The Humanitarian Rifle

[Bob Prudhomme]

Almost everyone who has studied the JFK assassination has heard the 6.5mm Carcano referred to as the "Humanitarian Rifle". As often stated, this name was given to it by the Italian troops who carried it but, unbeknownst to most, the reasons it was given this name are not as straightforward as imagined. While the name began with Italian troops, its reputation as an inaccurate rifle grew long after the Carcano was removed from active military service and, surprisingly, was mostly not the fault of the rifles.

This story begins with the introduction, in 1891, of the first Carcano; the M91 long rifle. With its 31" barrel, the M91 was a very accurate rifle, yet the problems that led to the name of "Humanitarian Rifle" began with the M91. You see, the troops were not complaining about the ability of the Carcano to hit a target, they were complaining about the ability of the Carcano to KILL its target.

To understand this problem, let us look at the similar problems experienced by the British Indian Army, and the solution they came up with to solve it.

Prior to the introduction of smaller "modern" cartridges, such as the 6.5 Carcano, rifles had very large bores, used black powder as a propellant, and hurled great chunks of unjacketed lead bullets at lower velocities. They were quite limited in range, hence the desire for faster, smaller bullets, and the wounds caused by these unjacketed bullets were often horrendous. Suffice it to say that one hit from these bullets either killed you or disabled you; few continued the fight. However, unjacketed lead bullets did not do well in the smaller bores at higher velocities. It was found, after only a few shots, the riflings in the rifle barrels were fouled with lead to the point of making the rifle inaccurate. The copper alloy jacket was devised to overcome this problem. It is not clear how the full metal jacket came about but it is believed it was made at the same time to prevent the copper alloy jacket from separating from the lead bullet in the barrel of the rifle; a very real possibility in the minds of the designers but one never actually proven.

Anyways, back to the British Indian Army and their .303 Enfields. With the introduction of the Mk. II cartridge with its roundnosed, full metal jacket projectile, it soon became apparent to British troops that they now had their own "Humanitarian Rifle". These bullets did not expand when they hit enemy soldiers, and cause the great grievous wounds made by the unjacketed bullets these troops were used to shooting from their former large bore weapons. Often, the new bullets passed right through an enemy combatant, and caused little damage. As the Indian Army was often outnumbered in skirmishes with indigenous forces, a need was quickly seen for a bullet capable of stopping an enemy combatant with one shot instead of four or five.



Left, Mk. II "Special" (dum dum) and right, Mk. V (hollow point)

At the Dum Dum Arsenal in Dum Dum, India, in 1897, a Captain Bertie Clay developed the first dum dum bullet simply by removing 1 mm of the copper alloy jacket from the nose of a Mk. II bullet, exposing the soft lead tip underneath. In effect, Capt. Clay had made the first soft tipped jacketed bullet. They were an instant hit with the troops, as, with the expanding tip, these bullets did far more damage than the FMJ bullets.



The Indian soft point bullet was not adopted by the British Army. While the dum dum bullet was being developed in India, the British Army was working on their own expanding bullet at the Woolwich Arsenal in Britain. This was also a soft tipped bullet but it included a hollow cavity at the nose, in effect making the Mk. IV bullet the first hollow point bullet upon its introduction in 1898. These were even more effective at stopping enemy combatants; so much so that they and the dum dum bullet were shortly after banned at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference as being "inhumane".

Still desiring effective stopping power but wishing to remain within the conventions of the Hague Peace Conference, the British experimented further with bullets and, by 1907, had come up with the Mk. VII cartridge. Its bullet, while being a full metal jacket, incorporated revolutionary features that gave it effective stopping power. This cartridge was used through two world wars and right up until the .303 Enfield was replaced in the late 1950's. First, the Mk. VII bullet had a pointed nose instead of the previous round nose. This caused this bullet to tumble when it contacted bone, instead of punching its way through as a round nosed bullet would. To further encourage the bullet to tumble, inside the full metal jacket the forward half of the bullet was made from light aluminum, while the rear half of the bullet was made from heavy lead. This disproportion in mass between the front and back end of the bullet made it very unstable, causing the bullet to tumble at the slightest provocation inside a wound and cause far more grievous wounds than a simple roundnosed FMJ bullet could.



Cutaway of .303 Mk. VII cartridge, showing aluminum nose and lead rear inside pointed copper alloy jacket.

While we have been discussing the British .303 Enfield, it should be obvious by now why the Italian troops dubbed the Carcano the "Humanitarian Rifle". The M91 and its 6.5x52 mm cartridge would have had all of the problems of the .303 Mk. II cartridge, and then some. The 6.5 Carcano was a smaller calibre than the .303, yet the bullet was longer. This would have made the Carcano bullet even more stable than the .303 and, thus, more resistant to tumbling in wounds. Unfortunately, the Italian commanders did not address this problem until 1938, thirty years after the British. Even then, their solution was short lived, and by 1940, the Carcano had again become the "Humanitarian Rifle".

More to come.