Dutch Carbine

[Aragorn243]

Ammo and dies is now the quest. I actually found wooden bullet blanks over the weekend and bought one clip of five. Guy wanted $15 each for them which I thought was nuts as he insisted they were live rounds and not blanks but just to have a set I bought one.

I've read some conflicting information about reloading dies. One group says you can use the Greek Mannlicher dies for this as they are the "same" other than the rim and that should involve only a different shell holder. The second group says they are not the "same" and you must have Dutch Mannlicher dies, chief reason being the shoulder dimension.

I did some comparisons in my Cartridges of the World book and they are indeed different but close. Closer it seems than the 303 British cases they are formed from. As a set of Greek dies runs about $26-$40 and a set of Dutch dies (if you can find any) seem to be $120-$140 it would be great if the Greek dies would work.

Buffalo Arms sells the cartridges but are currently out of stock but taking orders. I suspect they wait until they have enough to make it worthwhile. At $60 a box, you'd think a box would be worthwhile.

You have to love those old guys at flea markets. Insisted over and over that these wood bullets were not blanks and the clip alone is worth $15 as he knows that's what Carcano clips go for and these are even more rare. He also said he couldn't explain why the bullets were wood as no one could tell him their purpose. I told him their purpose but it went in one ear and out the other. I suppose I should have told him the Dutch had a vampire problem between the wars and he probably would have believed that, probably would have upped the price do to the "Twilight" popularity. Upon informing him that Carcano clips can easily be acquired for $5 each, often less and Dutch clips for $8 I got the usual, "You should buy them all and make a fortune then" after insisting that I didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I didn't argue with him, I bought the one clip with cartridges as a curiosity and left. I've since located clips for $4 for the Dutch.