You can view the page at https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...-for-accuracy)
You can view the page at https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...-for-accuracy)
Hi. Your comment about the crossed rifle marking indicating the most accurate rifles is completely incorrect. The crossed rifle marking has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with being more accurate than other rifles. This is a huge misconception in the collecting community. The definitive work on Italian weapons of WWI & WWII was a book by the same name. The author Ralph Riccio did exhaustive work and went to many factories in Italy. He reviewed their archival records and found absolutely no mention of this being an accuracy mark. This mark indicates that it was one of the 10% of the rifles selected at random from the racks of completed units leaving the factory floor. These rifles were completely dissembled, and then reassembled. They were then fired at a 200 Meter target with 5 shots. These shots had to demonstrate a MINIMUM level of acceptable accuracy after the complete disassembly and reassembly. This is simply a quality control inspection mark which is found on 10% of all Italian rifles. See the right side of page 51 of Riccio’s book. If you collect Italian weapons, this beautiful book is a great resource to have!