The FBI's fib about the Mannlicher Carcano

[Bob Prudhomme]

The only evidence for Oswald requesting a drilling and tapping of a rifle.

Well, the rifle would have been drilled and tapped at Klein's, prior to mounting the scope. As Ryder pointed out, the bill at his shop would have been for the drilling and tapping of three holes at $1.50 each (oh take me back to 1963) for a total of $4.50 plus another $1.50 for boresighting. With only two holes in the receiver, this would seem to eliminate Ryder as the man who mounted the scope on C2766.

Now, as I said before, only the front hole needed to be re-drilled higher, in order to raise the scope mount up, but this was obviously never done, as I believe there are only two holes in the side of C2766's receiver, and C2766 was still shooting freakishly high at 15 yards when the FBI tested it. If the job at Ryder's shop was intended to correct this, it never got done. I can understand the request for three holes to be drilled though, as the scope mount might only have to be raised a tiny amount at the front, and the new hole might overlap and interfere with the old hole. Therefore, moving the scope mount ahead (or back) a tiny bit would allow the gunsmith to drill new holes front and back. As the scope mount came with three holes, it only makes sense to utilize all three holes and get a firmer mount. Ergo, the drilling and tapping of three holes, plus boresighting for the new mounting.

The testimony of Dial Ryder is very interesting. I haven't read it for a while and as I re-read it this morning, I realized I never did decide if Ryder admitted to working on this rifle or not. There is definitely something odd happening with this witness.