Vetterli 6.5 Carcano

[Aragorn243]

My bayonet just arrived today. It cost me slightly more than the rifle. They had been coming up on ebay but were going for too much in my opinion. I found mine on a antique dealer's site, made him an offer and got it today. It is rather odd looking sitting sideways on the rifle.

The bolt looks plenty strong, it's the thin walled receiver I'm more concerned with. I've read just about everything I can find on them and general consensus is they are fine to shoot with reduced handloads. The outside finish on mine is worn but the bore looks like it was never fired. Interior is rust free as well, plenty of cosmoline left in it.

There is a you-tube video of a guy shooting one, rather humorous in a manner of speaking but he seems nuts at the same time. He safely fired 6 rounds of full fledged surplus ammo through his with no ill effects. I don't feel that daring but reduced loads would be something fun to do.

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[gew8805]

The bolt looks plenty strong..............

Looks can be deceiving. Have you checked out the locking lugs?



There are none, it relies on only the bolt handle if I recall correctly. Okay for black powder, original caliber pressures, but weak for a modern cartridge. And yes, the 6.5 Carcano is a relatively high power modern cartridge. All of the above being said, I have been tempted but only with downloads.

Another problem that many experienced shooters worry about is the lined barrels. Personally, that worries me far less than the strength of the bolt. The barrel liner is an Italian development that has been used by others, Finland comes to mind, not to mention civilian shooters all over the world. The work was well done and I have never seen any examples where corrosion between the liner and the barrel could cause problems. But, on a large scale of production as done to convert these guns, mistakes can happen and they were not considered a heavy use solution to the problem of a war-time arms shortage, that's why very few if any show wear to their bores, they were on issue to rear echelon troops and only rarely fired, almost never in anger.