R E TERNI

gunbuddy210

Inactive
Just picked up a R E TERNI 1940 XVIII Caliber 6.5
Dealer said Carcano 6.5 Anyone know about caliber? 6.5 X ??. I don't,
It needs strip/clip. Any info would be helpful.
 
It is Italian 6.5x52 Carcano. Yes, you need the 6 round clip to load the rifle. The clips are not rare, and I believe Prvi is loading new, reloadable ammo for it.
 
The cartridge is 6.5x52 Mannlicher-Carcano which is often called simply 6.5 Carcano. Four companies that I know of currently produce ammunition in this caliber: Hornady, Norma, Prvi Partizan, and FNM. Of the four, the Hornady will be the most accurate and will shoot to the sights the best because they are the only ones that use a proper bullet for this cartridge (the 6.5 Carcano's standard bullet is a .268" 160grn RN rather than the more common .264" 139grn pointed bullets of other 6.5mm cartridges). The ammo produced by all four of the above-mentioned compainies is boxer primed and fully reloadable and Hornady sells .268" 160grn RNSP bullets as components.

The clips for you rifle are actually Mannlicher clips rather than stripper clips. The difference between the two is that the cartridges are pushed out of a stripper clip into the magazine and the clip is removed before the bolt is closed while a Mannlicher clip is inserted with the ammunition as a unit into the magazine of the rifle and falls out of a hole in the bottom of the magazine when the last round is chambered. Mannlicher clips must be used in order for your rifle to function as a repeater because they also function as the feed lips for the magazine. Clips for Carcanos seem to run about $5-10 each and are reusable (they do not come with the ammo unless you buy milsurp ammo). Also, both 6.5 Carcano and the later 7.35 Carcano use the same clips.

I would not reccomend buying surplus 6.5 Carcano ammo for anything other than cartridge collecting or pulling the bullets to use as realoading components. Milsurp ammo is this caliber is difficult to find and not much, if any, cheaper than new production ammo. It is also very prone to misfires and hangfires (only about half of the milsurp 6.5 Carcano ammo I've ever shot even fired and a good portion of that hangfired) and is horribly corrosive.
 
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