6.5 Carcano

[Old Scribe]

Took the Carcano Marchetto (sp) out for the first time since I finished putting it together. Shot some PPU 139 gr. FMJ BT. As soon as I get some emptys I want to reload some round nose for it. Shoots well!

[dfletcher]

Hornady makes a .266 (or maybe it's .267) diameter bullet for this rifle, it's their 160 RNL and supposedly it will give better accuracy than the .264 diameter stuff. I learned to reload using a carcano and an old Savage 340 in 222 Remington. The Carcano always did pretty well regardless of what bullet and powder was used, although I think IMR 4064 and IMR 4895 were what I used most often.

[Flyin Brian]

There's a gun shop in Modesto that has like 10+ boxes of Norma ammo for a Carcano... that would be some excellent brass for reloading

[gun toting monkeyboy]

The Hornady bullets are .268" 160 grain RNSP. Great bullets, but you MUST use the reloading data Hornady has on their website. If you try to use the standard reloading data for the .264" bullets, you will melt the brass onto the bolt face. Ask me how I know this.

As for the Norma cartridges, I have found a few things out about them over the years. First, they use a nickle/copper mix for their bullet jackets. At least the ones where the bullets look like they are polished silver-colored jackets. They are great bullets, but the nickle attracts a magnet, so many ranges won't let you shoot them, thinking that they are steel. Second, on every batch that I have had, they use .264" bullets, which means the accuracy isn't as good as it could be. It is still good enough for hunting, but some guns won't be able to shoot under 4-5 MOA with it. Lastly, I have seen some issues with the rim thickness. Most of the time it falls within the normal limits, but sometimes it is a bit too thick or thin to work with all extractors. I checked out the cases verses several versions of military cartridges, as well as several written texts, and confirmed this with calipers. If you can get the Norma stuff for a decent price, go for it. If not, there are plenty of regular cases out there for reloading.

-Mb