Liking the Carcano. M91/41

Morc

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
Saskatchewan
Picked up a beautiful Italian Carcano M91/41. Serial numbers match on the stock, barrel and action but the bolt is mismatched. It was made at Terni in 1942. Looks like a previous owner scratched his name into the underside of the butt plate. So if Bud Boyd is here... Hey, I've got your rifle!

Took me about 4 hours to get it cleaned up as it was pretty filthy. The bore required a ton of scrubbing but is in beautiful condition now.

Canpar is dropping off the ammo for it tomorrow!

CarcanoFull.jpg

CarcanoAction.jpg

CarcanoSerial.jpg

CarcanoStock.jpg


Let me know what you guys think.
 
Mismatched bolts are pretty common on 91/41s. Apparently existing bolts were reused in new production rifles, and were not renumbered.
Mine is a smooth shooting rifle. Mine is Armaguerra Cremona.
 
Mismatched bolts are pretty common on 91/41s. Apparently existing bolts were reused in new production rifles, and were not renumbered.
Mine is a smooth shooting rifle. Mine is Armaguerra Cremona.

Yeah, that's the impression I got when reading up on them. Never a big fan of the electropencil.
 
I have 2 Vetterli-Vitali 1870/87/915s, 2 1891 fuciles, 2 TS rifles, 2 Carbines, an Armaguerra 39 semi-auto and a 41.

For my money, the 41 is the best-balanced of them all, the most shooter-friendly of the lot.

Add to that that my 41 likes to make little small tiny groups even with cheap Remington bulk-pack140s (which are the wrong size) and it all adds up to a smile across my ugly mug.

Recoil is mild and the rifle itself is pretty.

What's not to like?

The 41 is pretty much the ultimate perfection of the Carcano system and as such, requires careful consideration. It is a trouble-free design, very rugged and it is very accurate. It is just about perfect for teaching women and recoil-sensitive people the ins and outs of shooting with a "real Army gun"....... and an Axis one at that. It was in production less than 2 years and is relatively rare in the rest of the world. For some reason unknown, a lot of them seem to have turned up here, and most of them in remarkable condition.

In my opinion, they are vastly undervalued and underrated.

Great score!
 
She cleaned up nice - thanks for sharing. The buttplate etching is interesting - you could have some fun trying to track him down, and you're lucky that a previous owner didn't go nuts elsewhere with the electropencil. It was "de rigueur" in the '60's to electropencil your SIN number on all of your valuables - quite a few guns got defaced that way.
 
Haha, yeah. I thought of Bubba the second I read the name too. This Bubba doesn't butcher guns apparently though.

I paid $290. Maybe I got hosed but meh, I'll never sell it.
I like those Carcano rifles,at one time I had a carbine and one virtually identical to yours that I picked up for peanuts in the late 70's.They were in very good shape and nice and solid.They shot fairly well I thought with Norma factory ammo and I geared up to reload for them as I had accumulated a fair bit of brass but never got around to doing much as I got sidetracked with other projects and they kinda got shunted aside.I don't think you got hosed on the price by the way,I see the Carcano clan climbing in price along with everything else these days and at some point in the not too distant future we will looking back at this period as another one of those golden times for several of the milsurp numbers.Besides,if you are happy with the rifle that is what matters, that is the true meaning of value.
 
I have a 1903 Terni M1891 and she is quite nice. I can't wait to try her out at the range against the Mannlicher M95 when the snow goes away.
 
Nice rifle. Curious as to how you can say the bolt is mismatched since none of the "modern" types were marked with a serial number? Careful with the ammo. Hornady makes the correct bullet diameter of .268" and will give you the proper results, that is accuracy.

Incidentally, does anyone have spares for these? I need an foreband lock-spring for a M41.
 
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