A Carcano and Me

A Carcano and Me

(Disclaimer: This experiment, in no way, was meant as a complete recreation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Its design was solely that of mechanical experimentation with a M91/38 Carcano in an effort to ascertain its functional capacity. Simply put, I wanted to see if an 'average Joe', such as myself, could even fire it under six seconds. This represents my first ever rapid fire sequence with the Carcano.)

For the past 13 years, I have wondered about the world's most famous rifle- CE2766. I had read countless books on the Kennedy assassination and most of them were conspiracy related. Most of them made almost taunting claims regarding the efficiency and reliability of the M91/38 Mannlicher-Carcano. Like many Americans, I felt that the gun was incapable of firing that fast. If Josiah Thompson says so, then why wouldn't it be? Well, I decided to try and find one. I had always wanted one, preferably with an identical scope.

In April of 2002, I stumbled across a website that offered and identical weapon. It was a M91/38 Mannlicher-Carcano, made in 1940 in Terni, Italy....just like Oswald's. I scraped together some extra cash and purchased the gun. I salivated as I drove the 23 miles north to pick it up at the gun shop. My quest was complete. I could finally test the conclusion of so many conspiracy researchers. Were they right? Well, I had to find some ammo for it first. Not an easy task.

I found some authentic full metal jacketed (FMJ) rounds, but they wouldn't fire. It turns out that they have a corrosive Berdan primer and most won't shoot anymore. But, I was able to find some slightly lighter 139 grain FMJ rounds to use. I drove the 20 miles south to some local public hunting grounds void of hunters. I set up a target at about 30 yards and would fire two shot rounds, adjusting the scope after each round. I closed in on the target after about 10-12 rounds, picked up my target and empties. I went home, temporarily satiated that I had finally shot the gun. I took out the empties and noticed a peculiarity on a couple of the empties. A dent on the lip of the casing. More on this in another article. I decided that the next time I went shooting, I would set up a target and see how fast I could hit it using three shot rounds. I couldn't wait.

After another long week at work anticipating my new endeavor, I rounded up my gun and shells, a box, some duct tape and one 14" square target. I drove back to my favorite shooting grounds. I taped the target to the box and stepped off 85 paces- roughly 85 yards. I went back to the truck, loaded three shells into the clip and closed the bolt...ready to fire. I grabbed my tripod and digital video camera and set it up perpendicular to me. I hit the record button, grabbed the gun and went down on one knee. I fired the gun 3 times, taking care to aim at the target each time. I did not use the scope as it had not been sighted in at that distance. I grabbed my camera and took it out to the target to see how I'd done. I had hit the paper target all three times, although one hit was just on the edge of the target. I repeated the exercise 3 more times. I couldn't wait to see how fast I had accomplished the feat.

I ran up to my office computer and captured the first attempt. I trimmed it down and ran it through a frame capturing program that captures at a rate of 30 frames per second. Scanning through the dozens of images, I was able to find the first frame and the last frame that showed recoil. This allowed me to calculated the elapsed firing time. To my immense surprise, I had accomplished it in 4.8 seconds, only .2 seconds behind the fasted time referenced in the Warren Commission volumes. I was extremely surprised. I am NOT a gun expert. Before acquiring the Carcano, I had probably shot less than 20 rounds through any high powered rifle.

(This is the very first time I ever attempted to rapid fire this rifle at a target. The elapsed firing time is 4.8 seconds. The time between the 1st and 2nd shots was 2.2 seconds. The time between the 2nd and 3rd shot was 2.6 seconds. I hesitated on the last shot.)

The accuracy of my first attempt wasn't anything to write home about. However, the target was a 14 inch square target at about 85 yards. However, all the shots hit the target. A picture of the target is below. The shot on the left side of the target just hit the border of the target. It wasn't until after the shooting that I found out that the rifle's iron sights were fixed for shooting at targets 200 yards away. Because of this, the shooter must actually aim a little low to hit the center of the target.

My own experiences with the rifle have led me to conclude that it is extremely reasonable to assume that Oswald could be as efficient with a Carcano. The rifle is accurate enough and efficient enough to shoot 3 times in under 5.6 seconds, the Warren Commissions average elapsed firing time. The scope is not necessary to use as it was mounted on the side of the barrel. This is done so the ejected shell does not hit the scope. By doing this, the shooter can use either the scope or the iron rifle sights.

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