Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "M38 Carcano: Best Bolt Rifle of World War Two?" video.

  1. The only thing the Italians got wrong in 1891 was the adoption of a too long and heavy bullet. As many others at the time they were too concerned with the performances of the bollet at very long distances, that proved to be impractical in reality. Had they adopted a lighter bullet, they would have had a 6.5 Grendel 100 years in advance.
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  2. Only an inaccurate shot.
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  3. No, it were the JFK conspiracy nuts that had to invent something to say the shot was "impossible". Italian riflemen teams were winning NATO competitions with Carcanos well into the '60s.
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  4. Infact. Folded it becomes an utility knife.
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  5. Because at the time the rationale was declared even in newsreels.
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  6. More the higest number of tanks, ships, trucks and aircrafts. To have the best bolt action rifle in WWII was as important as to have the best shoelaces.
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  7. To load 7.35 ammos in 6.5 rifles s impossible (unless Pvt. Snuffy decides to hammer the bolt in battery). If you load a 6.5 cartridge in a 7.35 barrel you end with a pretty inaccurate shot.
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  8. The 7.35 round was not more powerful than the 6.5 one, it only had a larger bullet, designed to be more lethal, and had a flatter trajectory in the first 200m of flight.
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  9. Why? WWI reports found that 90% of the rifles exchanges were done at less than 100m, and almost the totality at less than 300m. The 7.35 bullet was lighter than the 6.5 and so faster at the muzzle, so it had a flatter trajectory (and the one of the 6.5 was already very flat) in the first 300m, so, to hit a human sized target from 0 to 300m it was enough to aim at the center of the mass. Farther than 300m, the possibility of hitting someone (especially targets that are not standing still) with iron sights is really low even with perfectly adjusted sights.
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  10. A lightweight rifle with a lightweight ammo and a faster way to load the magazine with one more ammo than other designs (the Enfield had ten rounds, but you had to load it with two stripper clips) made the best bolt action rifle of WWII.
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  11.  @ragnarragnarsson3128  91/38 had standard rifling too.
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  12. First, they didn't change calibers in the middle of a war. When the war started in Europe (not in for Italy, that entered in it only in June 1940), they gave up with the change in caliber and started to make the same rifle in the old caliber. Is impossible to feed 7.35 ammos in 6.5 rifles. The opposite is possible, but at least is not dangerous.
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  13. Because 7.35 barrel landings have the same diameter of 6.5 barrel grooves. So, with 7.35, they could have reused millions of worn-out 6.5 long rifles barrels simply shortening and reboring them. Remaining with 6.5 would have required brand new barrels, so it would have been more expensive.
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  14. Because to say it was inaccurate justifies the conspiracy theory. The Army expert that tested it, testified it was as accurate as a brand new M14. That's nothing to write home about for a bolt action, but more than enough to hit a man-sized target at a maximum distance of 80m.
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  15. Actually is YES. Almost all the bolt actions designed after WWII have a one-piece bolt very similar to the Carcano one, while two-piece Mauser and Enfield style fell out of use.
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  16. The 7.62 NATO had been designed after WWII exactly because modern powders allowed to replicate the performances of the 30-06 Springfield in a MUCH SMALLER case. The 7.35 Carcano had to use a 1891 case with a 1891 designed action made for 1891 pressures.
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  17. The Carcano is loaded with en-block clips. You slam the six rounds in the rifle WITH the clip. The Lee Enfield is loaded with stripper clips. You insert the cartridges in the rifle FROM the clip, but not WITH it. That requires more time.
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  18. The "accuracy" thing is just a mith (Carcano, iron sights at 1500m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5xmQGZHc4 ) . Reload is faster with en-block clips than with stripper clips, and already in 1905, examining the battelfields of the Russo-Japanese war, Władimir Fiodorow (the future designer of the Fiodorov Avtomat) noticed that, in mud and snow, Manlicher actions tended to be more reliable than Mauser actions (the passing of the clips and the bottom hole kept the action cleaner).
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  19. The Finnish government requested the sights to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being able to hit a human-sized target from 0 to 300m aiming at the center of mass). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet dropped too much first to reach 200m, so at normal combat distance. As for the rifle's accuracy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5xmQGZHc4&t=1s
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  20. That one was in 6.5. For the rest it was the same rifle.
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  21. Actually energy-wise the 6.5 and 7.35 Carcano are almost identical. Nor the Italians expected something substantial from the bigger diameter of the bullet. To improve the terminal effects the round was aluminium tipped, so to shift the center of balance back and make the bullet tumble into the body.
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  22. Infantry rifles had not influenced the outcome of any WWII battle. For how much they mattered, soldiers could have been equipped with nerf guns.
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  23. The 6.5 never had accuracy problem. they wanted a bullet with a flatter trajectory in the first 300m (the 7.35 was lighter) and with a better terminal ballistic (the 7.35 had an aluminium tip to shift the center of gravity backward so to ensure it tumbling into the body).
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  24. Only an inaccurate shot.
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  25.  @wyattguilliams9472  A combination of effectiveness (because obviously the rifle has to work), ruggedness, cheapness (because in a total war, you need quantity), lightweight of the weapon and of the ammo (WWII soldiers marched a lot), easiness of use and service (WWII soldiers were scarcely trained conscripts).
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  26. The two lugs are plenty strong for the cartridge (they will be enough even for much more powerful cartridges). In case of failure, the handle prevents the bolt to hit the shooter anyway while at the same time making clear that something bad happened AND not requiring a further unnecessary precision machining.
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  27. It was not illegal in any way. It was completely jacketed, and so it was completely legal.
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  28. With any service rifle ammo since the invention of the smokeless powder the target is dead before hearing the bang. All of them are largely supersonic.
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  29. Ballistically it's very similar to the .30-30.
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  30. Yes.
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  31.  @hendriktonisson2915  They were not very happy with the performances of the 6.5 against light armors. The 8mm Breda, with a AP bullet, could pierce through 8mm of steel, so it was good for vehicle weapons. To be used for an infantry rifle however, it would have required an heavy rifle, and the troops would have carried less ammos.
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  32. Heavier, more complicate, slower to reload and with a cartridge less in the magazine for no real gain.
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  33. The Breda 37 and 38 were great machine guns.
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  34. The Volksturmgewehr was heavy.
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  35. Carcano bolts are not serialized. Most likely, AFTER the war, when that rifle had been imported, the importer grabbed an available bolt and put it in the rifle.
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  36. The fixed sight rifle had been made for the 7.35mm cartridge. With the sight set at 200m it had a maximum elevation over the line of sight of 4" at 100m, and a drop of 11" at 300m. It's the short side of an A4 paper sheet. Do you really think it makes a difference on a human sized target aimed at 300m with iron sights? A conscript would have had much more problems trying to estimate the distance to set the sights. With the 6.5 bullet, you have to add a inch more in elevation at 100m and a couple in drop at 300m, still not enough to make a difference. In reality a 300m shot with iron sights had been an incredibly rare occurrence in both world wars. Over 90% of the rifle exchanges happened at less than 100m. In much of the possible battlelfelds, a soldier is not able to even see an enemy standing in broad daylight at 300m distance, because there is something between them. The M16 had an aperture sight set at 300m. The bullet had a maximum eight of 5" above the line of sight at 175m, crossed the line at 250m and was 7" below it at 300m.
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  37. The Finnish government requested the rifle to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being good to hit a human sized target from 0 to 300m simply aiming at the center of the torso). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet's drop was excessive before reaching 200m, so at normal combat range.
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  38. The quality of the Carcanos didn't vary as much as that of the Mausers do. Indifferently from when they had been made, they tend to be less refined than peacetime made Mausers, but better than wartime made Mausers.
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  39. Generally straight pull actions didn't perform very well in mud-dirt (the Steyr Manlicher being a partial exception). The Swiss reported the problem even in practice shooting in "operative" conditions.
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  40. Larger caliber is not more powerful, is only larger.
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  41. The Finnish government requested the rifle to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being good to hit a human sized target from 0 to 300m simply aiming at the center of the torso). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet's drop was excessive before reaching 200m, so at normal combat range.
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  42. Generally straight pull actions didn't perform very well in mud-dirt (the Steyr Manlicher being an exception). The Swiss reported the problem even in practice shooting in "operative" conditions.
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  43. No. They raised the calibre for better terminal ballistic. The 7.35 projectile was lighter than the 6.5 one, so it had a flatter trajectory in the first 300m of flight, but a more curved one past it (due to the inferior ballistic coefficient).
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  44.  @stevec1141  IE you can see here a rapid fire test with Carcano rifle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4c5Zr7hzzA In the '30s Carcano rifles were used in competitions with collapsible targets. 6 silouettes of a kneeling man at 200m. Six hits in 5.5 to 6 seconds were normal. With 4.6-4.7 seconds you had hopes to win win a competition. Someone could do it in 4.2 seconds.
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  45. Finns requested the sights to be zeroed for 100m, and that fucked the entire logic of the fixed sights.
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  46. Yes.
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  47.  @burroaks7  They are called 91/38. After they scrapped the entire idea of 7.35 (because of the beginning of the war), the Italians keep on manufacturing the "Fucile Corto" in 6.5. the vast majority of the "Fucile Corto" are like that of Osvald.
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  48. It does the same job, but it's lighter, faster to reload and has one more in the magazine.
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  49. The Finnish government requested the rifle to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being good to hit a human sized target from 0 to 300m simply aiming at the center of the torso). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet's drop was excessive before reaching 200m, so at normal combat range.
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  50. You know you are not talking of the same model of rifle, and that, in WWII, there were no problems in finding en-block clips (the ammos were packed directly into the clips) and the smaller cartridges were LESS expensive to manufacture?
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  51. The Italian rifle is "Model 1891", and the cartridge had been adopted before the rifle.
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  52. The Finnish government requested the rifle to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being good to hit a human sized target from 0 to 300m simply aiming at the center of the torso). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet's drop was excessive before reaching 200m, so at normal combat range.
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  53. Longer, heavier and more complex.
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  54.  @paulshayter1113  They shoot at 500m, but you can qualify as "expert" even missing ALL the shots at 500m.
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  55. No WWII battle had been decided by the rifle. For what the importance of the infantry rifle had been, WWII soldiers could have been equipped with nerf guns.
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  56. JFK conspiracy nuts: carcanos the worst rifle ever
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  57. The Finnish government requested the sights to be zeroed for 100m instead of 200, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being able to hit a human-sized target from 0 to 300m aiming at the center of mass). Zeroed for 100m, the bullet dropped too much first to reach 200m, so at normal combat distance.
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  58. The Finnish government requested the sight to be zeroed for 100m, so fucking the entire logic of the system (being able to hit a human-sized target from 0 to 300m aiming at the center of the mass). Zeroed for 100m the bullet dropped too much already at 200m, so at normal combat distance.
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  59. Of all the guys trying to fast cycle a Carcano, Ian is the only one i've seen having that problem. Probably he being left handed, and not having familiarity with the rifle, had something to do with that.
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  60. Actually the 6.5 carcano is absolutely great at penetrating anything softer than lead, so wood, sand, bushes... It doesn't penetrate steel light armors that are overmatched by .30 bullets, that's why the Italians switched to the 8mm Breda for medium machineguns.
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  61. They didn't in the middle, but in 1938. Then the war begun (in June 1940 for italy) and they decided to scrap all the 7.35 thing and fight it only with 6.5.
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