repairs, but they are all under the lacquer.
The story I got from the pawnshop owner is that it was a bring-back, picked up in southern Italy just before the surrender. He'd had it in the back of his shop for about 5 years, nobody had any interest in it, and he'd just thrown it in the gun rack because empty spaces look bad. $65 later and it's mine, all mine. He'd kept the exterior clean, but the action and bore were beyond dirty. It took me most of the afternoon to get it to where I didn't feel antsy when I stood up to do something else (I'm pretty obsessive about cleaning, I will never allow a dirty rifle to stay that way in my house.), but I'm going to be spending more time on it in the future. I'm not after a "like-new" appearance, I want to maintain the wear and patina.
BUT, I just can't bear to leave a firearm untested, and I just gotta know what this one can do. I at LEAST want it to be in functional working order before I hang it up on the wall, so that even if I never use it, I know that theoretically I can. I've been reading up a bit, and I know that it's probably a very bad idea to fire regular 6.5 ammo through it, and that others have had success firing reduced charges in standard cases. I've got a friend who can and will do a small batch of ammo for me. The question is, then: SHOULD I DO IT?
BTW, I would have the rifle checked by a gunsmith before I do anything involving any kind of live ammo, reduced charge or not.
The story I got from the pawnshop owner is that it was a bring-back, picked up in southern Italy just before the surrender. He'd had it in the back of his shop for about 5 years, nobody had any interest in it, and he'd just thrown it in the gun rack because empty spaces look bad. $65 later and it's mine, all mine. He'd kept the exterior clean, but the action and bore were beyond dirty. It took me most of the afternoon to get it to where I didn't feel antsy when I stood up to do something else (I'm pretty obsessive about cleaning, I will never allow a dirty rifle to stay that way in my house.), but I'm going to be spending more time on it in the future. I'm not after a "like-new" appearance, I want to maintain the wear and patina.
BUT, I just can't bear to leave a firearm untested, and I just gotta know what this one can do. I at LEAST want it to be in functional working order before I hang it up on the wall, so that even if I never use it, I know that theoretically I can. I've been reading up a bit, and I know that it's probably a very bad idea to fire regular 6.5 ammo through it, and that others have had success firing reduced charges in standard cases. I've got a friend who can and will do a small batch of ammo for me. The question is, then: SHOULD I DO IT?
BTW, I would have the rifle checked by a gunsmith before I do anything involving any kind of live ammo, reduced charge or not.
