Range Report - 1891 Carcano (1896)

[Patrick Chadwick]

Thanks Parashooter!
That is precisely the handwritten data sheet I referred to earlier, without being able to find it myself. If I remember correctly, this data sheet was composed by David Emary (or is it Emery?) for Hornady, and what bothers me is that, as far as I am aware, this data never made it into a printed recommendation from Hornady itself.

Note the narrow ranges of the powder weights - the balancing act between providing enough thrust to ensure that the oversize bullet is forced through the rifling and does not just plug the barrel, and providing so much thrust that direct overpressure from the powder burn causes a hazard.

I find the old Carcano bullets with the slight rim on the open base that (presumably) upsets to form a small driving band to be ballistically more convincing - and less hazardous!


Patrick

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[jmoore]

I find the old Carcano bullets with the slight rim on the open base that (presumably) upsets to form a small driving band to be ballistically more convincing - and less hazardous!

Winchester must have thought so, too, as the bullet made for the .264 Winchester Magnum was designed as a dual diameter projectile. Bore riding dia. up front with a groove diameter section at the rear. Good luck finding any "loose", though.

The data table above is what is more or less ended up in the Hornady manual. But, like you, I have noted that the bullets currently sold are NOT 0.2676" Diameter. Significant? Dunno. Hornady seems to have used both 0.268" and 0.267" when referring to the Carcano projectile.

But the maximum military bullet dia. of 0.2669" is so close to the current Hornady size (0.2672"), it seems that some other factor in the bullet's construction would be to blame for a run up in pressures.