6.5x52mm Carcano

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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Tripod » 21 Oct 2016, 9:08 am

bladeracer wrote:
Tripod wrote:Hey bladeracer, Did you get any loading clips with your Carcano? I didn't and can't find any local to me. Does anyone on here have any spares?



I got one with the rifle, he bought it separately as he knew he'd never sell the rifle without a clip.
And I have ten coming from the US, I can send you some of those when they arrive, I'm never going to need ten of them but I'm sure I'm capable of losing them easily enough :-)

Who in the US and how much? Numrich has them but the P&H kills it.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 21 Oct 2016, 9:36 am

Tripod wrote:Who in the US and how much? Numrich has them but the P&H kills it.


Numrich.
Five Carcano clips, two magazine springs for the M38, and some screws, with postage was US$78 - no complaints from me about that price.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Tripod » 21 Oct 2016, 9:46 am

bladeracer wrote:
Tripod wrote:Who in the US and how much? Numrich has them but the P&H kills it.


Numrich.
Five Carcano clips, two magazine springs for the M38, and some screws, with postage was US$78 - no complaints from me about that price.

If you are buying enough parts it is ok but I cant find anything else that they have that I need at the moment other than barrels which they won't ship international.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 21 Oct 2016, 10:33 am

Tripod wrote:If you are buying enough parts it is ok but I cant find anything else that they have that I need at the moment other than barrels which they won't ship international.



You would need an import permit for a barrel, and it probably has to be shipped to a dealer anyway.
I'm half expecting Customs to grab it for the magazine springs.

I'm also chasing the brass stock disc for the M38 but they're out of stock, and I'm not paying the crazy Ebay prices for it.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Tripod » 21 Oct 2016, 1:47 pm

bladeracer wrote:
Tripod wrote:If you are buying enough parts it is ok but I cant find anything else that they have that I need at the moment other than barrels which they won't ship international.



You would need an import permit for a barrel, and it probably has to be shipped to a dealer anyway.
I'm half expecting Customs to grab it for the magazine springs.

I'm also chasing the brass stock disc for the M38 but they're out of stock, and I'm not paying the crazy Ebay prices for it.

It says in their website they don't send barrels internationally (and heaps of other stuff)
But yes I have bought stuff from them you just need to make sure to buy enough to make it worth the $40+ for P&H etc
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 21 Oct 2016, 1:57 pm

Tripod wrote:It says in their website they don't send barrels internationally (and heaps of other stuff)
But yes I have bought stuff from them you just need to make sure to buy enough to make it worth the $40+ for P&H etc



No US seller should ship any items covered by ITAR, which would include barrels.
Are you looking for original military barrels?
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 22 Oct 2016, 12:36 pm

Managed to do the chamber cast just now to confirm it is 6.5x52mm Carcano.
Struggling to find chamber dimensions but it fits cartridge dimensions very closely.
The only dimension that's out by a tad is the shoulder which is 0.0025" larger than the cartridge dimension.
Start of the bore is .2695" which shows 0.0015" of bore erosion but the throat is very nice so I'm happy with that.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 24 Oct 2016, 7:00 pm

100 new 6.5x52mm Carcano cases arrived today - $35 plus post.
Just waiting on bullets now :-(
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 30 Oct 2016, 12:54 pm

A bag of various 6.5mm bullets were in my mailbox on Friday :-)
Tried some Hornady 95gn VMax's in the old girl, unsuccessfully :-(
Still get a bloody big bang, but velocities were in the region of 700fps so the gas is overtaking the bullet in the barrel I think.
No keyholes out to 100m, but 400mm drop from 50m to 100m is not great :-)
I've read that longer bullets with a lot more bearing surface can tend to obturate just enough to make them work so I'll try the heavier ones as well.

Two places are telling me not to expect the Hornady .268" bullets this year, and they're $1 a piece if I ever do get them.
I haven't found a source of PPU bullets at all.
I'm going to hone out a .264" Lee sizing die to .270" and use cast .278" bullets for now.
I'm using the 6.5x55mm dies to deprime, neck size and seat bullets as nobody makes collet dies for it.
And I'm waiting on the carcano-specific shell holder so I'm priming them in the vice for now.
I've also paper patched some 6mm bullets up to .270" but haven't fired those yet.

And if anybody is aware of some .268" bullets on a shelf somewhere, let me know :-)
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 08 Nov 2016, 7:34 pm

32gn of AR2206H pushed the .264" 95gn VMax's to 700fps.
30gn of AR2206H behind a Hornady .243 75gn HP patched to .270" makes 1990fps, and is within a few inches of point of aim at 25m without tumbling.
Making up a batch of them tonight to do some more testing :-)
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 15 Nov 2016, 2:25 pm

Bit of an update :-)

I've had no luck finding .268" bullets anywhere. Hornady do small batches of a 160gn RN but the wait is long, and the cost is high. PPU do two bullets but I haven't found anybody that can supply those in Oz.
I've read that some people have had success with heavy blunt bullets. The long bearing surface allows the base of the bullet to obturate just enough to build pressure, so I have some 160gn RN .264's coming this week to try.

Paper-patching .243 bullets up to .270" works very well, but is fairly fiddly.
Cutting a .17WSM case in half and seating a .243 bullet into it to bring it up to .269" works even better, and is a little less fiddly. Gaznazdiac sent me several hundred empty .17WSM cases for the purpose - thanks Gaz :-)

But I found a machine shop locally that is happy to try to make me some bullets on their CNC machines to my spec.
So I was up during the night on the lathe and turned up two designs of .268" bullet, a semi-spitzer boat tail, and a round nose along the lines of the original military bullet. In brass, they weigh 132gn and 149gn and are 1.300" and 1.285" long. I'll ask him to make make me 50 of each to test. I'm hoping that once I have a design, they'll be able to make them to any OD and any length by simply changing those dimensions. I'll also get him to make hollow point versions. He can also do them in copper if I want, but machining copper sucks, so I'd expect those to cost more.

And does anybody happen to have an original Carcano military round nose bullet I could borrow to make a drawing from?
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 25 Nov 2016, 6:21 am

bentaz wrote:If your keen for a bit of a drive, Holts down in colac had a stack of them.



Thanks Bentaz, just emailed them :-)
Don't need to drive anywhere for bullets, I can get those by mail.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 25 Nov 2016, 5:10 pm

bentaz wrote:They were loaded rounds i saw at holts



Yep, they got back to me, ammunition only, no bullets :-(
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 09 May 2017, 5:09 am

bentaz wrote:http://www.osaaustralia.com.au/products/projectiles/rifle-projectiles/6-5mm-268-caliber-268-carcano/
hornady make a bullet for the carcano



I finally have 200 of these suckers in hand!
Been chasing them up everywhere for months and none existed anywhere in Oz.
I emailed Hornady last week and asked them when they were doing a new run of the Carcano bullet - and they're doing a production run this month!
So I placed a back order via my local to ensure I get some.
I also ordered another 300 of the .264" 160gn RN to replenish my dwindling supply.
Got a call this morning that they had come in...along with the 200 Carcano bullets????
Seems the distributor had two boxes on the shelf that nobody had been able to find after numerous requests from various dealers :-)

I'm shooting a single load in my Carcano as it's the only one that works :-(
Hornady 160gn .264" RN on 28.5gn of AR2206H making around 1950fps. 30gn pushes it over 2000fps but with definite signs of pressure, and is unnecessary with the big fat 160gn round nose bullet.
Over the open sights it holds around 3MoA at 100m but 30-40mm low. Hopefully this week I'll be able to test shoot these and decide if they offer anything over the .264" version.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Heckler303 » 09 May 2017, 6:57 am

I admire anyone willing to go through all the BS and seriously try to make a carcano shoot well.

A Lee Enfield in 303-6.5 would not be half as much trouble as these POS.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 09 May 2017, 7:09 am

Heckler303 wrote:I admire anyone willing to go through all the BS and seriously try to make a carcano shoot well.

A Lee Enfield in 303-6.5 would not be half as much trouble as these POS.


I hadn't really planned to make it shoot well, I just want to be able to shoot it :-)
I'm pretty happy with the accuracy so far, but I should be able to tweak it a bit better without too much effort I hope.

But the Lee would be far heavier and bulkier, and the cost of rebarreling to a wildcat would far outweigh my $200 investment in this little beauty :-)
The 30% increase in powder might be useful but the M96 or M38 would be a better choice than the Lee.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by No1Mk3 » 09 May 2017, 6:05 pm

G'day bladeracer,
Would be interested to see how you go. My load for the rifle and carbine is 27.0g of 2206H, Hornady .268 160gRN, WLR primer, Norma case. It works very well in the Cavalry Carbine and M38, but is a bit slow in the rifle for 500m, having quite a bit of drop.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 09 May 2017, 6:47 pm

No1Mk3 wrote:G'day bladeracer,
Would be interested to see how you go. My load for the rifle and carbine is 27.0g of 2206H, Hornady .268 160gRN, WLR primer, Norma case. It works very well in the Cavalry Carbine and M38, but is a bit slow in the rifle for 500m, having quite a bit of drop.


Will do.
I just loaded up twelve rounds with the .264" bullet and six rounds with the .267" bullet - both on 28.5gn of AR2206H.
I haven't tried below 28gn so far, with the .264" bullet I needed to push it hard to get it to seal and give pressure.
Have you tried the .264" 160gn RN as well?

My trajectory with the .264" 160gn RN at 1950fps with the standard sights gives a 75m zero, 15mm high at 50m, 35mm low at 100m, 180mm low at 150m, 450mm low at 200m, 1400mm low at 300m, 3100mm low at 400m and 5800mm low at 500m. That's a lot of Kentucky hold-over, and my 3MoA rifle is dropping them into a 450mm circle at best. The .264" bullet has very slightly better BC, which reduces 500m drop by about 100mm :-)
To zero mine at 500mm I need to be 1100mm high at 100m, with a 5mm shorter front sight.

What size bullseye are you aiming at at 500m? I'd like to give it a go myself :-)

The bullet drops under the magical 800ft/lbs at 175m so I'm thinking a 125mm zero would be neat. 60mm high at 75m and 160mm low at 175m. This would require filing the front sight down 0.3mm.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 09 May 2017, 7:38 pm

bentaz wrote:I have read about drilling into the back of projectiles to create sort of a minnie ball for using under size projectiles for rounds like the Carcano.
The hot gasses cause the projectile to expand into the rifling.
I can copy out whats in my book if you're interested to know more about the idea.


I might try that with the lighter bullets as they don't have enough mass or bearing surface to seal the bore even with full-power loads.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Tiger650 » 09 May 2017, 8:04 pm

Anyone with any knowledge has to love the Mausers.

Good luck shooting pigs with the 6.5 Carcano, the Italian army tried hard to replace that rifle with the 7.7 version after their Abyssinian campaign of the early 1930's the damn thing would not stop savages worth a damn.

Mussolini thought it adequate, he not being one of the Grunts being put to the sword by an imperfectly perforated heathen.

Then again someone apparently used one put two rds into John Kennedy's moving head at 250 yds !

Back 20 yrs odd someone with too much time and money chambered the cartridge in a modern bench gun, shooting modern bullets etc, there were articles in the Sporting Shooter, the project petered out at above 1/4 MOA which was a s**t result given the equipment and effort involved.

All this is either hearsay or research, you decide but I reckon put a bayonet on the Carcano if you shoot it at a pig !

Back in the early '70's you could buy one for $25.00, that being maybe $26.00 more than they were worth LOL.

Mussolini and his missus were beaten and hung from the front of a servo, not really a "Day of the Jackal" hit.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 09 May 2017, 8:28 pm

Tiger650 wrote:Anyone with any knowledge has to love the Mausers.

Good luck shooting pigs with the 6.5 Carcano, the Italian army tried hard to replace that rifle with the 7.7 version after their Abyssinian campaign of the early 1930's the damn thing would not stop savages worth a damn.

Mussolini thought it adequate, he not being one of the Grunts being put to the sword by an imperfectly perforated heathen.

Then again someone apparently used one put two rds into John Kennedy's moving head at 250 yds !

Back 20 yrs odd someone with too much time and money chambered the cartridge in a modern bench gun, shooting modern bullets etc, there were articles in the Sporting Shooter, the project petered out at above 1/4 MOA which was a s**t result given the equipment and effort involved.

All this is either hearsay or research, you decide but I reckon put a bayonet on the Carcano if you shoot it at a pig !

Back in the early '70's you could buy one for $25.00, that being maybe $26.00 more than they were worth LOL.


I doubt military bullets in the 1930's were as effective as modern hunting bullets ;-)
I can't see too many pigs shaking off a 160gn RN at 2000fps - pretty much equivalent to the 30-30Win.
And I would love one of the folding bayonets :-)

I'm not interested in sub-MoA out of it, particularly as I won't be scoping it or shooting match bullets. 2MoA would be outstanding for an unscoped hunting rifle for use out to 175m on medium game.

At $200 I think I paid less than $25 was worth in the 70's :-)
In '83 I paid $159 for my sporterised M96 and $99 for my all original M38 - both from Fullers.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by Tiger650 » 09 May 2017, 8:32 pm

Skinny little Abyssinian heathen ****** needed a bigger hole put in them !

Defending the Italian Grunt.

He was mostly a conscript probably and did not care about Il Duche's colonial ambitions, when confronted by the Brits in the Western Desert he threw down his Carcano and was treated decently, possibly ending up in Australia helping on a farm as a trustee.

Hence lots of Wogs coming to Australia post WW2, good people too who work hard and do not want to kill me because I do not believe in their imaginary friend.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by deanp100 » 09 May 2017, 9:29 pm

Tiger650 wrote:Anyone with any knowledge has to love the Mausers.

Good luck shooting pigs with the 6.5 Carcano, the Italian army tried hard to replace that rifle with the 7.7 version after their Abyssinian campaign of the early 1930's the damn thing would not stop savages worth a damn.

Mussolini thought it adequate, he not being one of the Grunts being put to the sword by an imperfectly perforated heathen.

Then again someone apparently used one put two rds into John Kennedy's moving head at 250 yds !

Back 20 yrs odd someone with too much time and money chambered the cartridge in a modern bench gun, shooting modern bullets etc, there were articles in the Sporting Shooter, the project petered out at above 1/4 MOA which was a s**t result given the equipment and effort involved.

All this is either hearsay or research, you decide but I reckon put a bayonet on the Carcano if you shoot it at a pig !

Back in the early '70's you could buy one for $25.00, that being maybe $26.00 more than they were worth LOL.

Mussolini and his missus were beaten and hung from the front of a servo, not really a "Day of the Jackal" hit.

Complete lies. I killed a pig with one when I was 12. A beautiful 140 gr Sierra boattail did the job. But I did say just one pig.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by No1Mk3 » 10 May 2017, 5:16 am

G'day Tiger650,
You're a way off with your analysis of the 6.5 Carcano, firstly JFK was shot at 250 FEET, that is 83 yards. Ballistically the Carcano is more powerful than the 6.5 Mannlicher which has taken literally hundreds of elephant, so it is a capable round. The main problem from a military viewpoint is that the 160gn RN FMJ does not tumble upon impact and can often leave through and through wounds of small diameter that do not stop an adrenaline filled combatant. I agree the Italian soldier was a good fighting man but most lacked enthusiasm for their Fascist overlord, and was quite willing to chuck it in if he could. My late Father in Law fought them in Yugoslavia and he had great respect for the Alpine troops, but none at all for the plain conscript infantry. And despite post-war stereotyping one can also note that of the 5000 Division Folgore paratroopers in Nth Africa, only 294 survived, having stood their ground and fought to the last bullet. Modern Prvi ammo is loaded with 160gn SP, and will kill anything in Australia with good shot placement. Cheers.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by juststarting » 15 Apr 2018, 3:07 am

Necro time...

New additions to my set...

Image

Image

I found old Milsurp Carcano ammo, a box of 50 and a few random lose bags of cartridges at Melbourne Arms & Militaria Fair.

The box and a few coper (projectiles) looking cartridges are probably going into storage, but the lose rounds I will shoot. I did have to pull a couple. I will post the measurement data when I get around to it, however, at this stage I do have a couple of question:

1. Why do some of them have silver/metallic projectiles and some copper looking projectiles. Please educate :)
2. They do have Berdan primer. They are a mix bag of headstamps but all Italian (http://personal.stevens.edu/~gliberat/c ... story.html). Question, is it corrosive like the Mosin milsurp ammo? That is, do I need to scrub it for dear life after I shoot it?


Thanks!
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by in2anity » 20 Apr 2018, 2:12 pm

juststarting wrote:Necro time...
Thanks!


jebus weirdest looking cartridge i did ever see :wtf:
At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by juststarting » 20 Apr 2018, 2:50 pm

That doesn't help :/
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by No1Mk3 » 20 Apr 2018, 4:44 pm

G'day juststarting,
Pour a cup of boiling water through the barrel, all corrosive salts will wash away, clean rifle as per usual. Why you have some nickel and some copper is that all military cartridges were once nickel but cost considerations, among a few other reasons, made them change to copper. This is common with 303, where MkVI is nickel and MkVII can be found with both, and MkVIIz is only copper. Cheers.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by bladeracer » 12 Sep 2018, 4:22 pm

I was discussing the 6.5x52mm and went to Hornady for some data. They no longer list the .267" bullet - has it been discontinued perhaps? It doesn't work for me, but I know some people have found it works for them.
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Re: 6.5x52mm Carcano

Post by yumastepside » 17 Sep 2018, 2:04 pm

I don't really want to get into this ****** about carcano's, their bullet's or Italians in general..........I have two Carcano's, one full length gain twist barrel and the other one, a carbine....not sure which one I'll use yet but I have a .264 barrel from a Swede and a 6.5x54 MS reamer so the idea is to cut off the x52 barrel and internally thread it, screw the 264 barrel into that and cut the new chamber.Cases are a bit more expensive but you can buy projectiles for it.
The 6.5x54 MS has taken every thing from elephant down, if you do your part.

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Roger

........not mine, but what I'm after....

Image

....not mine either, but an interesting concept....

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