The M1891 CARCANO RIFLE PROJECT
NO FFL TRANSFER NEEDED on these 120 year old antiquities! They can ship direct to your door in most states.
Italy's 6.5 x 52mm Model 1891 Carcano rifle was their response to the smokeless powder/small caliber bullet revolution in military arms that the French set in motion with their 1886 Lebel rifle. The Carcano's other peers were the German Gewehr Model 1888, the Russian Mosin Nagant M1891, America's Model 1892 Springfield (a licensed copy of the Danish designed Krag-Jorgensen), and the Austro-Hungarian M1895 Mannlicher rifle. Remarkably, the under-rated Carcano would soldier on, virtually unchanged, over 50 years through the end of World War Two. It was a sound design, simple to manufacture, and chambered in an easy to handle caliber.
Incredibly, we found a small cache of these barreled actions for your hobby consideration. They are not import marked so the must have been imported before 1968. These well traveled but restoreable M1891 Carcano rifle barreled actions, with shootable barrels and in many cases complete front and rear sights, were among the first 100,000 produced by Italian military arsenals prior to World War One. By the end of World War One, total production hit 2,000,000 after which comparatively few Carcanos were made. Instead, the existing guns were arsenal modified to newer configurations with shorter barrels. Since these guns were made in 1899, they can ship directly to you as an antique without having to transfer through an FFL dealer.
These barreled actions retain their full length original barrel which actually saw use in both WWI and WWII. The barrels usually have strong rifling, but the bores are dark from corrosive ammo and the the crowns have suffered from steel cleaning rod wear. All will have some degree of surface pitting on areas of the metal, much of it might draw file or sand out and end up looking quite presentable for refinishing. I put each barreled action in a stock and marked the edge with a white pencil so you can see that most of the pitting is under the woodline where it won't show. The upper front portion of the barrel is exposed, and my photographs show a white line that I drew where the upper handgaurd ends and the exposed upper barrel begins. Again, most of the pitting will not show because it's under the wood. Each barreled action was photographed individually, and carefully, so you can see what you have to work with. We've done a basic cleaning on them, but haven't tried to scrape out every glob of grease. The rest is up to you.
These would be a great starting points for a reproduction Kennedy Assassination rifle (if you believe that sort of thing), or project builds for historic reenacting of the 1898 Milan Riots, the 1911 Italio-Turkish War in Tripolitania, World War One and World War Two. Full length M1891 Carcano rifles like these were used by the Italian Army in North Africa and in Europe.
Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle Owned by Lee Harvey Oswald and Allegedly Used to Assassinate President John F. Kennedy (From the National Archives Catalog)
The M91 Carcano's were also used by Greek partisans in WWII after capture from the Italians in the Albanian Campaign. The Greeks even re-chambered some of their captured Carcano's for the Greek 6.5 x 54mm Mannlicher-Schonauer cartridge and since I haven't checked these chambers, I can't say that these guns aren't converted. The Greeks could fire the Italian 6.5mm ammo in their rifles, but the Italians couldn't chamber the slightly longer Greek ammo in their guns. If you ever find a Carcano with a slightly long chamber, it's surely a Greek partisan gun.
Some of the barreled actions in this lot show marking that indicate capture and reissue by the Greek communist partisans, the ELAS, and it's possible this entire lot was among those guns turned into the government at the end of World War Two, before the Greek Civil War began.
These are neat project guns that probably have some amazing history in them.
Additional Info on what we have in stock:
- Brescia 50,000 produced - 2 pcs. in stock
- Torre Anunnziato 148,000 produced - 3 pcs. in stock
- Torino 184,000 produced - 1 pc. in stock
- Terni 1,500,000+ produced - 3 pcs. in stock
- Mida Brescia (Began late 1916) 120,000 produced - None
- ROMA (Began late 1917) 244,000 produced - None
