28-01-2014, 06:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-02-2014, 05:40 AM by Bob Prudhomme.)
Our story has brought us up to the period immediately preceding the Second World War and the introduction, to the Italian army, of a whole new concept in weaponry; namely, the Fucile Corto or "short rifle", made famous as the alleged assassination weapon of JFK on 22/11/63. We will be concentrating mainly on these short rifles in this installment and, for that reason, there is one fact related to short rifles I would like you to keep in the forefront of your mind as you read this. The M91/38 6.5mm Carcano short rifle (Oswald's alleged rifle) began production in 1940 AND ended in 1940, with a handful being made in Terni in early 1941. It was replaced in 1941 with the all new M91/41 long rifle. This gives the M91/38 short rifle the distinction of being the shortest lived Italian military rifle model of the 20th Century and, for all I am aware of, the shortest lived military rifle model of ANY country in the 20th Century! What would make Italy, definitely not winning WW II, do something as drastic as abandon their main battle rifle and replace it with such a different design? Was there something that wrong with it that it was discarded so quickly, or were there deeper underlying reasons to kick it to the curb?
Anyways, after decades of listening to soldiers' complaints about the Carcano, Italian authorities became aware of two overwhelming desires; namely, a more compact short rifle that still maintained the long rifle's accuracy and a cartridge for that rifle that contained a bullet capable of doing far more damage in a wound than the 6.5x52 mm cartridge. Once again, they looked at their large inventories of M91 long rifles and came up with a brilliant idea.
The solution to all of their problems was an all new cartridge, the 7.35x51 mm, to be fired in an all new rifle, the 7.35mm M38 Carcano. In reality, the brass cartridge was a 6.5x52 mm cartridge with the neck opened up to accept the larger diameter bullet. The same was true of the 7.35mm short rifle; everything, including bolt, receiver and magazine was identical to every 6.5mm Carcano ever made.
Now, about recycling those 6.5mm M91 long rifles. The bore of a 6.5mm Carcano rifle barrel measures, of course, 6.5 mm. The widest internal diameter is the bottom of the rifling grooves and, from bottom of one groove to bottom of the opposite groove, these measure 6.8 mm in diameter. In a rather brilliant move, the Carcano makers removed the barrels from worn out M91 long rifles, cut them back in length from 31 inches to 21 inches, and re-bored the inside of the rifle barrel to a new bore diameter of 7.35 mm. By doing so, all traces of the 6.5 mm progressive twist rifling was removed, essentially creating a new barrel. According to records, new rifling grooves were then cut into the 7.35 mm bore. I have never been able to determine the depth these grooves were cut to but I would imagine these would have been as deep as the 6.5mm Carcano grooves. It is known that the progressive twist rifling was abandoned, in the interests of economy, and riflings with a standard rate of twist (1:10) were cut into the 7.35 mm barrels.
***** It is important to note that records do not show the rate of twist of the rifling (1:10) changing when production of the short rifle changed from 7.35mm to 6.5mm. While 1:10 might have been barely adequate for the 128 grain 7.35 mm bullet, the 162 grain 6.5 mm bullet, especially in a short barrel, would have required a rifling rate of at least 1:8 (1:7 preferably) to stabilize the bullet in flight. As you will recall, the much longer M91 barrel had a rate of twist, at the muzzle, of 1:8. ******
Other cost saving features were incorporated into the 7.35mm, such as a plain fixed rear sight zeroed at 300 metres, instead of the more expensive adjustable rear sights found on other Carcanos. For my money, I would have just kept the M91 adjustable rear sight on the salvaged barrel, but that's just me.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the 7.35mm bullet was a shameless copy of the British .303 Mk. VII cartridge's bullet. Instead of the round nose seen on the 6.5 mm bullet, the 7.35 mm bullet was pointed. And, like the Mk. VII, the 7.35 mm bullet had a light aluminum forward section inside the bullet jacket nose and a soft lead rear section. As I well explained earlier, these two features created a bullet that would tumble in a wound, instead of passing straight through as the 6.5 mm bullet did, and create massive injuries. This alone seemed to spell the end of the "Humanitarian Rifle" era.
Although larger in diameter, the 7.35 mm bullet was lighter than the 6.5 mm bullet, with the 7.35 mm bullet weighing only 128 grains, as opposed to the 162 grain 6.5 mm bullet. This was due to the spire point and the aluminum nose weighing less than a lead nose. The overall effect was greater muzzle velocity and a higher ballistic co-efficient than the 6.5 mm bullet.
This is something else that should be discussed while we are on the topic of shortening long barrels. When you cut a rifle barrel short, performance and muzzle velocity are ALWAYS sacrificed, simply because both the propellants in the cartridge and the rifling grooves now have less time and space to act on the bullet before it leaves the rifle barrel. Cutting a rifle barrel back from 31 inches to 17 inches, as they did with the carbines, and still shooting a heavy 162 grain bullet would give you poor performance from that carbine, even if the problem of the progressive twist rifling had been addressed. And this is also why the Carcano carbines produced such remarkable muzzle flashes; most of the gunpowder was burning outside of the barrel, instead of inside of the barrel where it could act on the bullet.
Anyways, the 7.35mm M38 Carcano seemed like a pretty good idea, and they were produced in great quantity from 1938-1939. It should be noted here that, while the Italians had great stores of 6.5x52mm ammo left over from their African campaigns (fitted with corrosive primers and getting older by the day), the M91 long rifle, plus all of its carbine derivatives, was now considered obsolete; and to be slowly replaced by new 7.35mm short rifles, plus new 7.35mm carbines. A bit of a risky plan just before a major war but, caution and careful planning were not two of Mussolini's strong traits.
Production of the 7.35mm ceased in 1939. All 7.35mm rifles were recalled and, contrary to popular belief, they were not refitted with 6.5mm barrels. The majority of these rifles found their way into the hands of Finnish troops, who used them in their war with Russia.
In 1940, production of the 6.5mm M91/38 short rifle began. It was identical in every way to the 7.35mm M38 short rifle, except now the fixed rear sight was zeroed at 200 metres instead of 300 metres, as on the M38. This change in the rear sight is no small thing as I believe the makers of this rifle were well aware of the drop in performance the M91/38 would suffer.
The official reason for discontinuing the 7.35mm, and one touted by WC supporters, is that the Italians were unable to stockpile sufficient quantities of 7.35x51 mm cartridges prior to the start of WW II. This seems to be universally accepted but, if we look closely, does it really make that much sense? A rifle cartridge is a simple thing to make; far easier than a rifle and much much easier than a rifle barrel. In fact, the rifle barrel is the most complicated component of a rifle to make.
******* If the plan had been to make new 7.35mm short rifle barrels (21 inches long) by cutting down worn out M91 long rifle barrels (31 inches and progressive twist rifling) and re-boring them and cutting standard twist rifling in them, and they had never planned, in 1938, to make another 6.5mm rifle of any kind again, where did they find new barrels for the 6.5mm M91/38 short rifles they began making in 1940? ************
The stockpiles of 6.5x52mm cartridges could have been recycled as 7.35x51mm cartridges. It would have been as simple as pulling the 6.5 mm bullet, trimming the case back 1 mm to 51 mm, expanding the case neck to accommodate a larger bullet and reseating the new 7.35 mm bullet in the case. I could easily do all of this with common handloading tools, if I had the correct 7.35 mm resizing dies. I'm not sure if the same gunpowder was used in both cartridges but this could have been changed, as well. The point is, I don't believe the Italians were any better at stockpiling new 6.5mm short rifle barrels, especially for a rifle and calibre they never planned to produce, than they were at stockpiling 7.35mm rifle cartridges. The story makes no logical sense.
What does make sense is that they still had great stocks of M91 long rifles and 6.5x52 mm ammo. Now, think of how things looked to many Italians in 1939. Despite the blusterings of Mussolini, many Italians were becoming aware that the two greatest mistakes made by Italy in the 20th Century were 1) allowing Mussolini to assume control and 2) allowing Mussolini to enter into an alliance with Nazi Germany. The writing was on the wall, and many planners could see a hurting of immense proportions headed Italy's way.
Despite this, of course, it would still be necessary to produce Carcano short rifles but, the ability to procure steel to make new 6.5 short barrels (with standard twist rifling) might be interrupted. Who knew how bad things could get? Also, the inventories of 6.5 mm cartridges were insurance against a munitions factory being unable to produce 7.35 mm cartridges.
While I am sure the small arms factories made every effort to make new 21 inch 6.5 mm short rifle barrels, it cannot be denied that in 1939-1940, Italy was far from prepared for war. Mussolini had signed the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler, in which it was stipulated that neither country was to make war without the other before 1943. Hitler jumped the gun slightly on this, with his invasion of Poland in 1939. Though he knew his country needed a few more years to prepare for war, Mussolini blustered indecisively for many months before declaring war on the Allies in June, 1940; midway through the single production year of the M91/38 Carcano short rifle.
As Italy's iron ore and steel production was only a fraction of other nations such as Britain and Germany, and steel would be needed for many other war items beside rifle barrels, and Italy's fragile import network was also painfully obvious (1/4 of their ocean freighters were impounded as soon as Italy declared war), it would have become obvious to the arms makers that they may not be able to procure sufficient amounts of steel to make rifle barrels.
What to do? Same thing they had done for years. Plan for making new 6.5mm short rifle barrels with standard twist rifling, but be prepared to cut M91 long rifle barrels with progressive twist rifling from 31 inches to 21 inches to make short rifle barrels, should steel be unavailable. It would be necessary to turn the outer surface of the barrels on a lathe to achieve the short barrel diameter, but this would be a straightforward process. Other than changing the rear and fore sights and the stock and turning the straight M91 bolt handle down, the rest of the rifle is the same between the two models.
This may all seem farfetched but, it is not uncommon on shooting forums to have the owner of an M91/38 short rifle complaining about the inaccuracy of his rifle, only to discover his barrel has progressive twist rifling, or should I say, the "leftovers" of an M91's progressive twist rifling.
It is also interesting to note that all carbine versions of the M91/38 short rifle are listed as having progressive twist rifling. Were these new rifle barrels, 17 inches long, with a compressed version of progressive twist rifling, or were they simply, once again, cut down M91 long rifles?
Next, we have what is perhaps Italy's strangest move of all concerning the 6.5mm Carcano. The M91/38 short rifle, of Dealey Plaza fame and the most incredible rifle in history (according to WC supporters), began production in early 1940 and ENDED production in early 1941, being replaced by an all new design of long rifle; the M91/41 long rifle.
What made Italy drop the M91/38 short rifle after only ONE year of production?
Anyways, after decades of listening to soldiers' complaints about the Carcano, Italian authorities became aware of two overwhelming desires; namely, a more compact short rifle that still maintained the long rifle's accuracy and a cartridge for that rifle that contained a bullet capable of doing far more damage in a wound than the 6.5x52 mm cartridge. Once again, they looked at their large inventories of M91 long rifles and came up with a brilliant idea.
The solution to all of their problems was an all new cartridge, the 7.35x51 mm, to be fired in an all new rifle, the 7.35mm M38 Carcano. In reality, the brass cartridge was a 6.5x52 mm cartridge with the neck opened up to accept the larger diameter bullet. The same was true of the 7.35mm short rifle; everything, including bolt, receiver and magazine was identical to every 6.5mm Carcano ever made.
Now, about recycling those 6.5mm M91 long rifles. The bore of a 6.5mm Carcano rifle barrel measures, of course, 6.5 mm. The widest internal diameter is the bottom of the rifling grooves and, from bottom of one groove to bottom of the opposite groove, these measure 6.8 mm in diameter. In a rather brilliant move, the Carcano makers removed the barrels from worn out M91 long rifles, cut them back in length from 31 inches to 21 inches, and re-bored the inside of the rifle barrel to a new bore diameter of 7.35 mm. By doing so, all traces of the 6.5 mm progressive twist rifling was removed, essentially creating a new barrel. According to records, new rifling grooves were then cut into the 7.35 mm bore. I have never been able to determine the depth these grooves were cut to but I would imagine these would have been as deep as the 6.5mm Carcano grooves. It is known that the progressive twist rifling was abandoned, in the interests of economy, and riflings with a standard rate of twist (1:10) were cut into the 7.35 mm barrels.
***** It is important to note that records do not show the rate of twist of the rifling (1:10) changing when production of the short rifle changed from 7.35mm to 6.5mm. While 1:10 might have been barely adequate for the 128 grain 7.35 mm bullet, the 162 grain 6.5 mm bullet, especially in a short barrel, would have required a rifling rate of at least 1:8 (1:7 preferably) to stabilize the bullet in flight. As you will recall, the much longer M91 barrel had a rate of twist, at the muzzle, of 1:8. ******
Other cost saving features were incorporated into the 7.35mm, such as a plain fixed rear sight zeroed at 300 metres, instead of the more expensive adjustable rear sights found on other Carcanos. For my money, I would have just kept the M91 adjustable rear sight on the salvaged barrel, but that's just me.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the 7.35mm bullet was a shameless copy of the British .303 Mk. VII cartridge's bullet. Instead of the round nose seen on the 6.5 mm bullet, the 7.35 mm bullet was pointed. And, like the Mk. VII, the 7.35 mm bullet had a light aluminum forward section inside the bullet jacket nose and a soft lead rear section. As I well explained earlier, these two features created a bullet that would tumble in a wound, instead of passing straight through as the 6.5 mm bullet did, and create massive injuries. This alone seemed to spell the end of the "Humanitarian Rifle" era.
Although larger in diameter, the 7.35 mm bullet was lighter than the 6.5 mm bullet, with the 7.35 mm bullet weighing only 128 grains, as opposed to the 162 grain 6.5 mm bullet. This was due to the spire point and the aluminum nose weighing less than a lead nose. The overall effect was greater muzzle velocity and a higher ballistic co-efficient than the 6.5 mm bullet.
This is something else that should be discussed while we are on the topic of shortening long barrels. When you cut a rifle barrel short, performance and muzzle velocity are ALWAYS sacrificed, simply because both the propellants in the cartridge and the rifling grooves now have less time and space to act on the bullet before it leaves the rifle barrel. Cutting a rifle barrel back from 31 inches to 17 inches, as they did with the carbines, and still shooting a heavy 162 grain bullet would give you poor performance from that carbine, even if the problem of the progressive twist rifling had been addressed. And this is also why the Carcano carbines produced such remarkable muzzle flashes; most of the gunpowder was burning outside of the barrel, instead of inside of the barrel where it could act on the bullet.
Anyways, the 7.35mm M38 Carcano seemed like a pretty good idea, and they were produced in great quantity from 1938-1939. It should be noted here that, while the Italians had great stores of 6.5x52mm ammo left over from their African campaigns (fitted with corrosive primers and getting older by the day), the M91 long rifle, plus all of its carbine derivatives, was now considered obsolete; and to be slowly replaced by new 7.35mm short rifles, plus new 7.35mm carbines. A bit of a risky plan just before a major war but, caution and careful planning were not two of Mussolini's strong traits.
Production of the 7.35mm ceased in 1939. All 7.35mm rifles were recalled and, contrary to popular belief, they were not refitted with 6.5mm barrels. The majority of these rifles found their way into the hands of Finnish troops, who used them in their war with Russia.
In 1940, production of the 6.5mm M91/38 short rifle began. It was identical in every way to the 7.35mm M38 short rifle, except now the fixed rear sight was zeroed at 200 metres instead of 300 metres, as on the M38. This change in the rear sight is no small thing as I believe the makers of this rifle were well aware of the drop in performance the M91/38 would suffer.
The official reason for discontinuing the 7.35mm, and one touted by WC supporters, is that the Italians were unable to stockpile sufficient quantities of 7.35x51 mm cartridges prior to the start of WW II. This seems to be universally accepted but, if we look closely, does it really make that much sense? A rifle cartridge is a simple thing to make; far easier than a rifle and much much easier than a rifle barrel. In fact, the rifle barrel is the most complicated component of a rifle to make.
******* If the plan had been to make new 7.35mm short rifle barrels (21 inches long) by cutting down worn out M91 long rifle barrels (31 inches and progressive twist rifling) and re-boring them and cutting standard twist rifling in them, and they had never planned, in 1938, to make another 6.5mm rifle of any kind again, where did they find new barrels for the 6.5mm M91/38 short rifles they began making in 1940? ************
The stockpiles of 6.5x52mm cartridges could have been recycled as 7.35x51mm cartridges. It would have been as simple as pulling the 6.5 mm bullet, trimming the case back 1 mm to 51 mm, expanding the case neck to accommodate a larger bullet and reseating the new 7.35 mm bullet in the case. I could easily do all of this with common handloading tools, if I had the correct 7.35 mm resizing dies. I'm not sure if the same gunpowder was used in both cartridges but this could have been changed, as well. The point is, I don't believe the Italians were any better at stockpiling new 6.5mm short rifle barrels, especially for a rifle and calibre they never planned to produce, than they were at stockpiling 7.35mm rifle cartridges. The story makes no logical sense.
What does make sense is that they still had great stocks of M91 long rifles and 6.5x52 mm ammo. Now, think of how things looked to many Italians in 1939. Despite the blusterings of Mussolini, many Italians were becoming aware that the two greatest mistakes made by Italy in the 20th Century were 1) allowing Mussolini to assume control and 2) allowing Mussolini to enter into an alliance with Nazi Germany. The writing was on the wall, and many planners could see a hurting of immense proportions headed Italy's way.
Despite this, of course, it would still be necessary to produce Carcano short rifles but, the ability to procure steel to make new 6.5 short barrels (with standard twist rifling) might be interrupted. Who knew how bad things could get? Also, the inventories of 6.5 mm cartridges were insurance against a munitions factory being unable to produce 7.35 mm cartridges.
While I am sure the small arms factories made every effort to make new 21 inch 6.5 mm short rifle barrels, it cannot be denied that in 1939-1940, Italy was far from prepared for war. Mussolini had signed the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler, in which it was stipulated that neither country was to make war without the other before 1943. Hitler jumped the gun slightly on this, with his invasion of Poland in 1939. Though he knew his country needed a few more years to prepare for war, Mussolini blustered indecisively for many months before declaring war on the Allies in June, 1940; midway through the single production year of the M91/38 Carcano short rifle.
As Italy's iron ore and steel production was only a fraction of other nations such as Britain and Germany, and steel would be needed for many other war items beside rifle barrels, and Italy's fragile import network was also painfully obvious (1/4 of their ocean freighters were impounded as soon as Italy declared war), it would have become obvious to the arms makers that they may not be able to procure sufficient amounts of steel to make rifle barrels.
What to do? Same thing they had done for years. Plan for making new 6.5mm short rifle barrels with standard twist rifling, but be prepared to cut M91 long rifle barrels with progressive twist rifling from 31 inches to 21 inches to make short rifle barrels, should steel be unavailable. It would be necessary to turn the outer surface of the barrels on a lathe to achieve the short barrel diameter, but this would be a straightforward process. Other than changing the rear and fore sights and the stock and turning the straight M91 bolt handle down, the rest of the rifle is the same between the two models.
This may all seem farfetched but, it is not uncommon on shooting forums to have the owner of an M91/38 short rifle complaining about the inaccuracy of his rifle, only to discover his barrel has progressive twist rifling, or should I say, the "leftovers" of an M91's progressive twist rifling.
It is also interesting to note that all carbine versions of the M91/38 short rifle are listed as having progressive twist rifling. Were these new rifle barrels, 17 inches long, with a compressed version of progressive twist rifling, or were they simply, once again, cut down M91 long rifles?
Next, we have what is perhaps Italy's strangest move of all concerning the 6.5mm Carcano. The M91/38 short rifle, of Dealey Plaza fame and the most incredible rifle in history (according to WC supporters), began production in early 1940 and ENDED production in early 1941, being replaced by an all new design of long rifle; the M91/41 long rifle.
What made Italy drop the M91/38 short rifle after only ONE year of production?
Mr. HILL. The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car. Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head.
Warren Commission testimony of Secret Service Agent Clinton J. Hill, 1964
Warren Commission testimony of Secret Service Agent Clinton J. Hill, 1964