I recently picked one of these up from a retired school teacher friend of mine. It is in great shape. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he replied, "I will sell it to you for what I paid for it.... 12 bucks." He had purchased it back in the 70's to see if he could pull off Oswald's shooting. He gave me a box of Hornady ammunition to go with it, 17 loaded cartridges and 3 empty shell casings. He said he never shot it anymore after that. One hell of a deal!
Just picked up 8 boxes of 6.5 Carcano at a small local shop for 17/box, owner said no one wanted it! Then he points me at the Japanese ammo! I left a happy camper....
Well said Koba. A 22LR drop-in conversion kit for an AR is one thing, but thinking of converting an original Carcano is a poor decision. Look at your rifle - it deserves better than that. We are all hurting right now and many people are still adjusting to the reality of the current situation. This wont last forever. You can endure this. Have patience.
Yes and no, depends on the specific clips, they're not too hard to warp/bend. Generally speaking having the entire functionality of your rifle dependent on a fragile clip is a downside. Having a rifle and ammo should be enough to get going.
ive gotten everything in my life from not being patient.. patience is for old people.. i bought my first house at 23, my first antique car at 27, my first everything at a young age.. and reason was i am impatient, and so i worked hard as hell to get what i was impatient from. If you cant find ammo for this gun, hell id figure out a way to smelt the brass and make them myself
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 Thats not lacking paitence, thats having inituitive. Paitence is something you have when you find yourself in a situation you CAN'T change, for one reason or another.
Exactly! Patience 👍 I just bought one of these exact Carano M91s last week KNOWING I would not get ammo right away. I'll put it away for a few years and HOPEFULLY get some ammo. It's these new young gun newbies that can't wait, Lol
Good advice, I’ve been guilty of the very thing you’re describing, and your right. It sucks but being patient is a better option compared to doing something you might really regret moving forward. There is still some very neat antique shotguns and shotgun ammo on the shelves and black powder is really fun. I always think to myself I’m no marksman considering how accurate folks use to be years ago with the black powder rifles.
Brass is easy to come buy and there is plenty of load data out there for common .264 projectiles. Maybe not as accurate as a .268 but they are fine for taking out and having some fun shooting steel 0-100y
If they can't find ammo for the 6.5 Carcano ammo, they're not looking hard enough. Steinel makes it, and it's in .266 diameter - 2/1000 wider than the .264 "normal" ammo. They split the difference and it improves the accuracy. Being an "obsolete" caliber, it is a bit pricey, but available, although it's sometimes backordered. It's not a good idea to spend $300-$400 to rechamber or rebore a $250 dollar gun.
PPU will roll out another batch of Carcano 6.5 sometime - meanwhile reloading is a thing that helps with collectors quite a bit! 6.5 Carcano primed brass is even available today.
I don’t understand people trying to sell off their Carcanos now. Surplus collecting has always been a bit of a long game. Trying to re-sell a Carcano now given how cheap and available they are on the primary market is dumb. If the (hopefully temporary) ammo situation is too much of a problem for one’s tastes, wait till they’re no longer available for 250 or less from multiple retailers.
Of the 3 that I have one is an absolute garbage rod (calling BS on the ones I got from RK being Italian stock as advertised). I'd like to do a complete refurb and convert it to something like 6PPC since the rim diameter is within 5 thou. Basically anything that is relatively straight walled and based on the 7.62x39 (.22 PPC, 6mm PPC, 6mm ARC, and the 6.5mm Grendel) is a good candidate for bolt face and clip usage. I think it would make a neat plinker, although pressure limitations may make heavier projectiles more advantageous, such as the straight 7.62x39 or 30PPC. All will have to be hand loaded.
The Dutch (and later Indonesians) changed (rechambered) their similar Steyr-Mannlicher M95 carbines from 6.5 mm Dutch to .303 British ('Lee Enfield'). I didn't hear those rifles were dangerous to shoot...
If your dumping a gun that costs $225-$275 you probably ain’t getting more than $100 out of it, I know this is eight months ago when ammunition was more scarce than available women out there, but what I’ve come to notice is I can stock up pretty good if I go to my local gun store and get one or two boxes of 6.5x52 carcano every payday
Doesn't bother me much. I haven't been shooting a whole lot of anything, due to cost and availability of ammo. However, most of the guys I know would have already resorted to using these carcanos for pounding in fence posts.
I agree with your assessment on the folly of rechambering it. I bought my calvary carbine to bring back to military format. It must have been a parts gun because it was missing the bayonet mount, front sight, magazine follower, and butt plate. Got all of those things except the front sight. My gun shop machined one up that is similar to the original. I finally got ammo and shot it. It shoots really high at 200 yards ( distance of my local range). I might put a scope on it just because it isn't an original and it might make it easier to hit targets. I'll probably buy another in original configuration. But I knew going into it even before 6.5 wasn't easy to get in my area and that it'll be an occasional range toy not a prepper gun. Usually even with my mil surps I try to keep at least 200 rounds stocked up. This rifle is different. It's a piece of history and an occasional range toy. If you have cases and can find the components reload it. I'm probably gonna use my ppu brass and pull the surplus ammo I have and use the bullets from those.
Sarco in Easton Pennsylvania has both Carcano and Arisaka ammunition if you're willing to pay $2 a bullet 😮. I believe the 270 Winchester would be a good round for these guns😊
I have a sportered carcano, it's basically worthless for resale. I'm just looking to convert it to a more common/cheaper caliber so I can actually shoot it instead of letting it collect dust
Someone else recommended to powder coat those .264 bullets but maybe painting them might work as well . One could also turn their own bullets but on a mechanical lathe I bet would be time consuming , even once you got past the learning curve , and I would imagine expensive , unless we could turn them at a steel that is milder than the barrel or do one of the prior mentioned alternatives or cover projectile in plastic .
My neighbor gave me my Carcano. I do my own work, so re-barreling or re-chambering is not a cost issue for me. I would do it if that were my only rifle for putting meat on the table but because I'm not short of rifles, mine will sit in the safe and taken out occasionally to punch a few holes in paper for poops and giggles, when supplies of the ammo will allow me..
Thanks for all of your hard work and information being passed to us. After viewing your videos, I decided to purchase a Cavalry addition. I ordered from Classic firearms with the hand select best of ten for 30.00. The asking price was 219.00 249.00 invested I lucked out and received a very nice rifle. They listed the stock as average, I feel it was well above average. The blued finish cleaned up well using "0000" and REM OIL. Internal of the barrel are coming along. I used a heat gun on low monitoring the temps not above 150. It helped. I got the shower hot and modified the hand held hose and a ton of crap rolled out. Still brushing with HOPPES 9. Any other stronger cleaners recommended would help. Still lot of hardened crud in the head space are. Good to know a fellow squid out here who has his shit together. MN1 Meyer out :)
I got mine from the same sale as you and did the $30.00 for better pick as well. Had 100 rounds given to me so picked up the gun to shoot it with. Any advice on cleaning?
When I started reloading many years ago, one goal was to be able to load for anything, no matter how old or obscure, as long as dies are available....right now, I am wondering what cartridge cases may be formed for 6.5 Carcano ? And also wondering if paper-patching would work with .264 bullets ?
Just picked up that second cavalry carbine and got it cleaned today. I like my 24ts, but this cavalry model is a cool piece too. Despite the rust and even some shallow putting, it cleaned up beautifully. I'm wondering if I should re blue it because I want to prevent further oxidization and pitting.
Koba 49 I have a couple of carcano rifles and carbines too.and iam waiting for the ammo to get advaible again.i have a couple of boxes of surplus ammo in 6.5 carcano.
This is why one should learn how to hand load. I'm glad I did. Hard to find reloading components. 6.5 .268 is hard to find. 264 works ok but not correct. Hornady needs to bring the 268. Round nice back. 160 grain. PPU makes a 139,,267. I have to try my own recipes.
If 20 years is a short time, then I was born yesterday. The cheap mil-surp adventure kinda stopped when Obama got elected in 2008, and then again when he was re-elected in 2012. Everyone was so scared of possible new gun control, that most of the mil-surp dried up and doubled or even tripled in price. Combine with that the explosion in popularity of gun content on the Internet, the demand for historical guns has increased dramatically. And add on top of that the current pandemic, violence and the election in the United States, there's a dramatic shortage of ammunition and guns. Yes, time will get the ammo back. But mil-surp will only increase in price.
Yeah, I can wait. I usually buy stuff, then 4 years later I have time to take it out of the box. I got my Carcano from the PSA sale. It's my first milsurp. I would like to get the Russian SVT-40 next. I have never been to a gun show either. Waiting on that too!
Sir Can I ask you, Why cant I bore out ,on my lathe, Were I slide the Shell, to fit a Winchester 6.5, , I just don't understand why that would be a Problem, I Really don't no much about Making guns, Is the load to much, could it work. Thanks Brian
I’m late to the game. I just bought one of these super cheap and I was able to get ammo for it. I’m pretty sure it’s .264 bullets. I’m saving my brass. I found .268 bullets for reloading.
I ended up buying some ammo for the my carcano soon before I bought the carbine itself. I plan on buying a couple more carcanos. I like cleaning and restoring them.
Good advice Mike, any caliber today as you said will be the same, so hang onto that 6.5 eventually the panic will end and you can get the ammo and not pay horrific prices for it.
I agree on not putting a lot of money into a Carcano. I have one and have about 100 rds, the problem is that it does not shoot well. Probably the barrel is wore out; oh well. 😎
If you have one in 7.35 there are plenty of bullets for reloading available (.300). I don't have one in 6.5 yet but I so have a vetterli in 6.5 haven't gotten around to making some loads for it
when I started collecting surplus my Very first step was see if the ammo was around AND cheap, then I would consider the gun. If I got the gun I would hunt and buy all the cheap ammo i could find until I thought I had enough and would over buy if I found a real bargain on the ammo. had to set up a excel spread sheet so I could keep track of things so if didn't have to remember. Now it seems those days are long gone and have been well BEFORE covid, so if you want to shoot surplus, get a good job and pay the price and don't worry about it.
Thank you for the. Video.... How do I date my m91??.... Mine looks the same as your example , except it does not have flats at the breach end of barrel and no date stamp.. Thanks.
@@michaeljohns1019 Hi,... and thank you for posting a reply. Have been cleaning mine up for 3 days, and I only got it 3 days ago!... I would bet my last dollar its at least 75 years old. What would you say a reasonable price per round would be for the 6.5x52?
DO NOT RECHAMBER THE GUN. EVERYONE HAD PROBLEMS WITH THAT IDEA BACK IN THE 1960'S. RESIZING OTHER CASES IS STILL THE BEST SOLUTION. THE BRASS CAN BE WORKED. THIS IS WHAT THERMAL CASE LUBE HAS BEEN AND IS FOR. LOOK AT CROSS REFERENCING OTHER CASE SIZES THAT ARE MORE OFTEN AVAILABLE. WHO EVER COMES UP WITH A SOLUTION WILL DO VERY WELL. BE CREATIVE AND DO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. HAVE FUN COMING UP WITH A SOLUTION.
Is is feasible to paper patch a bullet from .264 to .268 for that round? I have a poorly manufactured wartime made in India SMLE that I have to paper patch .002 and run through a sizing die to achieve bore diameter. I have no money in the paper, $5 in the 7/8 -14 bolt I made a sizing die out of, and about an hour of labor making the sizing die.
I have a question: I have 2 Carcano, one I can shoot all day and the barrel get barely warm the other after shooting 6 round the barrel is hot like hell. Can anyone explain?
Hi,… thank you for the video…. I have had my M91 for almost a year and can’t seem to find an en bloc for it… can you suggest any resources? Many thanks,…
Literally all everyone has to do is not pay these prices for a month or two, dip into your stash or dry fire. If we dont pay these prices for a few weeks then everyone benefits.
The Germans tried to rechamber the Carcano to 8 mm in WW2 but the bolt wasn’t as stout as the Mauser and unable to take the pressures. The 6.5X52 not effective? That round was used to kill Kennedy by Oswald. My grandfather was a captain in the Alpini forces in WW1 and fought in the Alps against the Austrians and Germans, Needless to say I have a Carcano hanging on the wall next to his picture and medals.
Cat food and baby formula are now limited. Gas is over $5 a gallon. Things are worse than they were when the video was made. What will it be like in a year?
not really you cant compress a jacked bullet up in diameter , you can size them down in dia. PPU does make bullets .268 Dia. 140 & 125 grain, but only the bullets as a reloading component. For some reason they do not offer it as loaded ammo.
@@michaeljohns1019 ah that is good to know thank you. I didnt know that when i bought my 2 carcanos lol. I hope the 6.5 bullets work in the arisaka. I shouldve bought round nose bullets i guess those are better. in fact i had a mosin that would keyhole with Pointed bullets but not round noses. Any place that has the .268 bullets as of right now?
Ah that figures lol. I thought about trying to use 270 bullets but those are .277. Im honestly new to collecting these older mil surps and i didint know that. I guess its the same for the 8x50r austrian, 8mm lebels/berthiers. they all have slightly larger bores except the austrian that ones is slightly undersized at .321. but maybe i can get a resizer for regular .323 bullets. Also i wish i had gotten round nosed bullets i guess those work better in worn out barrels. I think the 6.5 arisaka uses the normal .264 bullets tho
the Germans converted them to 8mm at the end of world war two . AN a lot of them have been converted too 7.62x39 which is what I am going to do tomorrow.
I've read that these rifles are set up to hit at point of aim at the 200 meter range (distance) So you'll have have to aim lower at shorter distances. For example...aim at belt level to hit the chest. If you shoot it enough, you'll learn where to hold the sughts at.
He! I still know you from the Kropatschek 1886 rifle video!! My solution on this, like you said, there are some companies that do obsolete cartridges, you can buy it from these guys (at a premium price). Some have old stock 8x60 Kropatschek and ask 115 euros for 20 cases. That is stealing money of people. So I get why they ask a lot of money for obsolete cartridges. A case is nothing but a piece of sheet brass. As you can read in this book on how cartridges are made: archive.org/details/cartridgemanufac00hamirich. I did some CAD drawing on this topic, and uploaded it to my grabcad page: grabcad.com/a.b-430/models, if you have a lathe and a milling machine a lot can be made i am sure of that! Maybe the solution does not have to be to difficult at all. Maybe you can reshape a more common cartridge and make a "wildcat" of the parent cartridge and turn it into this 6.5x52 Carcano case (do a chamber/bore casting if you are unsure of the caliber!). Also if you cannot find any powder. You can always make cordite yourself. Now you have to be carefull not to get any powder that is to fast burning or you will blow up your gun due to to high pressure. But it can be done. Cordite MK1: 65% guncotton and 30% nitroglycerine (keeping 5% petroleum jelly), mix that and desolve it in the least bit of acetone, and you make thin rolls of it, dry it, and then put that in your catridge, it should work an look a lot like the stuff they used in it probably. Any way, its also in the ammunition factory upload on my grabcad page. Im trying to make people aware on how guns are made, and how things are done, while i like the idea that people still have the knowhow on how to make guns and ammo. Especially while there is an (artificial, what else could it be?) shortage on ammunition. How is that? I really sounds to me that you want to have an ammo factory that sells everything the market demands on a larger volume than it can chew. These guys at "fedarms" sell machines that can produce ammunition, now you need some money to invest, but when there is this big an ammo shortage, it might make you a lot of money. th-cam.com/video/R28k3FGFS-s/w-d-xo.html Any way, im going to upload some more CAD files on grabcad in the near future: a micrometer chamber reamer stop, a floating reamer holder, and a modular heat treatment oven that does 3x 5A 230V (just so it stays below the 16A of the circuit breaker). There is no need to wait, while there are a lot of good solutions out there. The best and cheapest is probably get a parent case and make a 6.5x52 wildcat. Get some other rifle powder and use that to fill your cases, it should run fine. Nothing to hot should be good! Greetings, Jeff p.s. If anyone needs some help, let me know and leave a comment!
Well I've been to a few auctions and seen the demographic of people who seem to buy up ammunition for rifles they dont even own to "trade" or "just to have it and upsell" we can talk in circles about it but theres a group of men with social security income and retirement funds and a lot of time to go to every shop in their state clearing shelves. I've seen it with my two eyes in my region theres a colloquial name we have for them they dont understand how they've made a bad shortage worse nine times out of ten its someone acting like their failing health will allow them to participate in some nationwide beyond rule of law situation but they would actually sit it out and live through the NRA like they did in 1994 and the 80s era bans. The surplus market is dead it exists in dusty safes of older men who dont care about the rifles or shoot/clean them in fact I've come across enough chopped up lee enfeilds to be disgusted I've restored some. Stop making runs on the market and hyperinflating the prices and for gods sake put the dremel down Elmer want a rem 700 buy one of those. Soon we wont we allowed to get our surplus Ammos "online" the discussion should have been had decades ago before feinstein got real traction.
I recently picked one of these up from a retired school teacher friend of mine. It is in great shape. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he replied, "I will sell it to you for what I paid for it.... 12 bucks." He had purchased it back in the 70's to see if he could pull off Oswald's shooting. He gave me a box of Hornady ammunition to go with it, 17 loaded cartridges and 3 empty shell casings. He said he never shot it anymore after that.
One hell of a deal!
well did he pull off Oswald's shooting?
@@neohubris I'm sure he didn't.
Was it a M38?
So youre teacher was the second shooter? Damn.....coukd have told us and saved us decades of conspiracy.
Safe to say that the day he shot the third shot, he laughed his ass off and continued on doing so for the many decades he saw the box of ammo 😂😂
Just picked up 8 boxes of 6.5 Carcano at a small local shop for 17/box, owner said no one wanted it! Then he points me at the Japanese ammo! I left a happy camper....
lucky you
Well said Koba. A 22LR drop-in conversion kit for an AR is one thing, but thinking of converting an original Carcano is a poor decision. Look at your rifle - it deserves better than that. We are all hurting right now and many people are still adjusting to the reality of the current situation. This wont last forever. You can endure this. Have patience.
The Carcano clip is an "en bloc" clip just as is the M1 Garand's...hardly a design shortcoming. They are very reliable.
I think he more means the Carcano is an older style that holds 6, while the Garand holds 8, and some stripper feedable guns hold 10
Yes and no, depends on the specific clips, they're not too hard to warp/bend. Generally speaking having the entire functionality of your rifle dependent on a fragile clip is a downside. Having a rifle and ammo should be enough to get going.
Patience is a virtue that most of humanity, lacks. Growing a tree from a seed, now there is an exercise in patience. Thanks for sharing.
ive gotten everything in my life from not being patient.. patience is for old people.. i bought my first house at 23, my first antique car at 27, my first everything at a young age.. and reason was i am impatient, and so i worked hard as hell to get what i was impatient from. If you cant find ammo for this gun, hell id figure out a way to smelt the brass and make them myself
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 do it then. I’ll buy some
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 Thats not lacking paitence, thats having inituitive. Paitence is something you have when you find yourself in a situation you CAN'T change, for one reason or another.
Exactly! Patience 👍
I just bought one of these exact Carano M91s last week KNOWING I would not get ammo right away. I'll put it away for a few years and HOPEFULLY get some ammo. It's these new young gun newbies that can't wait, Lol
Try SGAmmo.
Good advice, I’ve been guilty of the very thing you’re describing, and your right. It sucks but being patient is a better option compared to doing something you might really regret moving forward. There is still some very neat antique shotguns and shotgun ammo on the shelves and black powder is really fun. I always think to myself I’m no marksman considering how accurate folks use to be years ago with the black powder rifles.
I can't imagine buying a gun with no ammo available. As such it is nothing more than a well oiled, precision club.
6.5x52 Carcano made by Prvi Partizan is still available readily in Canada, but it's getting more expensive, at around 1.3-1.4$.
(USA) yeah its gotten better since then but were looking at 30-40$ a box 303's also gotten better if ur into lee Enfield's
Same here in Australia. Rebel Gun Works have them readily available at a decent price.
I picked up three boxes through Marstar a few weeks ago.. 30$ per box and 45$ for shipping to BC.
Interesting, I use the same diameter bullets (.264") in my Carcano as I use for my 6.5 creedmoors with exceptional results.
thinking of picking one of these up just for the hell of it
seems to me other previously "cheap" military surplus rifles have gone up in price a lot
I have the same thought process, I've jumped back and forth on it for a month
Brass is easy to come buy and there is plenty of load data out there for common .264 projectiles. Maybe not as accurate as a .268 but they are fine for taking out and having some fun shooting steel 0-100y
If they can't find ammo for the 6.5 Carcano ammo, they're not looking hard enough. Steinel makes it, and it's in .266 diameter - 2/1000 wider than the .264 "normal" ammo. They split the difference and it improves the accuracy. Being an "obsolete" caliber, it is a bit pricey, but available, although it's sometimes backordered. It's not a good idea to spend $300-$400 to rechamber or rebore a $250 dollar gun.
PPU will roll out another batch of Carcano 6.5 sometime - meanwhile reloading is a thing that helps with collectors quite a bit! 6.5 Carcano primed brass is even available today.
I don’t understand people trying to sell off their Carcanos now. Surplus collecting has always been a bit of a long game. Trying to re-sell a Carcano now given how cheap and available they are on the primary market is dumb. If the (hopefully temporary) ammo situation is too much of a problem for one’s tastes, wait till they’re no longer available for 250 or less from multiple retailers.
Of the 3 that I have one is an absolute garbage rod (calling BS on the ones I got from RK being Italian stock as advertised). I'd like to do a complete refurb and convert it to something like 6PPC since the rim diameter is within 5 thou. Basically anything that is relatively straight walled and based on the 7.62x39 (.22 PPC, 6mm PPC, 6mm ARC, and the 6.5mm Grendel) is a good candidate for bolt face and clip usage. I think it would make a neat plinker, although pressure limitations may make heavier projectiles more advantageous, such as the straight 7.62x39 or 30PPC. All will have to be hand loaded.
The Dutch (and later Indonesians) changed (rechambered) their similar Steyr-Mannlicher M95 carbines from 6.5 mm Dutch to .303 British ('Lee Enfield'). I didn't hear those rifles were dangerous to shoot...
Thank you so much sir!!! Lots of knowledge nuggets here! Bless you sir.
To answer your question on what to do. "Sell IT!".
If your dumping a gun that costs $225-$275 you probably ain’t getting more than $100 out of it, I know this is eight months ago when ammunition was more scarce than available women out there, but what I’ve come to notice is I can stock up pretty good if I go to my local gun store and get one or two boxes of 6.5x52 carcano every payday
Well Said! Hold on to the Carcanos and have patience for ammo to slowly come back into the market.
Doesn't bother me much. I haven't been shooting a whole lot of anything, due to cost and availability of ammo. However, most of the guys I know would have already resorted to using these carcanos for pounding in fence posts.
I agree with your assessment on the folly of rechambering it. I bought my calvary carbine to bring back to military format. It must have been a parts gun because it was missing the bayonet mount, front sight, magazine follower, and butt plate. Got all of those things except the front sight. My gun shop machined one up that is similar to the original. I finally got ammo and shot it. It shoots really high at 200 yards ( distance of my local range). I might put a scope on it just because it isn't an original and it might make it easier to hit targets. I'll probably buy another in original configuration. But I knew going into it even before 6.5 wasn't easy to get in my area and that it'll be an occasional range toy not a prepper gun. Usually even with my mil surps I try to keep at least 200 rounds stocked up. This rifle is different. It's a piece of history and an occasional range toy. If you have cases and can find the components reload it. I'm probably gonna use my ppu brass and pull the surplus ammo I have and use the bullets from those.
Sarco in Easton Pennsylvania has both Carcano and Arisaka ammunition if you're willing to pay $2 a bullet 😮. I believe the 270 Winchester would be a good round for these guns😊
I have a sportered carcano, it's basically worthless for resale. I'm just looking to convert it to a more common/cheaper caliber so I can actually shoot it instead of letting it collect dust
Someone else recommended to powder coat those .264 bullets but maybe painting them might work as well . One could also turn their own bullets but on a mechanical lathe I bet would be time consuming , even once you got past the learning curve , and I would imagine expensive , unless we could turn them at a steel that is milder than the barrel or do one of the prior mentioned alternatives or cover projectile in plastic .
I'm going to watch some electroplating videos to see if that's a viable option as well .
thankx KOBA-yeap mine was in my basement for 50yrs-it still looks great-just a museum piece now
My neighbor gave me my Carcano. I do my own work, so re-barreling or re-chambering is not a cost issue for me. I would do it if that were my only rifle for putting meat on the table but because I'm not short of rifles, mine will sit in the safe and taken out occasionally to punch a few holes in paper for poops and giggles, when supplies of the ammo will allow me..
Thanks for all of your hard work and information being passed to us. After viewing your videos, I decided to purchase a Cavalry addition. I ordered from Classic firearms with the hand select best of ten for 30.00. The asking price was 219.00 249.00 invested I lucked out and received a very nice rifle. They listed the stock as average, I feel it was well above average. The blued finish cleaned up well using "0000" and REM OIL. Internal of the barrel are coming along. I used a heat gun on low monitoring the temps not above 150. It helped. I got the shower hot and modified the hand held hose and a ton of crap rolled out. Still brushing with HOPPES 9. Any other stronger cleaners recommended would help. Still lot of hardened crud in the head space are. Good to know a fellow squid out here who has his shit together. MN1 Meyer out :)
I got mine from the same sale as you and did the $30.00 for better pick as well. Had 100 rounds given to me so picked up the gun to shoot it with. Any advice on cleaning?
I live in CA, most of the ranges are closed any ways.
@@youtubeisgarbage900 I am moving out of the Bay Area in the summer
@@behindenemylines3361 hey did u ever get out of the bay area?
@@purpleguy5226 Unfortunately no - still got a couple more years for I hit my 2nd retirement (my first retirement was from the military).
My LGS has at least 7-8 Carcano's in the milsurp rack and won't even take one consignment or buy one from you....
An LGS near me bought several hundred of the things in order to get a couple hundred thousand rounds of 9mm from the same distributor.
@@2nd_a_dad4791 , sounds like bribery to me ?
When I started reloading many years ago, one goal was to be able to load for anything, no matter how old or obscure, as long as dies are available....right now, I am wondering what cartridge cases may be formed for 6.5 Carcano ? And also wondering if paper-patching would work with .264 bullets ?
you can find new brass and bullets of the correct diameter made by PPU
@@michaeljohns1019 Thanks.
Just picked up that second cavalry carbine and got it cleaned today. I like my 24ts, but this cavalry model is a cool piece too.
Despite the rust and even some shallow putting, it cleaned up beautifully. I'm wondering if I should re blue it because I want to prevent further oxidization and pitting.
I have two original boxes of 7.35mm Carcano. The cartons are shaped to fit the old ammo pouches!
You wanna selling?
Koba 49 I have a couple of carcano rifles and carbines too.and iam waiting for the ammo to get advaible again.i have a couple of boxes of surplus ammo in 6.5 carcano.
This is why one should learn how to hand load. I'm glad I did. Hard to find reloading components. 6.5 .268 is hard to find. 264 works ok but not correct. Hornady needs to bring the 268. Round nice back. 160 grain. PPU makes a 139,,267. I have to try my own recipes.
The ammo will come back, everyone take a breath. Just remember Mosins were just 100 bucks a short time ago.
Id like to have some of what youre drinking. Lol.
If 20 years is a short time, then I was born yesterday. The cheap mil-surp adventure kinda stopped when Obama got elected in 2008, and then again when he was re-elected in 2012. Everyone was so scared of possible new gun control, that most of the mil-surp dried up and doubled or even tripled in price. Combine with that the explosion in popularity of gun content on the Internet, the demand for historical guns has increased dramatically. And add on top of that the current pandemic, violence and the election in the United States, there's a dramatic shortage of ammunition and guns. Yes, time will get the ammo back. But mil-surp will only increase in price.
I have found ammo online. I understand it is only produced once a year-March -April
Yeah, I can wait. I usually buy stuff, then 4 years later I have time to take it out of the box. I got my Carcano from the PSA sale. It's my first milsurp. I would like to get the Russian SVT-40 next. I have never been to a gun show either. Waiting on that too!
Get a Mauser, you won't regret it
Sir Can I ask you, Why cant I bore out ,on my lathe, Were I slide the Shell, to fit a Winchester 6.5, , I just don't understand why that would be a Problem, I Really don't no much about Making guns, Is the load to much, could it work. Thanks Brian
I’m late to the game. I just bought one of these super cheap and I was able to get ammo for it. I’m pretty sure it’s .264 bullets. I’m saving my brass. I found .268 bullets for reloading.
I ended up buying some ammo for the my carcano soon before I bought the carbine itself. I plan on buying a couple more carcanos. I like cleaning and restoring them.
same got mine off gunbroker pics looked good just will have to see when it gets here
@@purpleguy5226 Fingers crossed, it's in relatively good shape.
I just bought ammo for mine last month. There's is plenty of box's at the store near me.
Hey I hope people do start to unload them...their my absolute favorite family of surplus rifles...ill gladly scoop the up for less than market price
Good advice Mike, any caliber today as you said will be the same, so hang onto that 6.5 eventually the panic will end and you can get the ammo and not pay horrific prices for it.
I agree on not putting a lot of money into a Carcano. I have one and have about 100 rds, the problem is that it does not shoot well. Probably the barrel is wore out; oh well. 😎
You are detached from reality.
Might be interesting if someone came up with a chamber adapter to use. Maybe 25 acp? Idk. Would work well in the single loading block.
I guess some are worried because they want to ban mail order ammo sales. Most times that is the only way to find certain ammo.
If anyone wants to "dump" their 7.35 rifle in good shape for 100 bucks I'll take it lol
The M1891 Carcono is actually chambered from 6.5x25mm .
@@Texasmilitarydepartmentvid9654 do you mean x52? I have this very rifle in 7.35, low production war time effort to change the caliber.
If you have one in 7.35 there are plenty of bullets for reloading available (.300). I don't have one in 6.5 yet but I so have a vetterli in 6.5 haven't gotten around to making some loads for it
Your thoughts on the future of obtaining the 7.35 ammo? I own a 1939 Carcano 7.35 made in Torino, Italy in 1939.
when I started collecting surplus my Very first step was see if the ammo was around AND cheap, then I would consider the gun. If I got the gun I would hunt and buy all the cheap ammo i could find until I thought I had enough and would over buy if I found a real bargain on the ammo. had to set up a excel spread sheet so I could keep track of things so if didn't have to remember. Now it seems those days are long gone and have been well BEFORE covid, so if you want to shoot surplus, get a good job and pay the price and don't worry about it.
Thank you for the. Video.... How do I date my m91??.... Mine looks the same as your example , except it does not have flats at the breach end of barrel and no date stamp.. Thanks.
no date means it is post ww2 built rifle
@@michaeljohns1019 Hi,... and thank you for posting a reply. Have been cleaning mine up for 3 days, and I only got it 3 days ago!... I would bet my last dollar its at least 75 years old. What would you say a reasonable price per round would be for the 6.5x52?
DO NOT RECHAMBER THE GUN. EVERYONE HAD PROBLEMS WITH THAT IDEA BACK IN THE 1960'S. RESIZING OTHER CASES IS STILL THE BEST SOLUTION. THE BRASS CAN BE WORKED. THIS IS WHAT THERMAL CASE LUBE HAS BEEN AND IS FOR. LOOK AT CROSS REFERENCING OTHER CASE SIZES THAT ARE MORE OFTEN AVAILABLE. WHO EVER COMES UP WITH A SOLUTION WILL DO VERY WELL. BE CREATIVE AND DO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. HAVE FUN COMING UP WITH A SOLUTION.
Is is feasible to paper patch a bullet from .264 to .268 for that round?
I have a poorly manufactured wartime made in India SMLE that I have to paper patch .002 and run through a sizing die to achieve bore diameter. I have no money in the paper, $5 in the 7/8 -14 bolt I made a sizing die out of, and about an hour of labor making the sizing die.
you can try to paper patch up to .268, I just use a .270 cast bullet
I just got my M91 then ordered ammo and it arrived last week no problem!
If anyone out there has a Carcano wants to sell it, please contact me.
Carcano is pretty common always on the shelf here with 7mm Mauser
Where??
Bit the bullet and bought some ammo on Gunbroker
But now I've got brass and plenty of bullets and everything else ;)
Thank you.
Man i have been looking for 7.35 cal, about 2 years heck can find any,
SGammo has some now. Steinal has it off an on
Well you can always wait on backorder from the bigger guys.
Please let me know if you your have someone selling a working, functioning Carcano like the one mentioned in this video.
Classic firearms has them in stock and on sale right now.
It would be cool to re-barrel one in another cartridge besides 6.5, 7.35 and 8mm. .270win would be cool. The case head is close in size.
Yeah go spend a bunch on a shit rifle.....
I have a question: I have 2 Carcano, one I can shoot all day and the barrel get barely warm the other after shooting 6 round the barrel is hot like hell. Can anyone explain?
Hi,… thank you for the video…. I have had my M91 for almost a year and can’t seem to find an en bloc for it… can you suggest any resources? Many thanks,…
Classic firearms has some I think
Liberty tree collectors is a good one
Literally all everyone has to do is not pay these prices for a month or two, dip into your stash or dry fire. If we dont pay these prices for a few weeks then everyone benefits.
pp makes ammo for it and is readily available can get it by the tons
yeah but when this vid was made it was impossible thank god its gotten better
The Germans tried to rechamber the Carcano to 8 mm in WW2 but the bolt wasn’t as stout as the Mauser and unable to take the pressures. The 6.5X52 not effective? That round was used to kill Kennedy by Oswald. My grandfather was a captain in the Alpini forces in WW1 and fought in the Alps against the Austrians and Germans, Needless to say I have a Carcano hanging on the wall next to his picture and medals.
If i were to barrel a carcano, id go .243 winchester, for obvious reasons.
Please tell me how long is the barrel
Give the gun to a museum. It was designed in the 19th century. Even before WWI.
Cat food and baby formula are now limited. Gas is over $5 a gallon. Things are worse than they were when the video was made. What will it be like in a year?
If you can't find ammo for your carcano you are not looking hard enough. I buy it all the time.
I didnt know that you can only shoot 268 bullets in the carcano. Is there any way to resize regular 264 bullets?
not really you cant compress a jacked bullet up in diameter , you can size them down in dia. PPU does make bullets .268 Dia. 140 & 125 grain, but only the bullets as a reloading component. For some reason they do not offer it as loaded ammo.
@@michaeljohns1019 ah that is good to know thank you. I didnt know that when i bought my 2 carcanos lol. I hope the 6.5 bullets work in the arisaka. I shouldve bought round nose bullets i guess those are better. in fact i had a mosin that would keyhole with Pointed bullets but not round noses. Any place that has the .268 bullets as of right now?
@@danm7298 no
Ah that figures lol. I thought about trying to use 270 bullets but those are .277. Im honestly new to collecting these older mil surps and i didint know that. I guess its the same for the 8x50r austrian, 8mm lebels/berthiers. they all have slightly larger bores except the austrian that ones is slightly undersized at .321. but maybe i can get a resizer for regular .323 bullets. Also i wish i had gotten round nosed bullets i guess those work better in worn out barrels. I think the 6.5 arisaka uses the normal .264 bullets tho
Some good information you have put out.
Did the Nazis rechamber these for 8mm Mauser? I’m sure that action is plenty strong
Buy a Lee Enfield. Bullets, brass and ammo are available.
Any update on obtaining 6.5x52mm Carcano ammo?
What power are you looking for?
is the serbian ammo 264 or 268 diameter do you know?
.264 . In two bullet weights. The heavier bullet shoots better in the .284 barrels as it has a larger bearing surface in the rifling.
the Germans converted them to 8mm at the end of world war two . AN a lot of them have been converted too 7.62x39 which is what I am going to do tomorrow.
how did that work out for you?
Mine shoots way too high. Any suggestions? Taller front sight?
I've read that these rifles are set up to hit at point of aim at the 200 meter range (distance) So you'll have have to aim lower at shorter distances. For example...aim at belt level to hit the chest. If you shoot it enough, you'll learn where to hold the sughts at.
The correct sight picture for the Carcano is to bury the front sight into the bottom of the V of the rear sight. That should help.
Carcano carbine its neat
He! I still know you from the Kropatschek 1886 rifle video!!
My solution on this, like you said, there are some companies that do obsolete cartridges, you can buy it from these guys (at a premium price). Some have old stock 8x60 Kropatschek and ask 115 euros for 20 cases. That is stealing money of people. So I get why they ask a lot of money for obsolete cartridges.
A case is nothing but a piece of sheet brass. As you can read in this book on how cartridges are made: archive.org/details/cartridgemanufac00hamirich.
I did some CAD drawing on this topic, and uploaded it to my grabcad page: grabcad.com/a.b-430/models, if you have a lathe and a milling machine a lot can be made i am sure of that!
Maybe the solution does not have to be to difficult at all. Maybe you can reshape a more common cartridge and make a "wildcat" of the parent cartridge and turn it into this 6.5x52 Carcano case (do a chamber/bore casting if you are unsure of the caliber!).
Also if you cannot find any powder. You can always make cordite yourself. Now you have to be carefull not to get any powder that is to fast burning or you will blow up your gun due to to high pressure. But it can be done. Cordite MK1: 65% guncotton and 30% nitroglycerine (keeping 5% petroleum jelly), mix that and desolve it in the least bit of acetone, and you make thin rolls of it, dry it, and then put that in your catridge, it should work an look a lot like the stuff they used in it probably. Any way, its also in the ammunition factory upload on my grabcad page.
Im trying to make people aware on how guns are made, and how things are done, while i like the idea that people still have the knowhow on how to make guns and ammo. Especially while there is an (artificial, what else could it be?) shortage on ammunition. How is that? I really sounds to me that you want to have an ammo factory that sells everything the market demands on a larger volume than it can chew.
These guys at "fedarms" sell machines that can produce ammunition, now you need some money to invest, but when there is this big an ammo shortage, it might make you a lot of money. th-cam.com/video/R28k3FGFS-s/w-d-xo.html
Any way, im going to upload some more CAD files on grabcad in the near future: a micrometer chamber reamer stop, a floating reamer holder, and a modular heat treatment oven that does 3x 5A 230V (just so it stays below the 16A of the circuit breaker).
There is no need to wait, while there are a lot of good solutions out there. The best and cheapest is probably get a parent case and make a 6.5x52 wildcat. Get some other rifle powder and use that to fill your cases, it should run fine. Nothing to hot should be good!
Greetings,
Jeff
p.s.
If anyone needs some help, let me know and leave a comment!
أنا عندي واحدة من هذا السلاح قمت بعمل تحوير لها لكي تعمل بالذخيرة عيار 7.62*39 نظراً لعدم وجود الذخيرة الاصليه لها
A Swede 6.5 is a way better choice .
Well I've been to a few auctions and seen the demographic of people who seem to buy up ammunition for rifles they dont even own to "trade" or "just to have it and upsell" we can talk in circles about it but theres a group of men with social security income and retirement funds and a lot of time to go to every shop in their state clearing shelves. I've seen it with my two eyes in my region theres a colloquial name we have for them they dont understand how they've made a bad shortage worse nine times out of ten its someone acting like their failing health will allow them to participate in some nationwide beyond rule of law situation but they would actually sit it out and live through the NRA like they did in 1994 and the 80s era bans. The surplus market is dead it exists in dusty safes of older men who dont care about the rifles or shoot/clean them in fact I've come across enough chopped up lee enfeilds to be disgusted I've restored some. Stop making runs on the market and hyperinflating the prices and for gods sake put the dremel down Elmer want a rem 700 buy one of those. Soon we wont we allowed to get our surplus Ammos "online" the discussion should have been had decades ago before feinstein got real traction.
carcano junk rifles
Not very informative
Crap rifle. Not worth the time. Not accurate ever. Not one of the better Italian products.