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My latest acquisition, an Italian 1939 vintage Carcano M38 in 7.35x51. They were only made for 2 years in this calibre before reverting back to 6.5x52 in 1941.

About 200,000 were made and most were shipped to Finland by Mussolini and were used by the Finns against the Soviet forces.

This particular example is an original Italian model which makes it quite rare, as most are stamped with the Finnish `SA` mark.

ukrifleman

Very nice.

original finish ? looks good

Dellboy wrote:original finish ? looks good

Yes all original and untouched, except for the leather sling, which is originally from a SMLE.

The bore is very good and slugs at .288/.2975.

ukrifleman.

I have one of these, mine is a beretta, good luck with getting bullets ! I resize mine from cast .308 with my modified lee sizing die. I had to get the brass in the US ! I know you can convert 6.5 carcano brass but I like to keep things just so ! Also managed to get the original folding bayonet from the US as I like to have one for every rifle I have.

Looks like we had the same idea! Mine is a Brescia

I opened up a Lee .285 bullet sizing die to .300 and use sized up PPU 6.5 Carcano brass.

I mark the primers with a red marker pen to identify the 7.35 loads.

The bullet I use is the Lee 155gn sized down from .309 to .300 with Rel 7 powder.

Load development is still in progress but looking promising.

Not that bothered with bayonets, I was offered a folding bayonet, but at £250 I passed on it.

ukrifleman.

ukrifleman wrote:Looks like we had the same idea! Mine is a Brescia

I opened up a Lee .285 bullet sizing die to .300 and use sized up PPU 6.5 Carcano brass.

I mark the primers with a red marker pen to identify the 7.35 loads.

The bullet I use is the Lee 155gn sized down from .309 to .300 with Rel 7 powder.

Load development is still in progress but looking promising.

Not that bothered with bayonets, I was offered a folding bayonet, but at £250 I passed on it.

ukrifleman.

Yeah I liked the fact that it is unusual but also cheap, I enjoy a challenge as I also have 2 Arisakas. Do you resize in one go from .309 to .300 as many people told me it maybe too big a step so I do it in 2 stages, to .304 and then .300, I'm going to try sizing jacketed .308 bullets soon with the same setup. I have only ever shot mine out to 100yds as it's fixed iron sights.

Yes, I size down from .309 to .300 in one pass without any issues, although the bullets are not ultra hard.

I wish you luck with swaging down jacketed bullets, I have found that sometimes the lead core is loose inside the copper jacket due to the lack of `spring-back` of the lead.

ukrifleman.

Have a look:
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php? ... m474j4r8o3
Easier to size I reckon!