Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "The Italian Workhorse: Carcano M91 Rifle" video.

  1. It doesn't. Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov, the designer of the Fedorov Avtomat, witnessed the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese war, and made some interesting observation. In the mud and snow, Mauser-style rifles had soon their magazines clogged in frozen mud and became single-shooters. Mannlicher style rifles, due to the action being cleaned by the passing of the en block clips, remained operative as repeaters.
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  2.  joe8075  Infact. The Italians had been among the first to realise that long bayonets were a thing of the past. At the same time they adopted the M91, they shortened the bayonets of the Vetterli rifles in their inventory too. From this: https://dygtyjqp7pi0m.cloudfront.net/i/10294/11016278_2.jpg?v=8CE2D78D89B4B00 To this: http://images.lavetrinadellearmi.it/_vda_11974_103261_b_103261_92703.jpg At that point, they had a nice pile of good steel blades cut from the Vetterli bayonets, why waste them? So they recycled them into fighting knives: https://www.kubel1943.it/foto/DSC_0065(1408378130).jpg
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  3. 1891. Il fascismo era di là da venire.
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  4. Cavalry charges were still a thing (cavalry had been made obsolete more by machinegun than bolt action rifles) and the defense against cavalry charges required the rifles to double as spears, so long rifles and long blades, to make them even longer.
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  5. Any FMJ rifle cartridge can do that. It's due to the hydraulic shock. The same that causes the temporary cavity on wounds. In skull there isn't space for the temporary cavity to form, so the result is the explosion of the skull itself.
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  6. Those were intended for volley fire, that's a formation firing to another formation, not to single targets. All the fifles of the time had been built thinking to that possibility. In the end it didn't become a thing because that job had been done by machineguns. At 2km a 6.5mm Carcano bullet still delivers more energy than a .44 magnum at the muzzle.
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  7. They were designed for volley fire, that's one formation firing to another formation, not to single targets. It didn't become a thing only because that work was ultimately done by machineguns. At 2000m a 6.5 Carcano bullet still delivers more energy than a .44 magnum at the muzzle.
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  8. The bolt handle doesn't serve as a locking lug. It's several mm distand from the rear bridge's face. Actually the Carcano barrel, bolt and receiver were made out of Czech "Poldhutte compressed steel" that were better regarded than Krupp steel at the time. That's why Carcano rifles had been converted to fire far more powerful ammos than the 6.5 it was originally designed for without any problem. This is from Dave Emary, Horandy's chief ballistic expert: "The materials used in the Carcano are excellent. These rifles were made from special steels perfected by the Czechs, for which the Italians paid royalties. If you have ever tried doing any work on a Carcano receiver you will find out just how hard and tough the steel is. The Carcano has also received a reputation as being a weak design. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Italians made a small run of Carcanos early in WW II chambered for 8 X 57 JS. The Germans rechambered some Carcanos to 8 X 57 JS late in WW II. These rifles were also proofed for this cartridge. The CIP minimum suggested proof pressure for the 8 x 57 JS cartridge is 73,500 psi. I hardly call this a weak action. The best case I can make for the strength of the Carcano was a personal experience attempting to blow one up for a hunter safety course video. I was asked by the Department of Game and Fish of New Mexico about 12 years ago to help them with this. At the time I was one of the ones ignorant about the Carcano, believing it to be a weak action and easy to take apart. Well, the morale to this story was a full case of Bullseye failed to do anything significant to the action or barrel. We finally had to fill a cartridge case with C4 explosive and detonate it to get anything that looked like what we wanted."
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  9. Both the Fiat Revelli 1914 and the Breda 37 were simple and effective.
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  10. Not Steyr, but Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, that was the designer of the system. He was paid 500.000 Lire (that was a HUGE sum at the time) to use the design in 1891, and that was all. Mannlicher, that was also the designer of one of the initial models of rifles, that were not adopted, repaid the Italians by stealing the design of the test cartridges that were sent to him, only changing them enoug to not infringe the patent. The initial ones, rimmed, became the 6.5X53r (Dutch and Romanian service cartridges) and the rimless ones became the 6.5X54 Mannlicher–Schönauer (Greek service cartridge).
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  11. Italy is the second industrial powerhouse in the EU. When Germany wanted to lift the lockdown, German car manufacturers advised Merkel that they couldn't resume production, because italy was still in lockdown, so they could not receive the Italian made parts of their cars. "some Beretta products are acceptable"? Ask to the Argentine outfitters, whose shotguns fire thousands of ammos a day with sketchy mainteinance, what shotguns they rent, to make sure the customer doesn't have to stop hunting due to a jammed or broken weapon. When there is serious work to do, there is one shotgun manufacturer. The others are amateurs.
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  12. No rifle caliber produces more than 10.000 joules of energy.
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  13. Cock on opening allows to give a second try to an hard primer (open, close, and the fifle is ready to strike the same cartridge) but tends to make the action a little stiffer (because it adds resistance to the opening movement, that's already the harder of the four).
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  14. To counter cavalry charges. When those rifles had been designed, cavalry charges were still a thing (they had been made obsolete by machineguns, not bolt action rifles, but in late 19th century machineguns were still viewed as a rare and exotic thing) and, to counter cavalry charges, the rifle had to double as a spear.
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  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dogali
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  16. It seems to be a first series "Moschetto TS" (Special Troops Musket). It was made for all the troops (IE artillerymen, engineers...) that didn't need a long rifle, and would have been encumbered by it.
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  17.  @edward9674  Infact it didn't. Italy had been one of the first nations to realise that the old sword-bayonet was awkward and unvieldly for anything. The Carcano bayonet was way shorter than others of the period, but witn 30cm (11.8 inches) blade was still too long to be a knife-bayonet. More of an in-between. Some year later Italy shortened the 52cm blades of the Vetterli bayonets in its inventory, that passed from this: https://www.il91.it/images/baionette_1367.jpg to this: https://www.il91.it/images/baionette_1368.jpg that was practically already the lenght of a WWII knife-bayonet. At that point they had a nice pile of good steel blades (the tips of the shortened Vetterli bayonets). Why vaste them? So they made fighting knife out of them. https://www.collezionareexordinanza.it/uploads/products/9_2017-03-12_fullsizerender-6.jpg
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  18. Early ammunitions shown some gas leak problem from the primer (those were among the first high pressure smokeless powder ammos ever made). That groove and matching surface on the bolt, under pressure, act as a further gas seal. In the subsequent years they had never been changed because those were the approved specifications and, after WWI, the round had always been on the verge of being replaced. See: https://www.il91.it/il91.html "munizionamento del '91" (in italian).
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  19. Sectional density. Since the new smokeless powders allowed the bullets to remain lethal at long ranges, it was believed that long range shoots would have became very important in combat. The high sectional density of those bullets makes so that their trajectory is more stable, and that they deliver a lot of energy even at 2000m range.
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  20.  @ScottKenny1978  Unfortunately Prvi Partisan makes excellent brass, but the bullets are .264 in diameter, while original Italian ammos are .267. They are accurate only in rifles with nearly pristine rifling.
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  21. It needed a few years to US to get the production ready for the M14, and it were late '50s.
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