Italian Carcano chambered in 7.35x51.

A myth busted.
How does the clip handle 8mm?
Or does it have to have a box magazine conversion?
Then what did the Germans do about it?
 
As far as I know, there are no known verified incidents of the Carcano action failing with the higher-pressure 7.35 mm round.

The Carcano action gets a lot of completely undeserved grief because... well, I'm not exactly sure why.

Was it the best bolt action? No. Was it safe? Yes. Was it serviceable? Yes.

Over the years I've found that most of these "BASELINE CARCANO TRUTHS!!!!!" have been spouted by people who have never worked with one, and in a lot of cases, never even handled one, and in fact wouldn't know a Carcano from a crankshaft.
 
8mm Carcanos use a unique clip, but no change was made to the magazine.
6.5/7.35 clips can be modified, but they still don't work well with 8x57mm.

Over the years I've found that most of these "BASELINE CARCANO TRUTHS!!!!!" have been spouted by people who have never worked with one, and in a lot of cases, never even handled one, and in fact wouldn't know a Carcano from a crankshaft.
Click to expand...
The same goes for pretty much anything.
AR haters, AK haters (except me :D), Mauser volken, Enfield chaps, Garand boys, etc.
Plenty of hate with little, if any experience.

I can understand how the single action spring could give an immediate negative impression to someone handling a Carcano for the first time - since it is used for the trigger, sear, bolt stop, and ejector, and results in bolt drag.
But the simplicity of the action really sets it apart from contemporary designs. (Something that Ian, and C&Rsenal, have also discussed more than once.)

Is it a good design? Yes, for the intended purposes and manufacturing limitations at the time. But it does have its drawbacks.
Is it a strong design? Good enough for the original cartridges, but my answer is 'no'.

Am I willing to put a German conversion, built by a panicked country that was losing the war and wouldn't even give the rifles to its own troops, or an Italian post-war 8mm conversion, next to my face and pull the trigger? No.
I value my hands, face, and life more than any internet points gained by claiming that a questionable model of dubious history will be fine after 80 years of abuse, neglect, and unknown Fuddery by previous owners. -And that is for the "new" ones. Some of them were conversions of conversions, on old actions.

I'm sticking with 6.5 and 7.35.
 
Yeah, I'm not at all talking about the 8mm Mauser Carcanos.

Maximum pressure on the round is about 56,000 PSI.

Again, I've not heard of any verified accounts of an 8mm Carcano opening up, but I'm not particularly willing to play those odds, either.
 
Unfortunately, I have. One, at least.
I know a fellow in Australia whose friend popped one about a year ago. Lost an eye and suffered damage to both arms and a hand. Photos of the rifle went around some of the surplus circles for a few weeks, but it didn't get big attention like the Lee Navy fatality or the always 'viral' .300 Blackout in a 5.56 chamber incidents.

He now has too much anxiety to shoot at all and sold everything he owned, except for collectibles that were never fired anyway (like a C96 Mauser, artillery Luger, and similar).

Whether the root cause was ammunition or the rifle, I will probably never know.
 
"Whether the root cause was ammunition or the rifle, I will probably never know."

Yeah, that's the rub. Bad reload? Something in the barrel? Without having a better idea as to what really happened, it's a crapshoot.
 
I own one. I reload for mine. Hornady occassionally produces the bullets and I use Lee dies. Mine is a carbine and has fixed sights. The front sight can be tapped over for windage. It's fairly accurate for what it is.
 
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