infamous carcano

[pcking78]

    I am somewhat of a "lurker".  I've been reading this forum for years but have only posted a few times.  Well, I have a project I'd like some advice on.   My grandfather has given me several guns over the years, the most recent being a 6.5 carcano.   With it's short barrel and light kick I envision it being a fairly handy rifle. 
     However, as you know it has that split receiver in the back.  No good for mounting scopes.  The rear sight is a solid, permanent addition to the barrel, non-adjustable. 
    My question is this.  I noticed the rear base that is part of the rear sight is about the same height as the front receiver ring.  Would it be possible to grind down the rear sight, drill and tap the base of the sight and the receiver ring, and mount some type of scout setup?
 So, what do you guys think???

[rickt300]

Well the best thing to do would be to take it to a gunsmith and have him drill and tap the barrel for a base or bases at the right distance for the scout type scope of your choice's eye relief. So get the scope first and find a good gunsmith second.

[pcking78]

   Not sure that would work;  there is not enough room I'm afraid  between the receiver and the rear sight to add a scope mount.  The rear sight is not detachable also.

[rickt300]

The rear sight is not that hard to mill off into a flat spot to drill and tap into. Most good gunsmiths have an old Bridgeport mill laying around.

[Sourdough]

They make a side mount for the Carcano.  The base mounts to the side of the receiver, and the scope is off set to the side.  The gun ejects up so a scope over the action would be in the way.  Look at the rifle Lee Harvey Oswald was supposed to have shot Kennedy with.  It was a 6.5 Carcano with a side mount scope.

I have two Carnaco's, one has a fold down graduated sight, a real nice unit.  The other has a metal block with a notch cut into it, very cheap.  I use and shoot both.  I reload since Norma is the only one loading for the Carcano.  The bullet they load reminds me of a pencil sticking out of the case.  I use Speer bullets, I believe 125gr spitzers.  They work fine on Tennessee Whitetails.

[WyoStillhunter]

I would spend some time working with the Carcano as it is.  Whether you use commercial ammo or handloads might make a little difference.  But you might be pleasantly surprised by what you can do with it in factory configuration...given a little practice.  After all, the Carcano is not a long range rifle and within 200 or 150 yds. I bet you'll be able to hold "minute of deer."

[Sourdough]

One other thing to think about.  With the side mount scope that you have to use with the Carcano, the line of sight is not directly over the barrel.  The line of sight is 1 inch off to the left.  So you have to aim one inch off to the left of where you want to bullet to strike.

My recommendation is to forget the scope.  I leave my Carcano's in Tennessee and my brothers are always using them.  They do all right with the original sites.  Those two guns have brought down a lot of deer.  Not bad for two $15.00 guns.

[billy_56081]

There is definitly a way to mont a scope n a carcano, Lee Harvey Oswald had one mounted on his.

[Swampman]

If it hasn't been sporterized already I'd leave it alone.  Carcanos are pretty hard to find without a cracked stock.

[Sourdough]

Billy:  As I pointed out earlier, Yes he did, it was a side mount.  That is one of the reasons many people feel he really did not make that shot.

[Mikey]

What many people forget is that although Oswald's Carcano wore a side mount scope and although those hit one inch to the left, Jack Kennedy had a big head and at 60 yds, one inch to the left would not have mattered one bit. 

pcking78:  I would work with the rifle first to see if it shoots with any accuracy at all.  The 6.5 Mannlicter Carcano got a bad rep after many were brought back because of the rifling those  rifles use.  It is a 'Gain Twist', as with a artillery piece and many of the M38 Carcano carbines brought back after the war were little more than the M91s with 29" bbls cut down to 22 or 23" bbls and with the 'Gain" twisat in the last 6" of barrel cut away, accuracy suffered greatly for those rifles.  For others that were made with new short barrels, and I cannot recall if they were made at the Terni Plant or if they were the Beretta made rifles, accuracy was more than acceptable. 

I tested some of those rifles, both the longer barrelled and shorter barrelled rifles and was surprised at the accuracy that round could attain.

When I began hunting in Colorado in the mid-60s I first used one of the Carcano carbines and culled quite a bit of game.  When I began reloading for the caliber I saw even better accuracy and came to understand how well moderate velocity, heavy for the bore bullets (160 gn slugs) worked on big game.  When I felt I needed a 'heavier caliber' I went to the British 303 and sometimes used the 205 gn Express rounds but when I felt I should have something even harder hitting I went to the 06 and that was the end of that story.......

[WyoStillhunter]

This thread prompted me to do a search.  Here is what I found that pretty much covers the waterfront on the Carcano concerning ammo, reloading, sights, etc.  The author is now the lead ballistician at Hornady.  I am certain that he knows whereof he speaks.

http://personal.stevens.edu/~gliberat/carcano/emary.html

[Sourdough]

I've always had a soft spot for the Carcano Carbines.  When I was a kid back in the 50s, all young boys wanted to play army, or Cowboys and Indians.  Many of our fathers had brought back war souvenirs, Carcano, Mauser, and Arisaka rifles.  It was not long till those were what we were using to play with.  Yes, we pointed real rifles at each other and yelled bang.  I always liked the Carcano that belonged to a friend up the street because it was the smallest, and easiest for a kid to handle.

We played rough with those guns.  We jammed the barrels into the dirt.  We threw them at each other.  We used them to batter down the doors of forts (Tree Houses).  When my friend up the street lost his father to an auto accident, his mother gave me the old Carcano.  She no longer wanted a gun in her house.  I was about 11 or 12 by then.

When I turned 14 I decided to go Deer Hunting with my Dad.  Only I did not own a 30-30, that was what everyone used back then.  An old friend of my Dad's (Jim Johnson a retired Marine) told me to use that old Carcano, Dad laughed and blew the idea off.   Jim told me to disassemble and clean the gun, he told me to bring it over to his house and he would help me.  So I took it over and we spent a long time cleaning it.  Getting out years of dirt and mud.  Cleaning and polishing the trigger, firing pin, and internal parts.  Jim also had my cousin do the same with an old 7.7 Arisaka. 

Then Jim came up with a handfull of cartridges for both guns.  We took them to my Grandma's farm, tied them into a peach tree, ran a string through the triggers, then around the corner of the house.  Pulled the string and bang, they did not blow up, so they must be safe to shoot.  But not to Jim, Jim had us break them down and clean them again, with Jim doing a close inspection on all parts.  Then Jim declared them safe to use for hunting.

Those two old guns have brought many deer to the table over the years.  I still have that old Carcano, it's at my Dad's house.  My brothers still use it for Deer occasionally.  Dad has used it with several of his Grandsons, and Great Grandsons to take them Deer hunting.  Being such a small gun, and the mild loads I keep loaded up for it there at home, make it a good gun for kids. 

I bought one years later for $15.00 from a pawn shop in Las Vegas.  I took it back to Tennessee and left it at Dad's as well.       

   

[john keyes]

the Gun Control Act of 1968 put an end to us being able to order that stuff out of magazines

[jlchucker]

Back in the early 60's, when I was a freshman college student, local department stores were selling Carcano's for $8.95 each.  If you were more affluent you could get a British Enfield for $19.95,  a US 30-06 Enfield made by Winchester or Eddystone for $29.95, or, for the really rich, an 03 Springfield for $39.95. I didn't have a deer rifle but wanted one so I wouldn't have to borrow Dad's 30-30 or 25-20.  I got the Carcano.  I recall the round seemed to be not too bad, but the rifle shot about a foot high at 25 yd.  Ammo was cheap, came in clips (hardball or softpoint) and some military ammo looked like it was steel-cased.  That rifle went on the market when I graduated and went into the Army (where they had REAL rifles). My brother sold the Carcano for me to somebody who wanted it badly enough to pay $35 for it.  I never shed a single tear over the loss of my Carcano.  For another 5 bucks the fool that bought it could have bought an 03 Springfield at the time, but for some warped, strange reason he wanted a Carcano.