Italy's Mannlicher-Carcano: how did such a good rifle get such a bad reputation?

Guns Magazine, August, 2007 by John Sheehan

A brilliant flash of white light erupted in midair over their heads followed instantaneously by a thunderous clap! Mirek's head was throbbing and his ears ringing--a grenade--blood was trickling from his ears and nose. He struggled to regain his faculties. He fought back the urge to vomit ... his eyes burned as the momentary tunnel vision began to gradually clear.

He looked across the emplacement at Vaclav still sitting upright as if still manning the machine gun now lying in the dirt at his feet. Mirek's brain seemed disjointed, incapable of making sense of the horrid scene before his eyes. Most of Vaclav's head was gone from the mouth up.

Another blast behind him snapped him back to reality from the Picassoesque scene riveting his confused mind. "The gun's finished!" Mirck reached for the Carcano carbine leaning against the battered wall of the sandbagged redoubt. He instinctively crouched and rolled across the pit, popping up on one knee next to Jaroslav, who was firing rapidly over the lip of the sandbags. Shouldering his carbine, he raised up to survey No-Man's-Land, his attention immediately drawn to a dozen Austrians picking their way through two gaps in the wire entanglement. Cycling the bolt to chamber the first of the six cartridges in the clip, his right eye found the sights, the front post settling on the chest of one of the gray-clad, steel-helmeted figures. He squeezed the trigger....

Compared to most of the combatant nations in the Great War, Italy was the largest of the "late comers." Riding a wave of popular sentiment favoring the Allies, combined with the same "gold rush" enthusiasm gripping the other countries of Europe in the summer of 1914, the Italian Government formally withdrew from the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary on May 4th, 1915. Three weeks later on May 24th, 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany and Turkey. Influence came from both France and Great Britain in the form of numerous promises of large tracts of Austro-Hungarian territory.

The Allies hoped the opening of a Southern Front would lead to the massive redeployment of the Central Power's forces. All this eventually came to pass, however the "quick victory" would be 3 1/2 long, bloody years and one unmitigated disaster away.

6.5mm Fucile di Fanteria, Modello 1891

When the Italian Army went to war in 1915, it did so with one of the most modern uniforms of the era and with a frontline battle rifle of proven quality and effectiveness. The primary rifle throughout the war was the Model 1891 Mannlicher-Carcano. The Italian-designed rifle borrowed the clip loading system devised by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, the prolific Austro-Hungarian small-arms designer. With its clip-loading system by Mannlicher, the Model 1891 Mannlicher-Carcano derived the second half of its name from the senior officer in charge of the committee to design and approve the rifle. While the M91 borrowed a number of features from other designs of the period, it is still unique enough to warrant more respect than it has received over the intervening years.

Between negative reviews and gun-show lore, the general public's opinion of the Carcano is replete with derogatory remarks regarding everything from the strength of the design to the quality of manufacturing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Model 1891 Mannlicher-Carcano served with distinction through two world wars and while it was unquestionably outclassed by newer and more modern designs during the WWII, from 1915 to 1918 it was an extremely effective weapon and held it's own on every front, from the dizzying heights above the clouds in the Alps to the Western-style trench systems of the Isonzo.

The Carcano has a modified split receiver bridge, a very simple but effective straight-handled bolt and a straight-walled inline 6-shot magazine extending well below the stock. The M91 is loaded in one smooth motion with a single packet containing six cartridges in a sheet metal clip. The M91 Carcano was initially chambered for the M1891 6.5x52mm cartridge, the very first small-caliber smokeless cartridge adopted by any of the major European armies. This cartridge brought with it several distinct advantages when compared to the 8mm cartridges utilized by both Germany and Austria-Hungary.

In addition to the extremely flat trajectory of the 6.5mm cartridge, the Carcano was fed with a 6-round clip rather than the standard 5-round clip of the Austro-Hungarian rifle. In addition, the Italian soldiers could carry a larger amount of ammunition without increasing the weight of their combat load, when compared to the enemies they faced across no-man's-land. Another benefit of the diminutive 6.5mm cartridge was the light recoil and minimal report when the weapon was fired. In addition to these advantages and unlike the Austro-Hungarian M95, the Italian Mannlicher clips were reversible and designed to function in the magazine no matter which side was inserted into the magazine first.