Original Fucile 91 had a barrel well over 30 inches, was beautifully balanced but just a bit too long for my taste. I have a couple, anyway, find that they are a good, solid Great War rifle which actually has very little to go wrong with it.
The Model 41 was a late variant and had a simplified (but still adjustable for range) rear sight.... and only a 27-inch barrel. I got one, almost perfect condition, a number of years ago in a multi-rifle deal, paid $56 for the thing, brought it home. Loaded up some rounds one day with 4198 powder because my proper Carcano slugs were 3 years behind at the local shop (and still haven't come in, but Trade-Ex has them AND sells them); thought was that the quick powder would help the flatbase Remington bulk-pack slugs to obturate if necessary. Took the thing out to the range and it shot an INCH at 100 yards, which absolutely wrecked my day because it left me NOTHING to b*tch about. Turned out that the bore on my 41 is very tight and handles the .264 slugs very well indeed.
On your Fascist-period Carcanos, notice that thre are TWO dates on the things, one using the standard calendar (1941) and the other using the Fascist calendar (a Roman numeral between I and XXII) to indicate the year since the Refounding of the Roman Empire by Benito Mussolini. Evviva Italia! Viva Duce!
I don't know what the deuce (or perhaps Duce) that last bit was about: Miss Vetterli mouthing off again, proud of her XVI (1938) re-re-rebuild marking, I guess!
But they are a fine ight rifle, and light is the keyword: the entire action is made no larger than necessary for the small Italian cartridge and it REALLY saves weight while keeping all the strength it possibly could need.
Given the insignifricant cost of wrecked Carcani, I have thought often about converting one to 7.62x45..... or perhaps to a 7x45 on the same case..... or even a 6x45 for a lightweight medium-range varmint rifle. Ammo would be strictly a handloading proposition, but you can pretty much say that for any Carcano. Components, fortunately, are MUCH easier to source today than they ere 40 years ago.
Lovely group of rifles above, though if you run into one from WWI, it will stand out because of the darker stock (often Italian Walnut).
Thanks for showing.
