Italian Misfit

The Carcano Modello 38 Rifle Never Quite Found a Happy Home

- Richard Venola

Given away by Italy and disparaged by the Finnish troops who fought with it, the Carcano Modello 38 was an orphan that fared no better with American sportsmen and collectors.

In 1891, Italy proudly adopted the Carcano rifle, sometimes referred to as the Mannlicher-Carcano, in 6.5x52mm, leading many nations to adopt small-caliber smokeless chamberings. It served quite well through World War I, efficiently fighting robust fellow Europeans. But in 1935 in East Africa, a problem surfaced.

A CHANGE OF CALIBER

The 160-grain round-nose bullets weren’t very effective on the undernourished Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritrians. The stable projectiles simply sailed through their emaciated bodies while causing very little trauma. Just like today, with U.S. troops cussing the M855 “Green Tip” bullet, the Italians found they had a problem they needed to address.

Their solution was to neck out the 6.5 case to 7.35 and introduce a new, re-barreled rifle, the Modelo 38 Short Rifle, also known as the Terni M38. But the magic was in the bullet design, based on the British .303 Mk VII. It had a very long fogive, offering an excellent BCE and flight characteristics. Inside the jacket was a fiendish interior. The first half of the bullet was aluminum, the back half lead. This caused the rear-heavy bullet to yaw immediately upon contact and tumble violently, usually breaking apart. Tissue damage was catastrophic.

Alas, only two years into production, the Italians realized they couldn’t produce M38s fast enough to keep up with wartime demand and reverted to 6.5 in 1940. Italian units fighting during Operation Barbarossa had initially been issued M38s, but these were immediately replaced and the vast majority (+/95,000) of all M38s were sent to Finland.

THE TERNI TWIST