And another point, Andy: the barrel-sleeves on the "70VV" are sweated into place. If you look very carefully on some rifles, you can actually see a thin film of solder holding the thing in place. Let's assume that they used a cheap lead solder with a tensile strength of about 45000 psi. That's a LOT of square inches at 45K each and every one, holding that sleeve solid. If they used silver-based solder, this can up to 90k per square inch.
I wonder if anybody has ever removed one of the sleeves from a Vetterli. It would be most interesting to see the actual SHAPE of the thing. I'm quite willing to bet that it is not a 100%-straight tube.
Time to get out the internal calipres and the mike, I guess. I have 2 of them here which can be measured. I'll come back on later with breech and muzzle measurements of the sleeve, just add a little more fuel to the fires.
Yes, the media DID slag the Carcanos pretty badly after the Kennedy thing. It was bad enough before the JFK shooting, the Americans judging everything by the FINISH. It was well-known, of course, that there was NOTHING in the WORLD to match an M1903 Springfield (which holds over to this day, although I have a Ross and an SMLE which both have beaten a Springfield)..... and the Italian rifles, with all the money put into good steel, were a long way behind.... and they had beech stocks. Beechwood rifle stocks were junk until the American factories started using them, which is when the excellent properties of beechwood were discovered, very suddenly. To all of this must be added the wartime propaganda element. World War Two is the first war in human history in which the propaganda has not stopped with the conclusion of the fighting. And, in a war, to boost the morale of your own troops, you MUST denigrate the enemy and everything he has, especially his equipment. Remember, you are giving men Sten Guns (at about $12 apiece) and expecting them to have confidence in the things..... when they know that The Other Guys are using much more impressive MP-40s.
But fit and finish were kings. The MG-42 was regarded as clear evidence that Germany was losing the war and knew it. The gun itself was proof: poor fit, lousy finish, stampings used instead of milled parts. It was a junk gun made out of sheer desperation. It could not POSSIBLY last in actual field service. Seems to me that some of those wartime '42s are still ripping out belt after belt.... and the gun itself is still in production.
I have written on this before, but I'll do it again. In 1915, the Carcano was that lightweight, low-recoiling, accurate long-range rifle used by our heroic Italian Allies in their desperate struggle against the evil Habsburgs and their Hun allies. In 1940 (after Mussolini sent Italian troops into Southern France), the Carcano became that useless, cruddy POS that those spaghetti-eating "Eyeties" were using: obviously inferior to anything on our side. Trouble is that only the POLITICS had changed, for the CARCANO itself was UNchanged.
We need to get AWAY from this legacy of WW2 propaganda and start looking at things as they ACTUALLY are. And the Carcano is a pretty decent rifle.
Hope some of this helps.
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