Range Report - 1891 Carcano (1896)

[Patrick Chadwick]

BTW, does anyane know how the gain twist in a Carcano barrel starts out and ends up? Don't know how reliable the info I have is but it lists it as starting out at a rate of 1:19.25 at the breech end and finishing up at 1:8.25 an the muzzle and the rifling makes the same transition regardless of barrel lenght.

For the M91: Starts at 578 mm (22.75") with a pitchangle of 2.02 degrees. Tightens linearly (i.e. there is no sudden tightening) to 201 mm (7.9", 5.8 degrees) at the muzzle, over a barrel length of 781 mm.
For the Moschetto M91: Starts with 389 mm (15.3", 3.00 degrees) and tightens to 190 mm (7.5", 6.12 degrees), over a rifling length of only 375 mm.

As you can see, the twist progression is NOT the same for all models, and on the Moschetto it is a fairly ferocious tightening, which is why it is not unreasonable to be worried about the jackets on oversized bullets being twisted right off the core.


Patrick