Italian Carcano Model 41 6.5MM

DOWN RANGE

- Mike Venturino

Of all smokeless powder military rifles and carbines worldwide, it is doubtful if any are held in as low esteem as Italian Carcanos. My personal opinion is that there are three reasons. One is that they were imported into this country by the ton after World War II. They were priced below bargain-basement levels and must have been shipped loose, because many arrived in a condition I would call dingy, rusty and dusty.

The army surplus store in my West Virginia hometown pretty much supplied all my needs in the early 1960s. I got coats and jackets there and wore them everywhere, much to my mother’s dismay. Packs of one sort or another, mess kits and canteens served me for running the mountains. In those days prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968, that store also had a bunch of very rough Italian Carcano carbines stuffed in barrels. As I remember, they were priced around $6.00. My attitude was that if they sold at prices that even I, at age 13, could afford, they had to be so bad I didn’t want one.

My opinion is that a second factor in the poor Carcano reputation is the President John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963. How many times have we heard, “How did Lee Harvey Oswald hit the president with such a hunk of junk as a 6.5mm Carcano carbine?”

And third, for handloaders that did give 6.5mm Carcano rifles and carbines a try, the results were usually dismal. There was a reason for that, which was only revealed to me in the twenty-first-century. It was simple. American 6.5mm bullets universally measure .264 inch. Carcano barrel groove diameters were .267 inch. The only handloader’s bullets meant specifically for 6.5mm Carcano have been made in recent years by Hornady. Oddly, Hornady’s early 6.5mm Carcano bullet boxes were labeled .268 inch. Later ones are marked .267 inch.