My LGS is getting in five of them today and I'm supposed going to look at them this afternoon. The owner is going to get the "pick of the litter" and will set the next best one back for me.

My only real concern is where the import markings are located. I'm not too keen on receiver import markings like on the later Mosin imports.

Like this:

I've got one from classic firearms a few weeks ago.  The import mark is on the left side of the receiver.  It doesn't stand out much.

I hope not because it sort of a deal-breaker for me if it does.

Is classic the only one with them?

Is that one of the carbines the Roman soldiers carried at the crucifixtion?  I mean it is Italian...

Unless you mean Cavalry?

Well my LGS had seven to pick from. I went with bore condition so I ended-up with a 1936 Terni 1891 Cavalry Moschetto. Nice shiny bore. The cost was $250.00 with a box of Graf & Sons 6.5 Carcano tossed in.

PW import marked. They came from a distributor called Hicks Inc.

They had a couple of early examples (1899 and a 1901) but the bores were right rough.

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Looks solid.  Mine was covered in cosmoline.  

to bad your shop didn't give an enbloc to load the gun.  It is going to be hard to find now.

Single Shot adapter.  Thiere is a youtube review on these.

I had one about 15 years ago, it was beautiful in mint condition. Unfortunately I could hardly hit a paper plate and 100 yards. It was absolutely the worst surplus rifle I’ve ever owned and also the least accurate. I got so pissed off I sold it. I can’t think of a worst rifle

Doesn't look to bad. Would think it would have push button Bayo lock by 36.

I might get one when DK or Buds has them.

I already have a few I squirreled away some years ago.



On the three '36s they had one had the button and two the lever. All Terni carbines.

Here's a '36 Terni set-up with the lever.



Here's a '36 Terni set-up with the button.



I've no idea why they are different.

I need your handguard

Not all had handguards. The very early ones did not but almost all were retrofitted with them.....Maybe you got lucky.

The Italians used progressive rifling.  If you happened to get a rifle someone had cut down to a carbine to raise the price, you'd be lucky to hit a zero target.

The lever-lock was a WWI improvement over the original latch, likely fitted by field armorers.  "Somewhat rare" according to C&Rsenal.    The button came along in the '30's and provides a faster, more positive lock.  

When did the Italians switch to a straight bolt handle on the carbines?  

I don't think they ever did.

I guess there's a lot of mixmaster carbine/TS guns with recycled M91 long rifle bolts, then?  I have to imagine they got swapped at some point during the rifle's service life or during the surplus/import process; I think even the cut-down long rifle conversions (that retained the longer rear sight) had bent bolts.  I could be wrong.  

B/c of the progressive rifling, don't buy a cut-down Carcano rifle unless you want to run really light bullets.

It sounds like his could have been a Calvary carbine, those shouldn’t have that issue.  More than likely it was either caused by a really shitty bore/muzzle or bullets in too small of a diameter

Local LGS also got five from Hicks. Good variety of makes. Picked out the best condition one a 1917 Brescia with visible stock cartouche bore and muzzle pretty good. Metal pretty uniform patina brown. Cost was about the same as ordering a Hand Picked from Classic.

Others weren't too horrible, 1930's Gordona Vil, FNA, Gardone and a 1894 Brescia. Might go back for the 1894 Brescia.

I was back to where I got my carbine yesterday and saw a 1940 Brescia that was still in M91 trim. I figured they would have been in M91/38 trim (fixed rear sight) by then. I guess Brescia must have had a bunch of M91 rear sights to use up.

The 1917 Brescia cleaned up. Nice solid walnut stock with 1917 Brescia Cartouche, stock not renumbered so maybe orig stock. Has nice Accuracy stamp. Rear sight base screws a bit buggered about the only bad for a 100+ old rifle. LGS got them from Hicks.

LOL, I have a nice non import marked one laying around here thats in great shape.  Its a '34 Brescia with the crossed rifle stamp that is rumored to mean 'accurate' which cannot be true.  Whenever I take it to the range we all laugh that those rifles are the reason the Italians lost wwii :)  And yes I have tried different bullets/handloads as well as commercial, I have a 1891 rifle that is a pleasure to shoot and  fairly accurate.  I'm sure there are 'good' ones out there that shoot well, they all cant be as bad as mine.

Truly a horrible gun, but a nice piece of WWII history that isnt a mosin fairly cheap.  Lots of WW2 pics using those rifles.

The rifling in Italian long guns is known as gain twist.

These rifles/carbines are known for the wildly varying groove dimensions of the barrels, which of course contributes to the downright shifty accuracy.

Not target rifles for sure.

Carbines are essentially PDW's for short range engagement and are accurate enough for that. Two of the 91TS I picked up shoot 3-4" at 100yds which isn't too bad considering the crappy sights, less than stellar bores and short sight radius.

Beretta 91-28TS Touching up the crown shrunk 100yd group down from 12" to this and not too horribly high shooting. Group above black. Reused target shots in black not mine.



The 91-24 I got from Buds will key hole PPU ammo holding whole target face, My 160gr handloads never touched paper.

Picked one up for the boy. It’s a Terri 36. Stock matches the barrel numbers. It has FAT 47 stamped on the stock too. Should clean up well I think. Now just trying to find load supplies and dies

I picked one up when classic had a sale a month or so ago. Mine was made in 1920 if I remember correctly. I bought my en blocs from Numrich. I found one place selling ammo.

That used to be a common occurrence, but with these new batches of rifles many are coming in sleeved or completely rebarreled in italy. Many examples including mine should be gain twist cut downs according to past findings.

I would also say make sure you use the correct sized bullets, 6.5 carcano is not your normal 6.5, and they always had bottle nosed bullets.  If you are shooting something that is pointy and bitching about it not hitting the earth if pointed down get yourself a clue and try shooting something that is actually the correct size.  

You need this...good luck in finding it, as far as I know they are the ONLY ones that made the correct bullet both in size and profile for the rifles.

Once you get the correct bullet in them it will shoot on par with everything else in like condition, saying anything else is at best uninformed, or flat out stupid and you should try to educate yourself a bit before opening your pie hole.  I also suggest you look up a bit more info on the carbines, long rifles, short rifles and gain twist and what got what.  You just might learn something

All in all fun guns that will hit baseballs at 100 if the gun is a nice MATCHING and tight gun.  

That all said these guns had the status of being pure garbage for so long, not helped by so many just crap examples being around that had sloppy bolts and just tossed together.  You find a GOOD carcano and you will find one without all the wobble in the bolt, you will find yourself a good gun, hell even the crap examples will shoot again on par if they have the correct sized bullet.

As last I checked bullets are just not there.

Good luck with your example, and remember you are not going to get any thing you would call accurate if you are tossing a golf ball down a fire hose.

Hornady might make the correct bullet for carcano reloading, there are others means.  PPU has two bullets in .268 dia.  I found a company offering .270 powdercoated lead cast bullets.

If you watch Koda49 on youtube, he did a series on reloading for the carcano.

Found some ammo today at a small town gun shop. Now the boy will be able to shoot it

Ammo for these is very scarce right now. I hopped on Ammo Seek yesterday to see what was available and there wasn't a damn thing available in 6.5x52. I'm guessing this huge influx of Carcano's has caused the ammo to become very popular recently. I would also imagine that the Carcano ammo is one of Prvi's seasonal runs like 8x50 Lebel. I was able to snag a 500 round case of Prvi along with another M41 Carcano on a local trader board though.

I picked up one from kygunco last week. Showed up yesterday 2 days earlier than expected. I'm pleased with my purchase look wise now to find some ammo.

The 91/24s are going to have the rifle barrels cut down.  They probably won't be as good shooters as true carbines.

I wanted to pick one up but that very issue of no ammo, is why I changed my mind. To get any accuracy you need to roll you own it seems.