help to id a rifle i was told was a carcano

[thumpersnoopy]

ya so I that's why I said I was kinda lost in trying to id it

[Aragorn243]

To help you out some, I believe it was made at FNA Brescia in 1942. I can't see the FNA clearly but the FNA mark is on the underside of the receiver. I don't see anything else that can be more helpful.

[thumpersnoopy]

how good is that round ?

[Aragorn243]

It isn't the original caliber of the rifle so the barrel chamber was changed. From what I hear, it's a very good round and ammo is available and it isn't expensive. Privi Partisan makes it.

[Patrick Chadwick]

...I must respectfully diagree with

so a few weeks ago I picked up a rifle at a price I could not pass up...

Sometimes it is better to pass up on apparent bargains. The sad object in the photos appears to have once been a 1942 Terni-made M91/41. In "Il Novantuno" by Wolfgang Riepe, P. 230, there is a list showing that in 1942 Terni produced 70,000 M91/41s with the serial numbers Txxxx - Zxxxx. The leading letter appears to be a scruffy X.

... only problem was a broken bolt handle...

ONLY? The squared-off root if the bolt handle serves as a safety lug. So if the handle is altered, the original root MUST be left in place. Others will doubtless have different opinions, but it looks to me as if EITHER the original bolt handle was replaced by an incompetent welder who cut off the root and produced a "dry joint" which has now failed OR, on the other hand, it was the original bolt handle that developed the shear crack. Only a hands-on inspection can tell, but it is quite possible, since the squared-off root of the bolt handle also serves as a safety lug, that the locking lugs were softened and so badly set back that the recoil was being passed on (at least partially) to the root of the bolt handle, creating an enormous shear load that caused the dubious weld to crack and fail. I would not want to put my face behind that bolt and fire that rifle.

IMHO it is a dangerous dud.

[tiriaq]

A rather ambitious specimen of amateur gunsmithing.
Take a Carcano. Alter it for a detachable magazine. Alter the safety for use with a scope. Install a Weaver sidemount. Change the caliber to 6.5x54MS. Use the stump of the original barrel to make a bushing, set the MS barrel into the bushing. This was a standard on the Carcanos altered by Cooey in Canada for sale through Eatons. A '91 has gain twist rifling, so shortening the barrel from the front isn't a good idea. Sporterize the stock. Then there is the bolt handle. This part of the job was really botched. A properly altered handle should not fall off if dropped.
A replacement bolt body could be obtained, and the handle properly converted. This would be preferable to tryng to fix what is there.
Then there is the issue of headspacing. Heaven only knows if the rebarrelling, chambering and headspacing was done properly in the first place.

[thumpersnoopy]

its going to a gunsmith here in texas to look at and see about new bolt body and headspacing the break in the bolt handle was seems to be a crappy weld. seen air bubbles in the metal almost thinking jb weld was used not a welder

[DocAV]

The Trigger guard and floorplate is typical of the Italian-Made Japanese Navy "Type I " (as in Italy) Ordered by Japan and delivered in 1939-40 by Ship and then Submarine.

They used a Modified Carcano Action with an Arisaka (Mauser style) Magazine, and furniture for T30 Bayonet. Very well made rifles (Beretta, Terni, and FNAB); some 60,000 delivered.

If it is an 6,5x54MS ( common in Canada) then that would make it a Local Conversion.
Shame, though, one less for collectors.

Make a good deer rifle of it.

Doc AV

[thumpersnoopy]

ya that looks like whats its gunna be is a deer rifle

[iac]

Thumper,
How does it shoot ?!