Vetterli 6.5 Carcano

[Aragorn243]

It's been over a year and a half on this project but today I was at the auction from hell and they had a Vetterli with the cleaning rod. They also had a nice one in the original caliber that I hoped to get but decided I didn't need it that bad when it started pushing $400. I hadn't even looked at the Carcano other than seeing the cleaning rod. Told my wife I'd go $50 on it for the rod and got it for $40. Looked at it after the win and thought it looked nicer than the one I have and when I got it home, it is. So this one is going to replace the other in my collection. Weird how things work out. Probably helped that the flyer from the auction house said "Do not fire this rifle under any condition, even using original surplus ammo" I'm sure that scared everyone else off.

[Aragorn243]

Cleaned the rifle up and checked it out. It was complete with the exception of a small screw in the nose piece. It is going to replace the one I started with. Oddly enough there are differences in these two rifles. The magazine in particular is shaped differently. Bolt is numbered unlike the other and it does match.

[Eaglelord17]

Very nice, this conversion I have always found interesting.

Do you shoot these rifles? I know most people say not to, but I imagine there are people that have.

[Aragorn243]

I have never shot the first one. It had a clipped firing pin that it took me a year to locate and replace. I am tempted to put the old one in a lead sled and fire it but even that isn't a good indicator. They were "safe", it is just a matter of safe for how many shots. I may make some reduced loads for them at some point but as I'm not a heavy shooter, it's not real high on my priority list. This second one has been fired, it has some fouling in the bore. No rust but fouling.