Yesterday's Weapons Forums

My learning curve about these vintage/antique Vetter-Vital 1870/87/15 rifles has been really interesting. They have a lot of manufacturing mods that was done to accept the 6.5 Carcano round. I'm not going into the history of what and why as I'm more interested in making my Vetterli-Vital a little smoother and more used friendly. I'm not a gunsmith but rather a guy that has been fiddling with firearms for the last 30 years. So please don't fault me on technical terms just to show me up. If you have some suggestions for improving what I am doing or have already done please chime in with any help you may want to offer.

YOU MIGHT ASK "WHY BOTHER!" BECAUSE IT'S THERE AND I LIKE TRYING TO MAKE IT BETTER! WIN OR LOOSE IT WAS FUN!

MILL/STONE/SAND EJECTOR PIN SLOT TO MAKE SMOOTH. AS YOU CAN SEE HOW ROUGH THE CHANNEL MILLING WAS DONE.


MAKE AN ALIGNMENT PLATE TO RIDE IN THE CHANNEL.


HANG PLATE OVER EJECTOR PIN.


END RESULT. THIS WILL TAKE UP A "LOT" OF BOLT SLOP.


SMOOTH FIRING PIN GUIDE/TRACK. VERY ROUGH. TRACK TOO WIDE FOR FIRING PIN AND DECIDED IT NEEDS INSERT PAN.


USED SHIM STOCK AS GROUND WORK FOR CREATING A STEEL PAN "OR" WIDEN FIRING PIN TO FIT CHANNEL.

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"

The channel pan design could also go a couple other ways. Could braze the firing pin to make it wider. Could add a spacer bar to close the gap to the firing pin. Just gotta experiment around with a couple of ideas.

IT DOES WORK AS A FEASIBILITY EXPERIMENT GOES. IT'S SMOOTHER AND ALIGNMENT IS BETTER!


DEEP INSIDE THE RECEIVER ARE TWO BOLT LOAD BEARING JOURNALS THAT NEED SMOOTHING OUT. MY BOLT RUBS AT ABOUT THE 10 O'CLOCK AND 5 O'CLOCK POSITIONS AS INDICATED ON THE BOLT.


I USED A ROUND STONE TO TAKE OUT ROUGH AREAS AND WILL USE WET/DRY PAPER FOR FINISHING IT UP. (WORK IN PROGRESS)

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"

I took the ejector pin/screw out again and rounded the end to better slide along the bolt's channel. I just can't believe how much better things are starting to get with the few things I've done. It already actions so much more smoothly than when I started. I don't know how good my method of checking headspace with scotch tape on end of a bullet, but with two pieces of scotch tape on case head the bolt doesn't close. With one piece it does close. I realize that this is not a "rimmed" cartridge also and may not be getting accurate clearances.

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"

I'm more into the collecting aspect of these, but that's quite interesting.

Strictly speaking since the Vitali magazine is no longer present, it's called a Vetterli-Carcano by collectors.

That said, it's yours and you may call it what you wish.

And! Welcome to the forum!

In your shopping for more Vetterlis, if you ever see one marked "RE" or "CAS" and don't want it for yourself, I have $ and serious trading stock set aside for such rifles. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"

My Grusome Twosome! Had to make a couple of "facsimile" cleaning rods. One is missing the butt plate.

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"

What does "RE" and "CAS" mean. Does it mean they are more rare?

RE = Regio Esercito or royal army. CAS = Corpo Afro Somali. The rifles were marked so they were specific to certain units. These marks (or brands in most cases) are very uncommon. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Being new to the Vetterli Carcano, and never seeing one before I got mine, do most all have a very jerky and unpredictable actioning. Mine was sticking, binding and jumping out of the rear firing pin track. I'm at a point now that I want to load some "reduced loads" and try both of mine. So many opinions on loads and the safety of shooting them. My plan is to use Trail Boss powder, .264"/140 grain SP-BT jacketed bullets. I'll only shoot a few and if the two rifles work well I'll buy some cast bullets to work with.

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"Freedom cost! How much have you paid? How much you willing to pay?"