Load fir my poor ol' Bubba'd Carcano

[shop tom]

After a lot of looking around for 6.5x52 load info, I finally think I have a starting point. The first thing I did was slug the bore, it comes out to .2682", so I feel safe using the Buffalo Arms .268" 140 grain spitzer bullet. Along with a box of those, I got some Prvi Partizan brass from BA as well.

I found, on the Stevens site, that slower burning powders (IMR 4350, N160, etc.) may cause pressure spikes with the .268" projectiles. That article also advised using magnum primers. I settled on this load from my Sierra Rifle Reloading Manual, 3rd edition.

34.5 grains of IMR 4320 with the 140 grain BA spitzer bullet, with a Remington 9 1-2m primer. COA of 2.900".

Most of my shooting will be at 25-30 degrees Farenheit, so using the magnum primer should not cause problems.

The brass comes sized for .268" bullets, but the tension doesn't feel to be any more than what I get when I size my brass using a whittled down (to .268") 7mm ball sizer. I measured the new brass against my resized (with Herter's dies!) brass, the measurements are identical.

So, I'll load some up and try then out at the first opportunity. Wish me luck!

tom

Information

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[vintage hunter]

If the Sierra data was developed with .264'' bullets( most likely) and you use a larger .268'' bullet with a different bearing surface length and jacket hardness, and possibly different cases and primers, you're about to roll up some El Explodo ammunition I think. You'd be better off using Hornady's data for their .268 160gr RN. But, whatever you do start with the minimum charge and work up very, very carefully. Lotsa luck cause Carcanos aren't famous for having the strongest action on the planet.

[shop tom]

If the Sierra data was developed with .264'' bullets( most likely) and you use a larger .268'' bullet with a different bearing surface length and jacket hardness, and possibly different cases and primers, you're about to roll up some El Explodo ammunition I think. You'd be better off using Hornady's data for their .268 160gr RN. But, whatever you do start with the minimum charge and work up very, very carefully. Lotsa luck cause Carcanos aren't famous for having the strongest action on the planet.

LOL, I'm not really worried about rolling up El Explodos. Here's why. Most load data is compiled for the bullet size. Most bullet companies don't manufacture .268" bullets, so they use their .264" bullets as a default. Also, slugging the barrel verified that the .268" bullet is proper. Several sources indicate NOT to reduce max loads more than 5%. I'm actually 5% under the Sierra max load for that bullet weight. As far as action strength, the "common knowledge" that the Carcano is a weak action is based on opinions developed when the Carcanos started showing up as dirt cheap surplus. The Italians were no different than other European weapons makers of the day. They used the best materials and manufacturing processes available. The design is rugged and strong. The Germans even took to rechambering and boring them to take the 8x57 JS cartridge. I haven't seen any indication that any of them blew up, not that I would shoot one, especially with Turk Surplus. There have been attempts to cause the Carcano action to fail, it was very hard to get them to do so. BTW, the bearing surface of the projectiles I am using is far shorter than the Hornady 160 bullets.

tom

[jmoore]

Use the 7th ed or newer Hornady manual. Do not guess! Or don't come back complaining of missing body parts.

[shop tom]

Use the 7th ed or newer Hornady manual. Do not guess! Or don't come back complaining of missing body parts.

Don't worry, I'm not interested in trying out the local emergency room, even though my is a nurse at that hospital.

I wouldn't call it guessing. I would call it "considered and researched surmising". I spent a couple of weeks in my spare time looking over different powder burn rate tables, several (other than the Sierra) manuals, much info from the web, COTW, and utilized my reloading experience and resources.



I will look for the Hornady manual at the LGS today.

tom

[shop tom]

Tried the loads out last weekend. I actually tried 2 different loads. The first was 33 grains of IMR 4320 with the bullets listed in my firs post, the second was 34.5 grains. There were no signs of high pressures or any other problems. No sticky bolt, no expanded primer pockets, brass looked fine. Both loads shot to the same POA at 50 and 100 yards, so the lighter load would be my choice. I'll readjust my sights to correct the off to the right impact and take my Chrony along to verify velocity.

No El Explodos, I was happy with that.

tom

[mdrim13]

Lotsa luck cause Carcanos aren't famous for having the strongest action on the planet.

The Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading 8th Edition has the following excerpt on their preface page of their 6.5 Carcano load data (p. 320). "The Carcano's action is by no means weak, tests performed by P.O. Ackley and several others were unable to cause action failure."

I am not trying to be rude, I'm just a guy that likes Carcano's and have a bit of problem with people always trashing them based on 50 year old ideas about the rifles.

mdrim13

[vintage hunter]

I like them too, I own several myself. I was'nt necessarily trashing them nor do i understand how you arrived at that conclusion, but like it or not they are'nt the best made or safest action design out there so a little extra caution is necessary when dealing with them. See the little stud on the top left side of the safety sleeve in the photo below? Thats all thats holding the bolt together, a blown primer or ruptured case could and would shear that little stud and send the firing pin and all attached to it back into your face. There are records of it happening and of shooters being injured or killed when it did.

[green]

When a Carcano bolt is in the fired position the bolt sleeve is retained by the safety thumb piece locking into the receiver. It is well secured.

[vintage hunter]

Just going by what the book says.................... but book knowledge can be somewhat confusing at times. Especially when you read two that give contradictory information about the same subject, in the end you don't know what to believe. I'd always been led to believe by what I'd read that during Ackley's tests the Carcano was amongst the first to let go, now 60 odd years later it's stated that he was unable to blow one up.