Thread: 6.5 Carcano

Greetings All,
Found an article by the late Al Millar in Handloader. Al was using a Cacarno M38 rifle with a 20.9 inch barrel. He reported the projectile dia at .266" and you would expect the groove dia to be larger than that. He gave a load of 36 grains of IMR 4064 behind the 140 grain Sierra for 2,405 fps. This is roughly the same as the Lyman no 45 handbook data. The Lyman start load was 32 grains of IMR4064 for 2,109 fps. In my experience AR2208 is a little faster than IMR 4064. Norma 139 grain factory loads gave 2,505 fps in Al's rifle in 1981.
If you are looking for a light load AR2206H would be a better powder.
Hodgdon /ADI list H4895/ AR2206H with a max load oof only 30 grains as max for the 140 grain for 2,089 fps (less than the Lyman start load) and 28 grains start load for 1,904 fps. I sincerely doubt if any of this is pressure tested.
For cast lead, assuming the barrel is up to it, you will need to have the barrel slugged and the projectiles need to be a little larger than groove dia. Others will have more to say about this.
Hope that this helps and regards Grandpamac.