carcano rebarrel?

[sevensix2x51]

hoping this is the right place for this, so here goes..
i have always wanted to pick up a mannlicher-carcano, and i have a quandry. i am looking at the cartridge specs, and i dont have a whole lot of help from my reloading manual. it doesnt list the cartridge. but i have learned that it uses the same shellholder as the 30.06 and 308 win cartridges. i am also assuming that the oal of the casing is 52mm, as opposed to the .308's 51mm, and the 30.06's 63mm.. the caliber is smaller, so i am thinking that a good gunsmith can bore the barrel out and ream the chamber out, assuming the cartridge i want to use is long enough that there is material to cut. i also want to use the factory magazine. i see the projectile on the 6.5 carcano is ridiculously long, as compared to the .30 rounds i want to use. so would the .30.06 fit into the magazine?
the basis on hoping this will work, is that i used to own a sporterized arisaka in 30.06. until it was stolen from my home in a burglary. if you see a sporterized arisaka with a mum intact and a dust cover in 30.06, it was mine. please break the legs of the person holding it, or who sold it to you. i think the carcano cartridge is similar, is it not?

thanks, in advance, for any insight...


ps- this is all because i have thousands of rounds of .308, hundreds of rounds of 30.06, and zero rounds of 6.5x52 carcano.... and i want to consolidate as much as possible. just want to show some respect for my ancestors, without breaking the bank. and i want something unique. thanks again.

[smle-man]

Sorry to be a sour lemon but your project is not worth the time or effort nor is the action recommended for 7.62.

[sevensix2x51]

thats cool, i just thought i'd throw it out there. the time and effort is relative, but the rating on the action is not. i can always use a mantelpiece, just was hoping i could turn it into a shooter's rifle...

[gunboat]

6.5 and 7.35 carcano have a base diameter of .450, 06 is .473 so bolt face and extractor may require modification.
Carcano requires clips to operate so they would require modification to hold 06 diameter case.
06 is about 3.34 overall length, 6.5x52 is only 2.95 overall so magazine is too short.

Removing barrel, boring and rifling, rechambering, replacing barrel and headspacing will cost more than a new barrel, possibly $300 or more. You could buy a decent 06 or 308 shooter for that.

It would be much more cost effective to sell the ammo, buy new 6.5 brass and reloading tools.
my ha-penny

[gun toting monkeyboy]

6.5 Carcano is a decent cartridge in it's own right. But trying to rechamber it to anything other than a very few other old cartridges is NOT worth the time. I love them, and have nearly a dozen of them in my collection. But they are the absolute WORST action to try to sporterize. It is the wrong size and shape for just about anything other than the cartridges it was designed for. If you want to play bubba, that is fine. Pick an old, battered gun with no collector's value. And make sure it isn't a valuable rarity. Or just go cruise the local used gun stores or gunbroker.com. You can pick up a good used hunting rifle for far less than the cost of sporterizing an old military action.

-Mb

[sevensix2x51]

6.5 and 7.35 carcano have a base diameter of .450, 06 is .473 so bolt face and extractor may require modification.
Carcano requires clips to operate so they would require modification to hold 06 diameter case.
06 is about 3.34 overall length, 6.5x52 is only 2.95 overall so magazine is too short.

Removing barrel, boring and rifling, rechambering, replacing barrel and headspacing will cost more than a new barrel, possibly $300 or more. You could buy a decent 06 or 308 shooter for that.

It would be much more cost effective to sell the ammo, buy new 6.5 brass and reloading tools.
my ha-penny

thanks for the size specifics, my speer book didnt help me much. i guess ill get a mantelpiece after all... ive already got some shooters in 30cal.
thanks!

maybe ill see about building another arisaka. i know that can be done. i just want to have something a little different.

[Noonanda]

Hornady has loading data for em, and google "steves pages" that guy has data listed for almost every caliber out there

[11Z50]

I once thought about a Carcano re-barrel to .35 Remington. Same head size, and the .35 is a pretty mellow cartridge that the Carcano action could easily handle. One could load the .35 Rem with .357/110 grain HP's which would make for a pretty decent small game and defense load. If you have some Carcano clips, the do hold six rounds instead of the usual milsurp five.

It would make for a one of a kind carbine, albeit expensive....I might just revisit that idea. The right gunsmith could pull it off with some style.

[rogdigity]

i can understand the desire, but i agree with smle. thats just too much work to not be guaranteed an end product that will work. i have 2 arisaka projects i am working on and i am going to be giving a friend one of the 7.7 barreled receivers and he has alreday told me about his desire to rechamber it for 30-06. from what i hear accuracy suffers, but still fun to shoot.

i bought a 7.7 barreled receiver for about $25 bucks on gunbroker. then bought a complete sporterized 7.7 (for parts) and smooth bore trainer 6.5 together for $300. once i found out the smooth bore was a smooth bore and not fireable, i bought a barreled receiver in 6.5 to swich it out with. im aiming to build a shooter out of the 6.5 and a shooter out of the 7.7. all in all i am into it about $400. i still need a new stock for the 7.7 and a firing pin for the 6.5, so i figure up to about another $150 bucks, plus materials to clean the rifles, and i want to refinish the 6.5 stock so whatever that costs me...


under $600 bucks for for 2 rifles, plus i can say i restored them myself. you can probably build a nice 7.7 and have iit rechambered for under $300

[Sampachi]

I seem to recall reading somewhere of a Carcano conversion to 7.62x39. The owner used a Norinco SKS barrel that had not been tapped for the gas bleed off. I think he bought that from Numerich.
The Germans did convert Carcanos to 7.92 but they are generally regarded as unsafe to shoot and IIRC, were single shot. The magazine just isn't big enough to take 5 rounds of 7.92.

Incidentally, Privi makes 6.5 Carcano ammo.

[knucklehead0202]

the whole "weak action" carcano thing is more of a myth than anything. they were made with very good steel, and are pretty strong. one thing to consider though, is that their bore diameters were weird and you'd end up having to rebarrel. if you've got on with a decent bore, reload for it. both 6.5 and 7.35 carcano are great rounds, if you load them correctly. only issue is, they use bastard bore diameters. 6.5 carcano doesn't use a standard .264 bullets diameter, but rather a .267-.268. 7.35 carcano uses a .300 rather than .308 diameter. hornady has it, and it's not ridiculously priced. they also sell the bullets. brass you can get from Graf. otherwise, if i were to rebarrel a carcano, i'd consider going 6.5x55 as a good round/low pressure. 6.5 swede is STILL a very popular cartridge worldwide for a very good reason. i've got 2 swede mausers over 100 yrs old that i'd put up against most new rifles in standard chamberings for accuracy and killing power. oh yeah, some 8mm carcanos were single shot, but the did actually make them repeaters as well, it can be done. December '08 Gun magazine had a great article about carcanos, especially the oddball 7.35 and 8mm ones, and how they shoot just fine and plenty accurate, although they said the 8mm was a bit unpleasant in such a small, light rifle. look it up, it's a very good article.