Need help about a Italian Vetterli

[FailureByDesign]

Hello everybody, ok heres what i do know about this old rifle that has been passed down to be, its in rough shape, although straight barrel and all working components.

It's an Italian Vetterli in 6.5mm Carcano. They were originally a single shot 11mm. Later converted to a repeater by adding a magazine. The final conversion was to 6.5 Carcano (Either by a barrel liner or, in some cases, a new barrel.) The 6.5 Carcano is loaded via an enblock clip (ala Mannilicher). One interesting thing on these is the "gain twist" rifiling.
The rifling starts out at a slow rate and progressively gets tighter as the bullet proceeds down the barrel.

1. Where can i find ammo for this thing?

2. Could anyone give me a aproximate date it was manufactured thanx

 

[Scorch]

The 1871 Vetterli was an older 11mm black powder cartridge, as you said. Some were converted to fire the 6.5X52mm Carcano round around the time of WWI. You can find 6.5X52mm ammo from Norma or Hornady Metric Caliber ammo.

 

[BUSTER51]

check the headspace B4 you shoot it .

 

[Hummer70]

Pretty straight forward get dies from Lee and 6.5 bullets. Neighbor got one, paid a mint for it. She thought she was getting a nice antique. I looked at it and they never finished the striker nose, it was flat so I chucked striker in lathe and made the nose hemispherical and we fired it with converted cases that worked but didn't work.

 

[garyhan]

Shooting this model with commercial ammo is potentially dangerous. They were designed for much lower pressure black powder ammo. There are several videos on you tube of Vetterelli's damaged by modern ammo.

 

[tangolima]

I bought one as antique. All checked out ok, but haven't had time to shoot it (2 years after I bought it).

As my rules for antique guns, I am going to shoot light load with cast bullets through it.

Surprisingly parts are still quite available online.

-TL

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[emcon5]

It may not help with your specific rifle, but if you want entirely too much information about the model, check out C&Rsenals excellent primer series.

The original single shot and black powder magazine fed repeater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PIBzye7to8

The 6.5 conversions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qOEh_DwJR0

For ammo, Handload light only, if you want it to last. Cast lead is your friend. Remember, Italy measured 6.5mm differently than everyone else in the world, and the 6.5 Carcano was .268 rather than .264 for the more common 6.5 cartridges (6.5×54mm Mannlicher–Schönauer, 6.5 Swede, 6.5 Japanese).

On Edit: Seriously, watch the second video, to see the big problems they had with the 6.5 converted Vetterly, even with reduced loads.

 

[Archie]

PPU makes new ammunition for the 6.5 Carcano. Check on the internet for sales.

 

[Mike Irwin]

This thread is TWELVE years old.

The original poster hasn't been here in over 6 years.