O-tay! Airdale wrote this after I sent him my rough draft & we had it posted as a stickey on gunboards. Well, that place may be quite a while getting back up to speed, so we will include it here.
The following was written by airdale with the exception of a couple small edits by me.
This has long been a controversial issue, but due to the safety issues involved, it needs to be objectively addressed. I have overheard several times at gunshows conversations between potential buyer and seller.
The prospective buyer often knows little of this model and will ask, "What kind of ammo can I shoot in it?"
The seller will often reply, "You can shoot any 6.5 Carcano ammo in it." While this is physically possible, it is a misleading statement. What the sellers fail to say is that these conversions were done to obsolete rifles that were designed for a black powder cartridge.
Due to the age of these rifles and their being originally designed for a low pressure BP cartridge and not knowing how many rounds of military ammunition have been fired in them plus some of these conversions having not been very well done in the first place, I personally and everyone I know who owns & shoots these do not fire any military or commercial ammunition in them.
I also think firing the Hornady .268 diameter 160 grain bullets whether in factory or reloaded ammunition is flirting with disaster as most of the bores I have slugged measure .266. I have in the past loaded .264 bullets with starting loads with no problems but after observing a number of Italian Vetterlis with hairline cracks on the bolts, I no longer do this.
I started conversing with another board member who also likes to shoot these but has the same safety concerns as I, and we came up with a load that is basically data taken from the Lyman Cast Bullet manual. Instead of using the Lyman 129 grain bullet, we substituted a .266 hard cast, gas checked 130 grain bullet that is available from Leadheads ( www.proshootpro.com ) and stayed with the data for the 129 grainer.
This 130 grain bullet when loaded with 8.0 to 10.0 grains of Unique gives velocities in the 1300 - 1500 fps range and is very mild & fun to shoot. The recoil & noise level is not much different from a 22 long rifle had has showed no signs of pressure in any rifle used for our testing.
Keeping in mind these rifles do not have the necessary accuracy to neuter a spider @ 100 yards, they do shoot fairly well. Both my rifles will shoot 4" to 4.5" groups @ 100 yards with the 130 grain bullet and 8.7 grains of Unique, but I have to hold the sights on the bottom left of the target to be in the bull. These have no windage adjustment , and most will still shoot high with the rear sight at the lowest setting, so each shooter must experiment to find the specific point of aim for his rifle.
Please be aware I am not posting this to tell anyone what ammo they MUST shoot in their conversions but only to provide some information about them and some safety issues one may wish to consider before putting a clip in the magazine.
Also use the loading data at your own risk. The data has proven safe in several of the rifles we used in testing and in the rifles of fellow forum members, but due to erratic headspace or other mechanical issues, it may not be safe in yours.
Please post any comments you might have, and we would very much like to hear of everyone's shooting experiences with this model.
Data for my favorite load:
1889 Terni VV 1870/87/15 - Alpha Chrony 16' from muzzle - Grafs brass - Rem 9 1/2 primers - Leadheads 130 grain hard cast, gas checked bullet - 8.7 grains Unique powder - COL = 2.870 OAT = 47 degrees F. 6 shots fired.
Hi = 1397
Lo = 1371
ES = 25.88 FPS
Avg = 1381 fps
Sd = 9.64
And there you have it! While we can't look anyone in the eye & say your rifle will detonate in your face before you finish your 1st clip of mil-spec ammo, we ain't signing anything that it won't, either.
*being a little tired, I'll Czech this for spelling, etc in the AM. SW*
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SW
