LEE 7.35MMx51 CARCANO 2 DIE SET, S/H #2

Grafs is the place to go to get these hard to find Carcano dies. Fast shipping and excellent condition upon arrival. I rely on Grafs for many difficult to find items. Great job guys!

There just aren't many die sets available for 7.35mm Carcano. Of those, the Lee set is the most affordable I've run across. The dies themselves are perfectly fine after running through 100 or so cases, and I'm confident the resizer and seating dies will hold up to years of use.

The biggest issue I have with these however is the included shell holder, the Lee #2. The shellholder is perfect for "standard" large centerfire cartridges, e.g. .308, .30-06, 8mm Mauser, etc. The case head of the 7.35mm Carcano (and 6.5mm Carcano by extension) is ever so slightly smaller and fits loosely in a Lee #2 shell holder. While resizing, I ended up tearing the rim off of a brand new PPU case and getting the shell stuck in the sizing die. Anybody who plans on handloading for a Carcano owes it to themselves to pick up the correct shell holder. One such example is a Hornady #21. It does not appear that Lee offers a dedicated Carcano shell holder at all, but figures the #2 is "good enough." It may be good enough 99% of the time, but that 1% of the time when your case gets stuck and must be destroyed to extract from the die gets frustrating. Preventing this situation is worth the extra $8 for a correct shell holder in my opinion.

A smaller qualm, but the included load data is also woefully conservative, listing a "never exceed" max load for 130gr projectiles at a muzzle velocity almost 400 fps slower than factory-new loaded ammunition using a similar 128gr projectile (measured using a Chrony Master Beta, test rifle was an M38 TS w/ 17.7" bbl)