Carcano, Mannlicher-Carcano, Carcano-Mannlicher, and Mauser-Parravicino, are frequently used names for a series of Italian bolt-action, En Bloc clip fed, repeating military rifles and carbines. Introduced in 1891, the rifle was officially designated as the Fucile Modello 1891 (Model 1891 Rifle) and chambered for the rimless 6.5×52mm Carcano round (Cartuccia a pallottola Modello 1891, later updated to Cartuccia a pallottola Modello 1891/95). It was developed by the chief technician Salvatore Carcano at the Turin Army Arsenal in 1890. Replacing the Vetterli-Vitali rifles and carbines in 10.35×47mmR, it was produced until 1945. The Mod.91 family of weapons included both rifle (fucile) and shorter-barreled carbine (moschetto) form and was used by Italian troops during both World War I and World War II. It was also used by Finland, German Volkssturm and the Imperial Japanese Navy (the latter using the Type I rifle variant) during WWII. During the post-war era, the Carcano would see use with both regular and irregular forces in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
A Carcano Mod.91/38 rifle was used by Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Background
By 1887, the Vetterli rifles in Italian service were rendered obsolete after the French adopted the Lebel Model 1886 rifle while Italy's main rival, Austria-Hungary adopted the Mannlicher M1888, forcing the Italian government to form a commission to choose a new infantry rifle at the end of 1888. After testing more than 50 different rifles (including designs from Lee and Mauser), the commission decided to adopt a 6.5 mm cartridge using a Mannlicher-type magazine. After conducting trials with a Terni design based on the Gewehr 1888 (fitted with Italian-pattern sights and the barrel jacket removed) and a design developed by a team led by Salvatore Carcano from the arms factory in Turin, the commission recommended Carcano's design on 5 March 1892. The Ministry of War formally approved the rifle for service on March 29, with the first Carcano rifles being issued in the spring of 1894.
Although this rifle is often called "Mannlicher−Carcano", especially in American parlance, it was officially the Fucile Modello 1891 (Model 1891 rifle). The "Mannlicher" title came from the en bloc loading clips system, having nothing to do with the action itself, which was a modified Gewehr 88 action (which itself was a combination of the action from the Mauser Model 1871 with the Mannlicher en bloc loading); in Italy the rifle was commonly reported by army and civilian sources as "Carcano−Mannlicher" since the action engineer is usually named before the magazine designer's in Italian nomenclatures (like with Vetterli-Vitali and others). Some Italian sources also report the name "Mauser−Parravicino", after General Gustavo Parravicino of the Infantry Shooting School and head of the commission that recommended the Mod. 91 adoption. Italian soldiers simply called the rifle as the il novantuno (the ninety-one).
Description
The Carcano is a family of six-round bolt-action rifles and carbines using a modified Mauser-type action with a Mannlicher-type magazine. Upon introduction the 6.5 mm Carcano cartridge was quite typical of the era, using a round-nosed bullet of relatively modest power. By 1908 most nations switched to the improved spitzer bullet, but Italy was late to adopt a new rifle cartridge and by the time a larger caliber was adopted, the outbreak of WWII prevented the replacement of the 6.5×52mm Carcano, which remained the standard army cartridge until 1945.
While the round-nose bullet quickly lost velocity and consequently stopping power at long ranges, the 6.5 mm round is lethal enough with a well aimed shot. According to a United States Army technical manual, a bullet fired from a Model 91/24 carbine can incapacitate a man (or animal) at a range of .
Early models featured a progressive rifling (also known as gain twist, the twist of the barrel rifling gradually increases towards the muzzle). The gain twist increased the stability and accuracy of the bullet, while decreasing erosion of the rifling, due to less stress imprimed by the bullet. This feature was dropped in the Mod. 41 rifle.
Unlike Austrian Mannlichers, the Carcano used symmetrical clips, while the use of a smaller cartridge allowed one extra round to be carried. The bolt was simpler than the Gewehr 88, and it also featured a safety, which was a projecting plate between the rear of the bolt piece and the cocking piece. The Italians slightly modified the rifle over the years, but the design itself practically remained unchanged for more than 60 years.
Despite often being described as an inaccurate and inferior weapon, especially by Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists, it is an accurate and capable weapon. Pegler notes that it was used as a sniper rifle by the Italian Army during WWI. He also stated that the Carcano carbines used by Alpini troops proved to be adequate for relatively short-range sniping.
The rifle was described by military historian Ian V. Hogg as "a serviceable enough weapon and on a par with its contemporaries"; According to Pegler, "the basic rifle design was like many others, sound but unexceptional"; Morin stated that "while certainly not representing the best among rifles of the time, [the Mod. 91] was not a completely worthless weapon", adding that "the individual weapon is only one of the factors of a tactical group's firepower"; FBI firearms expert Robert A. Frazier, who test-fired Lee Harvey Oswald's Carcano, testified that it was an accurate weapon.
E. C. Ezell stated that despite rumors of the Carcano being unsafe to fire, "it is as safe as any other military rifle", provided the gun is in good condition and proper ammunition is used.
History Italy
According to McLachlan, due a shortage of the new 6.5 mm cartridge and the unwillingness of the Crispi government to order more, the first Carcanos were only issued in Italian Eritrea during summer 1896, months after the defeat at the battle of Adwa, forcing the colonial troops and even reinforcements destined to Africa to use the obsolete Vetterli-Vitali rifles and Remington Rolling Blocks (some of the latter taken from the inventories of the defunct Papal States) during the Adwa campaign. According to Prouty, the governor Oreste Baratieri deliberately issued older rifles as a cost-saving measure, making use of readily available stocks of old ammunition.
Prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Italian Army had a total of 700,000 M1891 rifles produced at government arsenals at Terni, Brescia, Turin, and Torre Annunziata. When the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed, the Terni factory alone produced 2,063,750 rifles in total.
During the war, the Italians used scoped M1891s as sniper rifles, while some Alpini soldiers preferred to carry the carbine variant instead. A large variety of scopes were used during the war, including a French-made APX derivate with proprietary mount, known as Amigues, after his patent owner. In early 1916, the Italians started producing a 4× power scope based on German (or Austrian) models, known as "Scheibler", manufactured by the Filotecnica-Salmoiraghi factory.
After the war, to get desperately needed carbines for their operations in the colonial theaters, the Italian Army proceeded by converting the old M1891 rifle to carbine length. Rifle barrels were cut down and grafted (in order to maintain the correct progressive rifling twist) to a length of , the bolt handle bent down and the sights improved. This version was accepted for service as the M1891/24.
Experience during the war, as well in North Africa and Abyssinia, indicated that the 6.5 mm round was inadequate in terms of stopping power, and during the 1930s the Terni arsenal began conducting experiments under the supervision of Colonel Giuseppe Mainardi with the cooperation of Bombrini-Parodi-Delfino and Società Metallurgica Italiana for a new cartridge. The resulting 7.35 mm bullet adopted in 1937 could be loaded into the 6.5×52 cartridge gun chambers with minimal alterations. To properly host this new cartridge, the Italians followed the other great powers and adopted a short version of their service infantry rifle, creating the Mod. 38 short rifle, obtained by recycling action and barrels of old mod. 91 rifles. The Terni factory began converting 6.5 mm rifles and carbines to fire the new 7.35×51mm Carcano cartridge as the Mod. 38 family of guns, but in December 1939, foreseeing Italy's involvement in the Second World War, the government decided to withdraw all 7.35 mm guns from frontline service and re-issue the older 6.5 mm versions, to simplify logistics. According to Walter, the 7.35 Mod. 38 rifles and carbines were issued to militia units, while a considerable number were sold to Finland.
The Mod. 38 variants were also fitted with fixed sights at ; Italian commanders concluded that using adjustable rear sights graduated up to was a waste, since most firefights rarely exceeded the range, while the average soldier in the heat of the battle wasn't expected to have the composure necessary to adjust his sights according to the enemy movements. Also, Italian Infantry squads rotated mostly around light machine gun crews, while riflemen were mostly intended to offer covering fire.
In 1941, the Italian military returned to a long-barrelled infantry rifle once again (slightly shorter than the original Mod. 91), the Carcano Mod. 91/41, in order to properly exploit the 6.5x52 cartridge, that underperformed in the mod. 38 short rifle barrels. According to Morin, this variant used a conventional barrel rifling and had adjustable rear sights graduated from .
According to Riepe and Pettinelli, a small number of M1891/38 rifles, cavalry and TS carbines chambered for the 7.92×57mm Mauser were produced shortly, between December 1944 and March 1945. German documents reported by Riepe and Pettinelli clearly indicates that these conversions got explicitly requested by the Germans to explore the possibility of recycling the hundreds of thousands Carcanos in their inventory, while exploiting their own stocks of ammunitions. Two firms were involved in these conversions, namely Krieghoff (which controlled the former Armaguerra machineries, moved to Vipiteno) and F.N.A. of Brescia. The former converted both rifles (mod. 91/38 and mod. 91/41) and carbines (T.S. and Cavalry) with a wooden block to turn them into single, while F.N.A. focused on converting T.S. and cavalry carbines, developing a 5 round en-bloc clip system to exploit the Mannlicher magazine. The tests made by the German Army reported that both conversions were unsatisfactory so the conversion program was dropped.
After the end of WWII, the Italian Army gradually replaced its Carcanos with Lee-Enfield and M1 Garand rifles, while some units of the Polizia di Stato and Carabinieri continued using M91/38 TS carbines for several years. During the early 1960s, the Italian government decided to sell its remaining inventories as military surplus, mostly to the US market. According to Wheeler, a total of 570,745 rifles were sold to the American company Adam Consolidated Industries, for $1,776,658.54 ().
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