I saved another rifle. LOL! Yes, I've got a few I consider rescues, but this one I saved from the trash heap and firewood pile. There will be pictures eventually, I haven't had time to take any at the moment. But I landed myself an Italian Carcano in 7.35x51. I know nothing about this gun at all, and it ran me a whopping $50. I do know that whoever had it before me didn't care a lick about the poor thing. At the current time, it is not in shootable condition. I plan on refinishing the stock and possibly reblueing all the metal. And it will probably live the rest of its life as a wall decoration.
The butt plate is a lost cause, and I really do want to ask about that. Again, I'll get pictures in a few days. But the thing is so rusted it is the same dark brown color as the stock, and the screws... well, you can see where they are, but they are rusted into the plate. Once I get a 100% identification on this rifle I'll be looking to replace that plate, but does anyone have any tips for getting it off? I've never seen rust like this before in my life, not even in a junk yard.
Also, it appears to have had a bayonet at some point. If it is what I think it is, it was a big, goofy looking one, too, folded down into the stock like an SKS but from what I can tell did not sit anywhere near as flush. I haven't been able to locate any information on replacing it. Any ideas?
Thanks. Pictures coming, probably on Sunday.
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
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I've got a Carcano in 7.35. It is a good shooter, but ammo is hard to find and pricy. I just bought a couple of boxes of hand loaded on gunbroker for $22 / 20 rounds.
Odds are pretty good that your rifle is a M38 Fucile Corto(Short Rifle); Here is a site that will help:
Does your Carcano have the Fins [SA] stamp on the receiver? If so it was one of 94,000 7.35mm Carcanos given to Finland by Italy. My rifle has this marking.
The bayonets are an interesting; but VERY pricy. I paid more for the bayonet than the rifle. Here are some pix:
__________________
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss." -- Lazarus Long
Probably talking about a rifle like the one on the right in this photo?
This one is a 1891 Moschetto Cavalleria (cavalry carbine) in 6.5.
That sure does look like it, but mine's got a few minor differences. The one thing throwing me off in my research is the... it's not a muzzle break, really, I don't know what the heck it is. LOL! It looks like a muzzle break but it appears fairly useless. Although, I guess it could be the same as you have. Mine's missing the bayonet, so it's throwing me a little. And truth be told, I haven't looked at it since bought it. I'll get back to you.
Hopefully it'll be in the house tomorrow night and I'll slap up some photos for you all.
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
I've got a Carcano in 7.35. It is a good shooter, but ammo is hard to find and pricy. I just bought a couple of boxes of hand loaded on gunbroker for $22 / 20 rounds.
Odds are pretty good that your rifle is a M38 Fucile Corto(Short Rifle); Here is a site that will help: Carcano Model Identification
Does your Carcano have the Fins [SA] stamp on the receiver? If so it was one of 94,000 7.35mm Carcanos given to Finland by Italy. My rifle has this marking.
The bayonets are an interesting; but VERY pricy. I paid more for the bayonet than the rifle. Here are some pix:
Mine looks a little different from that one and I would bet money that bayonet wouldn't fit on mine. There isn't much of anything stamped on it, but when I get a chance to study it some more (I've always sort of handled it in passing and right now it's in hiding) I'll give you a description of what it says. They wrote down some funky number as the model number, but no one at work really knew what it was, which was surprising since the boss man is really a gun encyclopedia.
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
Pictures. They aren't the best quality, but these were the best of the bunch.
The butt plate is so rusted that the screws have rusted into it. Any tips for getting the screws out and maybe replacing the plate?
Bayonet is missing. Any idea what it looks like and how it could be replaced?
I'll probably refinish the stock, but any thoughts on what could have caused this bubbling? It's patchy all over the stock.
Ok, some questions came back at me on another forum that lead to more discoveries.
The bore is the scariest thing I have ever seen. You could combine Poltergeist, the Exorcist, and Hillary Clinton naked all together and it wouldn't be as frightening as what I saw when I looked down that bore for the first time. I think there is actually stuff growing in there. I can see rifling... but I can see some other things I don't know if I want to identify, too. I'll get a better idea once I can bring myself to grow the bravery needed to run a patch down that thing. My CLP has its work cut out for it this time!
Also... the barrel moves! YAY! I discovered that by accident. Doesn't come off, but it moves side to side a bit. I can't imagine taking this in to get fixed by a gunsmith, I'll probably put his kids through college with what it'll cost me. So it will probably just be a wall hanger (or as my friends say, burglar bate).
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
It's not as bad looking as I thought it would be! For the butt plate I would wire wheel the surface\loose rust. Soak the screws with kroil or such. If they still won't budge you could alway heat'em up or freeze them. The bubbling on the stock looks like it was exposed to heat and started to burn off the finish.
SL...If that bore is as bad as you say, you might consider giving it a shot of Penicillin before handling it any more. But if it's that scary, it might just scare the hell out of the penicillin. IDK
Last edited by JBS; 11-16-2009 at 10:26 PM.
Reason: Sp
SL...If that bore is as bad as you say, you might consider giving it a shot of Penicillin before handling it any more. But if it's that scary, it might just scare the hell out of the penicillin. IDK
I considered taking the barrel off and just burning it. LOL! However... that's probably penicillin growing inside of it!
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
