Poor Bubba'd Carcano.

[shop tom]

I recently obtained a Bubba'd Carcano, caliber 6.5mm. I don't know which model this gun was originally. The rear strap mount is on the bottom, rather than the side, and the rear sight is the long style. The barrel is 20.5" long and doesn't appear to have been hacked off, but the front sight has been replaced with a Lyman long ramp. The stock had GOBS of varnish on it, the barrel and action were virtually varnish-bedded. There was no handguard or any hardware other than the action bolts. The action and barrel, including the trigger assembly, were painted black. The trigger guard/magazine wasn't painted, but was kinda rough. The metal butt plate was in terrible shape, the top screw was indistinguishable from the plate itself. I figured the gun as it was was beyond restoring for reasonable cost, so I opted to at least clean up the mess.

So I bead-blasted the paint from the action, barrel, trigger guard, butt plate, and trigger assembly and reblued them. They turned out better than I expected for a cold blue job. I stripped the stock and will be sanding on it this week.

I normally wouldn't refinish a milsurp, but this was had already been hacked on. I don't think I paid too much for it, 100 bucks for the rifle, a set of Herter's reloading dies for it, 2 boxes of shells (some Norma and some reloads along with en-bloc clips) and a box (100) of Sierra 180 grain .311" spire point bullets for my Mosins.

I'll post some pics when I get it done, hopefully later in the week.



tom

[jmoore]

These rifles surely have had more than their share of abuse. Hopefully you can make a decent utility rifle out of it yet.

[shop tom]

These rifles surely have had more than their share of abuse. Hopefully you can make a decent utility rifle out of it yet.

That's for sure. I've passed on more than a few that were just butchered. Hopefully this one will be a shooter. I have an M38 short rifle in 7.35mm that isn't. Not that I've tried too hard, I just don't have the desire to spend a lot of time shooting it. At least not until I decide whether or not to get dies for it.

tom

[jmoore]

I like the 7,35mm round, in theory, anyway. In practice, you have very limited ammo and component choices. That 0.300" bullet makes it tough. The Hornady stuff is very good though.

[shop tom]

Well, finally got the poor ol' thing cleaned up. Cold blued everything but the bolt, ejector, and bolt stop. Stripped and scraped the old, gobbed on varnish, then sanded, stained lightly, and rubbed with boiled linseed oil.

Didn't turn out too bad, especially considering the shape it was in. I'd like to try shooting it this weekend.

[tbonesmith]

Looks very respectable now. Looks pretty handy too.

[shop tom]

Looks very respectable now. Looks pretty handy too.

Thank you. It does handle well, it comes up nicely and the sight picture is right there. If it shoots well, I may keep it. Since it's probably a cut down rifle, it may shoot better with lighter bullets.

tom

[Patrick Chadwick]

The barrel is 20.5" long and doesn't appear to have been hacked off,

The "moschetto" versions of the M91 Carcano had a barrel length of 450mm (a trifle under 18"). So this one, with a 20" barrel, is presumably a cut-down M91. The M91 was famous for having a gain-twist barrel. Shortening such a barrel means that the fastest twist has been removed, and the new muzzle has a slower twist than the original rifle. If this is so, then the rifle will probably shoot better with bullets that are somewhat shorter than the original M91 bullets.


Patrick

[Salt Flat]

You did a nice job on the refinishing. I think these are fun affordable projects and the 6.5 isn't so hard to find. Good job.

[mdrim13]

I did one of these a while back in 7.35mm. I got the rifle for $40 and I chose to do the all out restoration. The link to the thread is below. Nice looking work though.

http://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=32193


mdrim13