My Beretta Civilian Carcano

[cmonster]

Howdy, 13bravo,

I was curious about how much you know about these rifles. I inherited one from my Dad and so far haven't found good specifics for what I have. There is a Wikipedia article for Carcanos, but dates and other information just wasn't as close as I was hoping.

Mine has a 1931 date stamp on the back left of the barrel behind the adjustable rear site. Serial number is on the right side. "Beretta" is stamped on top of the barrel in the same area behind the rear sight.

On the butt of the rifle, there is lettering that says "P. Beretta" and "Cardone V.T." near as I can make out. It's not force stamped into the butt like your pictures show...but it's in the same general area. It looks like it may have been inked or lightly burned into the stock. There is also the same serial number that is on the barrel listed below the Beretta logo/lettering.

It looks like it's missing a cleaning rod that would fit into a hole at the front end of the wooden stock. It reminded me of the way an AK-47 cleaning rod is stuck into the stock in that same area. There does not appear to be any bayonet lugs. There are two holes at the bottom of the stock at the very back where a sling mounting probably was. The cross hatching on the stock where the shooter's right hand would be placed looks like it was done by hand and sort of rough looking.

The wooden stock is actually in fairly decent shape and rather shiny for such an old rifle. The pictures I've seen so far of other models look beat to heck like they've seen much rough use. It's also really short. Just a hair over 35 inches. The barrel is 16 inches to just behind the rear sight and the barrel and bolt together are 23 and 3/4 inches long. It seems like the date, lengths, and most other details of the rifle just don't fit in the descriptions I've seen so far. I haven't seen a caliber marking anywhere on the rifle.

It looks like there were 3 or more different calibers these Carcanos were set up to shoot depending on who used them. I'd love to shoot this rifle and get used to it, but not knowing what caliber it is and if the thing is even able to shoot is a major concern.

If you might have some insight on the rifle or where I can find out some details, I'd be more than grateful. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but I'll be glad to post some here if that would help. That would probably be better than my rambling descriptions. Probably the closest match I've seen is the shortened cavalry model. I'm kind of thinking this one might be one of those civilianized models you mentioned earlier in the thread.

Thanks for posting the great pictures of the model you have. That was great to see one with some basic similarities to mine! Thanks also in advance for any input or advice you might have!

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

"Cardone V.T."

It's actually "Gardone V.T." V.T: stands for Val Trompia. Since the decline of Brescia as a manufacturing area for guns, Gardone is the "hotspot" for guns, being not only the center of a cluster of gunmakers, especially the BP-replica industry, but also the location of the Italian National Proof House

http://www.bancoprova.it/index.php/en/home.html