New fixer-upper 1891 Carcano Cavalry Carbine

[Aragorn243]

Found this yesterday and asked some advice on the advice forum and ended up picking it up today.

Local gun shop find. Original price $249.95 which I figured was way too high. Did some looking around on Gunbroker and other places and with the advice received here figured it was a bit much for my tastes. But went back to look at it again today to get some more details on markings etc and during my inspection, the shop owner approached me and said he'd make a deal with me on it. It had been marked on sale for $229.95 which was still way too high. He said he'd take $175 for it, I countered with $160 and we made the deal.

Looking at the photos I'm now wondering what I got myself into. Natural sunlight really draws attention to flaws that don't show up under indoor lighting.

In any case, there is very little pitting on it despite the large amounts of surface rust. The bore is very good, nice and clean and the action and trigger work great. I have removed the stock from it and found no surprises underneath other than perhaps there is almost no rust at all under the stock. It just looks and feels like something that has sat in a garage through quite a few humid summers to me. Stock interior is a very light tan.

I bought it as a project gun, I like cleaning these things up but usually it's mostly the stocks not this much metal. It has no import marks and the serial number on the barrel/receiver matches that on the stock.

These are the before photos, hopefully by the time I'm done it will look a lot better.






Terni manufacture, small "X" on the stock that I hadn't noticed before.


I'm guessing the 36 is the year but the XIV confuses me.


Small number 12, inspection mark or manufacturer mark?


Small separated section of wood, should be easily repaired, nothing missing. "Nice" overspray on the stock adding to the sitting in the garage feeling.

Nothing seems to be broken or missing that I can tell, the interior looks almost like new. If anyone can offer any information on it's markings, or advice on cleaning up the metal or wood I'd appreciate it. Wood I'm pretty good with but the metal is more extensive than I've done before.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.