Inexplicable Wounds made by Special Bullets

[Bob Prudhomme]

It would seem that, following the cessation of hostilities at the end of WWII, there would be no way the reputation of the 6.5mm Carcano rifles as being inaccurate could get any worse but, this was not to be the case. Many Carcanos were brought home by Allied soldiers and these included, of course, the sawed off M91/24 TS carbines with the best part of their progressive twist rifling missing. A lot of the SMI 6.5mm ammo of the corrosive primer and poor crimp fame found its way back with Allied soldiers as well.

To make matters worse, thousands of Carcanos began finding their way into North American and European sporting rifle markets. Not only were more of the M91/24 TS carbines now in the hands of hunters, another phenomenon began to occur. Remember the original M91 long rifle with the 31 inch barrel? When surplus dealers began selling these on the open market, it was felt the long barrel looked out of place on a hunting rifle, and these long barrels were cut short in an attempt to sporterize the M91. Here is a picture of the most famous of these:



While debate has raged for years over whether LHO received a short rifle or a carbine, the photo in the ad is of neither, unless the forward end of the stock and barrel has been modified in the photo. This modification might have occurred when the ad was being prepared, and would have not been connected to the assassination.

The rifle in the ad is what is known as a "Suprema"; an M91 cut down in length to make a sporting rifle out of it. The giveaway is the large rear sight. The only carbine close to it is the M91/24 TS seen below. Also being a cut down M91, it shares the large M91 rear sight.



Note the obvious difference in the forward end of the stock and barrel, and that the butt of the Suprema stock is longer.

The shortening of so many M91 barrels for the surplus market put even more rifles in the hands of hunters that were woefully inadequate of being able to give enough spin to their bullets to make them accurate. Add to this the imported SMI bullets with their bad primers and seals, and we can see the Carcano reputation deteriorating rapidly.

Just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, several other things began to take place. Onto the surplus market came four million rounds of 6.5mm Carcano cartridges manufactured by the Western Cartridge Co. of USA that were made in 1954, 1949 or pre-1944, depending on which particular fairy tale you happen to subscribe to. While the cartridges themselves were well made, there was a slight problem with the size of the bullets. Remember, several posts back, I told you that the standard diameter for all 6.5mm calibre rifle bullets was a bullet .264" in diameter, with the exception being the 6.5mm Carcano, which required a bullet .268" in diameter? Well, guess what diameter the Western Cartridge Co. bullets were? Yup, they have been measured with micrometers, and the diameter turns out to be .264", .004" too small for the Carcano. This difference in diameter is enough to drastically effect the accuracy of a Carcano rifle.

Next: Hunting ammo for the Carcano, or 60 years of the wrong bullets.