For the sake of this post, I do not want to discuss whether or not a man could shoot this rifle three times within 5 to 6 seconds and hit a moving target at approximately 80 – 90 yards. I am not here to provide my opinions on assassination and conspiracy theories. There are literally hundreds of websites and blogs out there on the interweb where those discussions can be had.

Carcano identification. Having been in production for so long and serving both World Wars, the Carcano has gone through a great many changes. Clear identification can be time consuming but there are clear indicators to guide you. In the past year I got one but it is very devoid of markings on it. Serial Number is RA XXXXX and on the top of the breech is PNA-R. Other than that, there are no markings visible except the same Serial Number stamped in the butt stock side. There they put it as A. Over the serial number. Any idea who made it or when. 6.52 Carcano round fits it. This little Italian Military carbine started life in 1918 as a full size Model 1891 Carcano rifle made by Terni. After service in World War 1 sometime between 1924 and 1929 the Italian Military took 260,000 of the Model 1924 rifles and converted them to the T.S. Carbine pattern, including this one. The Carcano clip accommodated either the 6.5mm Carcano or the 7.35mm Carcano cartridge. Without a clip, the rifle can only be used as a single-shot arm. This was a severe handicap if clips were lost or unavailable. Carcano arms were produced in Italy by the Italian Small Arms Arsenal at Terni, and at the National Arms Factory in Brescia.

For this post, I would like to talk about MY new/old rifle.

Much has been said about this little rifle, both good and bad. From some who say it can’t hit the side of a barn at 10 paces to those who say it is a tack driver at 100 yards. Much of that argument has to do with the ammunition being fired through the rifle. The factory ammo usually comes loaded with .264 diameter round-nose bullets while the rifle generally has a .268 diameter bore. From everything I have seen and read on the interweb, if you hand load or know someone who hand loads and you load your cartridges with .268 diameter bullets rather than .264 diameter bullets, you can achieve stellar accuracy from this rifle. I have yet to fire mine as I just received it yesterday, so I’ll let you know what I can do with it when the time comes.

Let me cover some basic history. The rifle known as the Carcano was designed by Salvatore Carcano in 1890 and was manufactured from 1891 through 1945. Because of wartime needs, there were 11 known factories that produced the Carcano rifles at some point in its history. It was most commonly manufactured for the 6.5 x 52mm cartridge although for a short period of time there were some manufactured for the 7.35 x 51mm cartridge. Some were even converted to 8 x 57 mm Mauser by Isreal. After the end of WWII many rifles were recovered and reassembled from parts so to find one now with matching serial numbers (as mine has), while not altogether rare, is still rather unusual.

Since I just picked up my rifle yesterday let me share my initial impressions. The rifle is actually in much better condition than I anticipated. Buying from GunBroker.com you can never really be sure of what you are getting but the seller described it in “poor” condition. Taking it out of the box at the gun store I can tell you that I, Aaron, and the 3 guys working in the store at the time would all tell you that this rifle is far from being in “poor” condition. Yes, there is a small amount of rust on the barrel, not at all unusual for a rifle almost 75 years old. While I was waiting for the rifle to come I was imagining that I was going to have to strip all of the metal down to white and re-blue it, now I do not believe I will need to do that at all.

Carcano Serial Number Database

Normally on these old Carcano’s the bolt is sticky and does not fit well because they were pieced together and an ill-fitting bolt was placed in the rifle. I cannot say for sure but I suspect that mine may have the original bolt because the bolt on my rifle is smooth as glass. Not only that, but the trigger pull is better than any modern rifle that has a lawyer trigger on it. I would estimate that it would come in at about 5 to 6 pounds of crisp, no-travel, trigger pull.

The wood bears clean serial number and inspector marks. The barrel shows clear manufacturers marks as well as the year of manufacture. It is quite possible that this rifle never saw action in the war as many of the Terni rifles were shipped to Finland to be used by security forces and legend has it that the Finish security forces did not like the rifles and laid them aside in favor of battlefield pick up rifles.

So this is what I believe is in the future for my rifle. I will completely strip it and check all internal and external parts. It will need to be de-gunked of the thick old grease on the bolt and receiver so I will probably de-grease all of the metal parts. At this point I will decide what I will do about the finish on the steel, whether to re-blue it or possibly just do a cold blue touch up. I may replace the firing pin spring just because of the age of the spring and because a new one is only $5.00.

The wood is in good condition for a rifle of its age and history and I do not want to destroy any of the inspector or manufacturers marks so I probably will just clean the wood and give it a coat of lemon oil or linseed oil.

6.5 Italian Carcano Serial Numbers

At that point, I should be able to locate some ammunition and some stripper clips and take her to the range to see what she will do. I don’t plan on shooting her on a regular basis and she will make a great wall-hanger/conversation piece, but for me just imagining the history of what this rifle has been through in the past 75 years is quite intriguing all by itself.

I will post more as I delve into the cleaning and refinishing of this rifle, and of course, there will be more pictures.

By Robert Jensen

Terni Carcano Rifle Serial Numbers

A seemingly odd fact has long puzzled me and other collectors of French and Italian rifles. Both nations had armies numbering over a million men in both World Wars I and II. These armies were predominantly infantry and infantrymen are armed with rifles - thus there were certainly over a million French and Italian rifles manufactured. Why, then, are French and Italian sniper rifles apparently absent from collections in this country and even pictures of their soldiers equipped with scope mounted rifles never seen. I have seen two different pictures of French snipers with scoped Lebel 86/93 rifles in trenches but have NEVER seen even one picture of an Italian soldier with a scope mounted rifle.

Dick Hobbs, in his book on the Carcano, states flatly that no telescopically equipped rifles were issued to the Italian Army. He based this statement on his thirty years of collecting data on Carcanos and the fact that he too had never even seen a photo of one in all that time.

Four years ago I was fortunate enough to finally purchase a Lebel sniper to give my collection a representive example of a French sniper rifle (see Issue 61 of the MRJ ) but still had yet to locate or even hear of an Italian example. Then it happened!

Carcano Serial Number Lookup

At the last Tulsa Gun Show a man came in carrying a rifle that his next-door neighbor had brought back from his service in W.W. II. It was stated that it came from North Africa and it was accompanied with an Italian pith helmet and a. Fascist Youth Honor Dagger. It was a Model 38 Cavalry carbine in 7.35mm caliber - quite a scarce rifle in itself and one I did not have in my collection. It was in excellent condition, matching, had beautiful bore, an original sling, and the two cleaning rods in the butt trap. Best of all, it had an optically perfect, Beretta made telescopic sniper scope in two left side rail mounted clamp type bases. The scope still had the original rubber eyecup. Could one ask for more? I was not at the show but a friend of mine was and he immediately bought the piece. Happily, he later sold it to me.