Question about the rifle

[Pat Speer]

I've been looking for a piece of info about the rifle, but have been unsuccessful. I'd like to know the outside measurement for the rifle barrel--its width from side to side and top to bottom. If anyone knows an official source for this info, or has a Carcano on which they could measure, it would be much appreciated.

Note: I've been told the rifle barrel is .66 inches, or thereabouts. But this didn't seem right. I've seen photos of the end of the barrel in which the open part of the barrel in the middle is clearly wider than the width of both sides of the metal on the outside. And the inside part of the barrel is what? .26 inches? So it seems unlikely the sum of open space and outside barrel could be over .6 inches.

Thanks, Pat

[Ron Bulman]

Well sir, as a point of comparison my 30-30 is a little over 3/4" wide, O. D..  I don't have a micrometer handy. 

[Pat Speer]

Thanks, Ron, But let me follow-up. Is the outer metal on your 30-30 barrel noticeably wider than the gap between? It would have to be, right?

I've seen pictures of a Carcano barrel where the gap is noticeably wider than the outer metal. This leads me to suspect the width of the barrel would be about .5 inches. not .66, as I've been told.

 

[Lawrence Schnapf]

ask Brian Edwards. He has a Carcano very close to the serial number of the one in evidence

[Guest]

Peter Antill from DPUK told me the following so I am just C&Ping

Hi Bart .... the very end of the barrel on my Model 91/38 Short Rifle is 0.512 inches in width, increasing very slightly to 0.522 inches where it enters the foresight. It increases again to 0.602 inches after the foresight (which is held on to the barrel by a ring)

 

If anyone's interested, it was made in 1940 (it also has the Fascist date XVIII), by Beretta at their factory in Gardone

 

I noticed that Pat was asking about the calibre .... even though both my Carcanos (I also have an Model 1891/40 rifle) are marked 6.5 Carcano, they are not actually 6.5mm (0.264in) in calibre. They are 6.8mm (0.267in) .... I have shot Privi Partisan 6.5mm Carcano ammunition and the accuracy was quite poor, because the bullets were not being gripped by the rifling properly. I managed to get some genuine factory bullets and bought a box of bullets by Hornady (that are marked 6.5 Carcano) which are 6.8mm in calibre and the accuracy improved greatly.

 

6.8mm equals 0.267717 inches

Edited February 27, 2018 by Bart Kamp

[Pat Speer]

Thanks, Bart and Peter.

Although I've long thought the palm print supposedly lifted from Oswald's rifle was a fake, I never realized how unlikely it was on its face. The print is contained within a one inch wide lift...which would have to have been wrapped around a barrel barely half that size. This necessitates then that the lift came from both sides of the barrel.

The whole thing just smells. I mean, why not use a smaller piece of tape, or cut the tape down to a more reasonable size?

I think the answer is fairly obvious....because the lift wasn't pulled from the barrel, but from a flat surface, perhaps even a table-top.