Carcano rifles

[baronvoncatania]

Are they any good? My father collected them when he was alive and I really tried to like them. All five that he had fired VERY high! like 12"-14" high at 100 yards.

There was no way to bring that down except to put on a front site that about 6" high, which is crazy.

Are they all like this?

 

[Critch]

I had a 6.5 Carcano carbine that was very accurate and recoil was mild. The Norma cartridges I used for hunting were devastating on our whitetail deer.

They are not pretty rifles by any means...but the ones I've shot were accurate. I never had a problem with mine shooting high, so I don't know what's going on there.

 

[Precision32]

I have a Carbine in 6.5 mm and it's not a bad rifle. On par with a 30-30 ballistically and with a 16" barrel it's a handy woods rifle.

 

[eveled]

Everytime I handled one, I wondered how Oswald did it. No way he got off all those shots that quick and that accurate. The Carcano is the single best piece of evidence of a conspiracy.

 

[Mobuck]

My Uncle showed up with one of those things when I was about 13-14 years old. He had a box of shells for it and he shot all of them w/o hitting anywhere near the quart oil can he was using for a target(in the old days we didn't know what a real paper target was). From that point, I've made it my policy to stay as far away from a Carcano as possible.
FWIW, Most military rifles are sighted to have a battle zero at something like 300 yards which (in many cases) causes the 100 yard POI to be far too high for target use.

 

[don44]

I had one once in the 1960's. I could never get it to shoot very good! Could never get the bore clean either.

 

[baronvoncatania]

So basicly it's hit or miss as far as getting a good one. You'd have to try it out before purchasing one.

Like I mentioned, 5 out of 5 my father's had couldn't hit a target at 100 yards.

Thanks for the replies.
jim

 

[cas6969]

Many military rifles of the time were made like that, "Aim for the belt, hit them in the chest", it's not uncommon at all.

 

[Critch]

Oswald was shooting at a human from 88 yards away and the car was moving directly away from him. It was an easy shot. I figure he was aiming for center mass and was hitting high. My Carcano was quite accurate with iron sights, Oswald had a scope. The shot at Kennedy would have been easy.

 

[cas6969]

Of course when they tested it, it was hitting about 4 feet off from the sights and they had to shim the mount to zero it. So he must have been a REALLY good shot to make head shots on a moving target with a four foot hold off. :roll:

 

[Coogs]

I have several, a couple as NIB. Comment about a Carcano usually went something like, ............"never fired and only dropped once!" Coogs.

 

[Bull Barrel]

And Oswald had tose special bullets that can stop, change direction and start again.

 

[Critch]

The FBI said that their two agents who were handling the rifle broke the scope mount somehow when reassembling it. That was a known by the Warren commission.. The scope mounts for them were delicate in comparison to Redfield and Weaver mounts.
Like I said, I expect he was shooting at Kennedy's back and was hitting high.

I would not take a Carcano over an Enfield, a Mauser, or a Springfield but they weren't all junk either.

 

[WAYNO]

My experience with these is limited to a 7.35mm Terni carbine. Closer to WWII the Italians upchambered the Carcano to the 7.35x51 cartridge. The one example I owned, although many years ago, shot just fine. Ammo was not prevalent, but could be had at the local Army surplus store for next to nothing.

WAYNO.

 

[pisgah]

Most military rifles of the 19th-to-20th-turn-of-the-century era, not just Carcanos, shoot a foot or so high at 100 yards with issue sights and military or equivalent loads. That is because the battle sights are zeroed for 300 yards or meters. Soldiers were instructed to aim low for shorter ranges. At 100 yards, you aim for the belly for a center-of-mass shot. It does take a higher front sight if you want to be dead-on at 100 yards, but nothing like 6", more like 3/4".

Regarding the Kennedy assassination -- virtually every "fact" in the popular books about it has long been shown to be pure bunk. Oswald and his rifle were very capable of making the shot, his position was almost ideal, and the "magic bullet" followed exactly the course one would expect -- IF you know the facts. For instance, the rear seat of the limo was mounted higher than the front, and Connelly was leaning and partially turned when he was hit. It all lines up perfectly.

 

[blackhawknj]

You buy them for the history. One of the first small bore/smokeless powder military rifles adopted, by our standards a somewhat awkward design with some odd features-the gain twist rifling, but it's 1st Generation. In service for over 50 years, whatever you may think of the performance of the Italian military in WWII in WWI they fought their own war for over 2 1/2 years in incredibly rugged and difficult terrain.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Many military rifles of the time were made like that, "Aim for the belt, hit them in the chest", it's not uncommon at all.

Hi,

My Enfield and Mosins exhibit that same "quality." The way I heard it, aiming for the belt meant a debilitating if not fatal hit at most any range the ordinary soldier was likely to encounter...

Rick C

 

[Bull Barrel]

Thatbullet hit Connoly multiple times and to do so it had to reverse direction.
Carcano made a tough rifle and another Carcano made a tough motorcycle engine.

 

[Merle1948]

Are they any good? My father collected them when he was alive and I really tried to like them. All five that he had fired VERY high! like 12"-14" high at 100 yards.

There was no way to bring that down except to put on a front site that about 6" high, which is crazy.

Are they all like this?

IIRC, they have a somewhat different sighting procedure. You are supposed to set the front sight way deep in the rear sight notch, but still use the top of the post. I'd suggest you look for a site that specializes in Italian weapons & try to confirm my memory - and perhaps get more info. My impression of Carcanos was generally favorable, for what that's worth.

 

[HerrMesser]

Nebrhogger on this site is a local expert and collector of the Carcano rifle. Coauthored a couple books on them.

http://www.yesterdaysweapons.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=25

Rad