Carcano clip how many bullets has to be in a clip for it to fire

[Bob Mady]

The clip must have one bullet in it to remain in the gun, or it will fall out the bottom. The gun will shoot without a clip, and can be breech-loaded by hand one round at a time.

One would assume that the clip would not be inserted into the gun while the rest of the gun was disassembled.

I read that the clip must have six shells in it or a full clip in order to be placed into the rifle, in other words a clip with five rounds will not load properly.
I do not know if this is true. But if it is true, this means someone fully loaded the rifle, took two or three shots then packed the gun away that was loaded and that it was carried into the TSBD with three or four shells already loaded.

Also if the only remaining shell was chambered, I agree the clip should have dropped out of the rifle.