the mannlicher carcano

[Bob Prudhomme]

"Mr. Lutz. This was a single cartridge being inserted into the chamber and firing into a cotton waste recovery box...backing away from the box, a foot or two, and pointing the muzzle into the box and then firing into it, in order to recover the projectile.
Mr. Edgar. But you weren't firing with clip -- using the clip, were you?
Mr. Lutz. No sir; I did not.
Mr. Edgar. Did anyone on the panel fire with the clip in?
Mr. Lutz. I do not believe so; no, sir.
Mr. Edgar. What was the reason for that?
Mr. Lutz. There were no particular markings that we were able to identify as having come from the clip, nor were we checking for time firing or sequential firing in any way in that respect."

Lutz is lying through his teeth. The 6.5mm Carcano has a Mauser bolt. It employs a feeding system to the camber known as "controlled feed". When the bolt picks up a cartridge from the clip, the base of the cartridge moves upward and into the extractor claw on the face of the bolt. This is the only way you can chamber a cartridge on the Carcano, unless you remove the bolt from the rifle and insert the cartridge into the extractor claw manually. If you insert the cartridge into the chamber by hand and try to close the bolt behind it, the base of the cartridge will meet the extractor claw and the bolt will not close.

This explains why so many Carcanos are seen for sale with broken extractor claws, as people who do not own clips inevitably try loading cartridges one at a time and end up breaking their extractor claw.



Extractor claw (2) seen in diagram above of dismantled Carcano.




Extractor claw on face of bolt of Mauser 98 rifle.