vetterli vitali model 1870/87/15 rehab

[Patrick Chadwick]

These rifles appear to have had a bad reputation with the Italians who had to use them. The 1870/87/15 was a WWI emergency conversion, and was apparently know as "Il Terribile" - The Awful One. Often sold as the "Garibaldi Rifle", which is, of course, total B-S. And I do not know of anyone who has fired one. You would be well advised to keep the load firmly at the light end of the range. The normal .264" diameter bullet is a touch undersized for the Carcano, so that will help to avoid stress on the ancient mechanism. I would not recommend trying the .268" Hornady bullets specifically made for the Carcano. They work fine in my 91/41, but that is a much more modern design of rifle, and mine was was arsenal reconditioned in 1947.

As to the cleaning rod : if it is of the correct length, then the fact that you still have some sticking out beyond the muzzle indicates that there is no "stripped wood" problem, but rather that the bottom end of the hole is clogged wth debris, and you are trying to screw the rod into that!

Information

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[burb1989]

oh well that makes sense i did pull some stuff out of the hole but never really thought anything of it. it is still tight in there so as a display it is ok for now but when i go to shoot it i`ll need to clean it out a little more. thanks for the input. The bullets i have for it aren`t the hornady ones made for the carcano. i think they are privi partisan rounds that are 6.5 carcano but im not going to shoot those since i`m unsure if they`ll be good for the old action or not. At best if they aren`t that good i have a friend who does reloading so he`ll be able to help me take apart the bullets and put new powder in them if need be.

[marysdad]

The issue with firing factory ammo in these is not bullet weight, but powder charge. The 6.5 mm. cartridge generates pressures far in excess of the Vetterli's design pressure (roughly double). The bore on mine is pretty close to .264. Regardless of bore diameter, the .268 bullets are not recommended for reduced loads, which rules out use in the Vetterli-Carcano. If you want to shoot it, you need to use reduced handloads with .264 jacketed bullets or loads using cast lead bullets.

[burb1989]

That`s what i figured. My friend can fire the carcano ammunition and then we can salvage the brass. I bought 150 bullet heads from him and now he`s searching for the firing caps for the back of the brass. we downloaded some possible loads online from other people who have successfully shot these delicate guns and they all seem to say just about the same thing when it comes to the load. I had the gun checked out by a gunsmith who is very familiar with these rifles and after about a week he concluded that it could be safe to fire but to watch out in case a microcrack developed over the years. Thanks again everyone and i hope to have some pictures of my rifle and its bayonet very soon!

[burb1989]

Here`s some photos of this old war horse. She`s beat around the bushes a bit but she still looks nice. Sorry if these photos are grainy to everyone. I might need to go to another place with better lighting to take better pics.