Picked up a little Carcano carbine and playing with surplus ammo

[Matt85]

Hello all, I recently picked up a nice looking Carcano carbine. Based on a bit of research with the serial number the rifle appears to have been made in 1943. When I got the rifle the bayonet latch was broken and missing its spring but thankfully, I found a place that sells new reproduction parts which work perfectly. I also managed to wrangle up six brass clips, a box of 50 1940 dated surplus cartridges, 5 boxes of PPU ammunition, a box of Hornady 160gr bullets, and a Lee die set.

I did some reading on the surplus ammo and it seems like most of it has bad primers but the Solenite powder was pretty reliable. So instead of trying to shoot the surplus I came up with the fun idea of remanufacturing the old cartridges. I pulled the bullets and powder from the old cartridges then put them in some once fired PPU brass with Fed 215 primers. For those curious, I ran three of these over the chronograph and the velocities were 2118, 2124, and 2094.

I havent had a chance to shoot it at paper yet (the weather sucks) but im hoping for a nice weekend soon.

One question, both the surplus ammunition and the full length sized reloads are sort of tight fits in the gun. The PPU chambers smoothly but it takes a bit of force to rotate the bolt closed on the surplus and hand loads. Any idea what might be going on here?

-Matt

Information

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[GColloton]

Hello. Isn’t the date stamped on the receiver opposite the serial number with the manufacturer in the middle?

[Eaglelord17]

The PPU ammo is likely using much smaller bullets which get no where near the lands, vs. the surplus and pulled bullets you are using which are the right size for the cartridge.

[Matt85]

There are very few markings on this rifle. Without taking it apart, the serial number and some proof marks are all thats visible.

I wish I had a source of proper diameter bullets, but for now Im going to try and get the .264 160gr hornady bullet to work.

-matt