M-38 Carcano - A decent shooter with the right ammo

[Bob01605]

I acquired this M-38 Carcano from a collector in 1999. It was in nice shape with an excellent bore.
This rifle is the same as the Kennedy assasination rifle that Oswald used except this one (obviously) has no
scope. The serial # on this one was C24**. One day I looked up the serial # on the Kennedy rifle
which turned out to be C2766. I am assuming that the Kennedy rifle was made at the Terni Arsenal
the same year (1940) as this rifle and probably about 300 units after this one. In fact some
checking online revealed that this M38 short rifle in 6.5 mm was only made in that one year - 1940.

I picked up some Norma 6.5 X 52 Carcano brass at the time and loaded up some test rounds. It
never shot well even though it had a real nice bore. After further research I found out that
Carcano's have a .268 bore and the bullets I had been using were some .264 bullets that shot real
well in my Swedish Mauser. This rifle just sat in the rack with no more trips to the range for the
past 12 years.

Recently I was able to pick up some Hornady 160 grain .268 bullets.
When I tried to seat the .268 bullets into the Norma cases they would get stuck in die because the
Lee die was set up for .264 bullets. I finally suceeded in seating the bullets with a .308 die. Seating
pressure was noticeably harder since the sizer die on the Lee die set sized down the cases
assuming I was going to load .264 bullets. I used AA 4064 powder mainly because I had some here.
I set my target out at 75 meters for two reasons. (1) That is about the distance that Oswald
(allegedly?) shot JFK and I was curious as to what kind of accuracy the rifle had at that distance.
(2) My targets have an 8 inch bull which my 60+ year old eyes don't see too well at 100 meters. I
like a 12 inch bull @ 100 meters. Even the first work up loads shot reasonably well. When I got up
to 33 gains of AA 4064 this gun started to group very good. See target photo. This gun is at least a
3 to 4 MOA rifle shot with issue sights.

You can also buy the Serbian Privi Partizan 6.5 Carcano ammo but from checking around - that
ammo is loaded with .264 and probably won't shoot well either in your Carcano. I guess the
conclusion is that sometimes these guns get a bad rap for accuracy but I think if you use the
proper ammo they are a decent shooting rifle.

Bob

 

[Ski]

Great work.
That was a great informative report.

Hats off.

and you picked up the brass ;')


nice shooting!