jmoore, my Carcanos are also tight to close. There is little if any expansion visible on the extracted cases. I've seen more than a couple of the 7.35 calibre models with "green" paint on the trigger/enbloc houseings. I always surmised that was done as a war time expedient to quickly indentify the ammunition it required.
I was told by an old Italianicon soldier, that they had several of them where he was stationed in Africa. He also stated that they had little if any ammunition for them. They were mainly kept in racks and ignored. Maybe, that why they are usually in such good shape when they are found.