Carcano

[the priest]

"Testing the Weapons of War" by Timothy J. Mullin.

Mullin fired over a hundred different military weapons of this century and a few of the last. And guess what, it ended up in the five best rifles he tested.


"The M91 Italian Carcano carbine with fixed sights was the most surprising of the weapons fired. I had always thought of them these rifles as cheap wartime emergency weapons, but instead they are light, handy, and easy to shoot with great combat sights. It is he best rifle fielded by the Italians during the war and much better than any other bolt action rifle used in the two world wars by the combatants - except as noted earlier with the Pattern 14/m1917 Enfield"

personal.stevens.edu/~gliberat/carcano/general.html

[sharps1863]

If you go with a conversion, I would do the 7.62x39. Light recoil, good short range deer gun.
2 things about a carcano. Clips are a little hard to get and not cheap. Since Priv is reloading ammo for the 6.5 carcano I wish somone would start to make after market clips. To reload single shot you have to remove the bolt from the gun and place the shell under the extractor and put it back in the rifle as one piece. If you dont, it will not extract the shell when fired.
These are surprizing little guns and the price is increasing on them. If you do want one find a 7.35 Carcano to do the conversion. Hers a link to some information on them.
bobshellsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/735-carcano-rifle.html

[cubrock]

I like the Carcano action. However, 6.5 Carcano is hard to beat for most large game, plus it ain't too shabby for varmints. I'd leave it in its original caliber.

[Otony]

I just won a Carcano/Arisaka Type I on the recent Kull auction. This is a Carcano action that was suppiled to the Japanese, who used an Arisaka type magazine (thus no clips). It isn't completely clear historically if the Italian arsenals that provided these also made the stocks and barrels, but since the stocks have the Japanese style dovetailed butt, it is safe to assume that at least the woodwork is from Nippon.

Chambring is the 6.5x50 Jap, which is easily the equivalent of the 6.5 Carcano (if not better) and has the luxury of using standard 6.5mm bullets (a good reason to assume that the barrels may also be Japanese).

Mine was bubba-ed by having the stock cut back and a sporting type front sight installed, so I intend to make a fullstock carbine out of it. I will splice a few inches of wood into the forend to make it a Mannlicher stock, install a shotgun guard, and have a spoon bolt handle fitted. That will make it a red-headed stepchild of a Mannlicher for a certainty.

As a kid growing up, my best friend next door was half Japanese, half American. My parents were both from Italy. so having an Italian-Japanese sporter customized in the good lo' UA makes a bit if nostolgic sense to me. Yeah, twisted sense perhaps, but still fun. That and having found a dozen boxes of Norma Jap ammo a few years ago at closeout for $4 each sort of spurred the idea on as well.

Otony

[the priest]

Otony,......here's a good read for you and your new rifle.

www.chuckhawks.com/arisaka_sporter.htm

[Otony]

Aug 12, 2009 14:32:29 GMT -5 the priest said:

Otony,......here's a good read for you and your new rifle.

www.chuckhawks.com/arisaka_sporter.htm

Thankee sir,

Great article, couldn't have expressed it better myownself! I have always regarded the catridge as a sleeper, now I have the perfect vehicle to experiment with, and at a cost that is substantially less than a custom 6.5 Jap barrel for a Contender!

Otony