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| Article Written
by: Jamie Mangrum |
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Long Rifle 6.5 mm M 91/41 |
| The M91/41 Fucile (Long Rifle) or the
Mannlicher Carcano Model 1891/41 Long
Rifle was manufactured from 1941 to 1945. It is a turn-bolt,
modified Mauser design. The rear sight is adjustable from 300 to
1000 meters with a 200 meter battle sight. The rifle is chambered in
the 6.5x52 Carcano. The Mannlicher designation comes from the fact that the rifle
uses a Mannlicher-type magazine system. |
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I started
doing something lately that I have never done
before. I started trading and selling some of my mil-surp firearms
(gulp!). Just the ones that I had more than
one of, had never shot, and for the most part
could not remember why I had purchased to begin
with. My wife hints that I have some sort of
Compulsive Mil-Surp Collecting
Disorder (New Medical Acronym:
CMSCD).
My theory is that wives will say just about
anything to get you to clean out the garage! My
other theory is that your collections
just compete with space that could be occupied
by her collections. I am afraid to bring
up this theory with her for discussion though.
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Recently a friend of
mine had a bunch of rifles that were
duplicates of others he owned and he was looking
to get rid of them (Like mine, his wife had
probably been speaking with him). I made the
hour and a half drive twice out to his house to peruse through
what he was getting rid of. Each time I was
very pleased to find rifles that I did not
already have in my collection.
On one of the trips I picked up a couple of really, really nice
Carcano rifles. This is a difficult feat in of
itself. You just do not see Carcano rifles
anymore, much less nice Carcano rifles. Like most people I have been spoon fed
opinions by gun writers over the years about Carcanos and they are for the most part negative
opinions. When I finally got a chance to sit
down and clean the two rifles (a Mannlicher
Carcano 91/38 and a Mannlicher Carcano 91/41)
and take my time to really examine them closely, I was really
surprised by the quality of the workmanship. My
favorite of the two is the 91/41 which is the
basis for this range report.
The 91/41 is an
sleek and elegant rifle that reminds me of many of the
great long barreled Mausers. The stock wood is dense and
solid and the overall fit
and finish of the rifle is similar to a high
quality
Mauser. I know, I know....a lot of folks will
say that I am nuts for making the comparison
between the 91/41 and a Mauser. The conclusion I
have come to and will report here is that the
Mannlicher Carcano 91/41 is an excellent rifle
in just about every way and easily stands its
ground when compared to some of the better
Mausers.
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The rear sight is a very interesting and compact
sight model when compared with a traditional
military bolt action rifle's rear sight. When you depress the large round button on the
left hand side, the adjustable sight
can swing up and down the gradient from 300
meters to 1000 meters (figure 3). When
you swing the rear sight all the way forward and
lock it into place it
reveals a 200 meter battle sight (figure 4).
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Talk about a great sight picture!
The 91/41 has an aging man's (self description) dream sight
picture (as shown in figure 5).
It
has an oversized "V" that is sooooo....easy to
focus on and align with the front
sight post.
I tried shooting using both
the adjustable sight as well as the open battle
sight. I found both sights were easy to use and
accurate. |
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I really like the Mannlicher type magazine
system found on the 91/41 and other Carcano
rifles and carbines. The ammo (figure
6) and en bloc clips are a little hard to come by, but can
be found. The clips are loaded with 6
cartridges (figure 6, top right)
at a time. You insert the loaded clips
into the top of the receiver (figure 6, bottom
left) and the empty clip then exits the bottom of the
magazine (figure 6, bottom right).
The one down side of the magazine system is that
it is not designed to be loaded without the use
of the en bloc clip. You can load less
than 6 cartridges into the clip and insert it
into the magazine. The follower will rest
against the bottom cartridge and still function
normally.
Graf & Sons
has recently (over the past couple of years) rolled out Hornady Custom
ammunition for the 6.5 Carcanos (figure 7)
and many other mil-surp rifles.
The Hornady 6.5 Carcano ammo is loaded with a 160 grain bullet and I found it to
be very accurate and easy to shoot (no
excessive recoil). It is
non-corrosive and because it is boxer primed, the brass is reloadable which
is a big plus.
I also shot some Norma manufactured 6.5 Carcano ammo but
found it did not perform quite as well as the Hornady
in my rifles.
The Hornady is priced at around $20 for a box of
20 cartridges. Shooting the Carcano with
commercial ammo can get expensive real quick.
There are few alternatives. Carcano surplus ammo is difficult
to find and when you do it is most likely
plagued with symptoms of aging and improperly
stored ammunition (hang
fires and general poor condition).
Reloading is the most economical
alternative. There is plenty of
load information out on the net and in manuals.
Good
Norma brass is available for around $18 per
20 and $73 per 100. Graf offers 100
brass cases for only $28.99 which is
the best deal.
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| Muzzle |
100 yards |
200 yards |
300 yards |
| 2250 fps |
+4.18 Inches |
0.0 Inches |
-16.42 Inches |
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The trigger on the 91/41 is a very traditional
military two stage trigger. The take up was
smooth and the trigger pulled through at around
7 lbs. Not too bad for a military trigger. I
have pulled far worse. At least it is consistent
and very smooth.
Just an observation: When examining the trigger
with the rifle disassembled I would have to say
that it is a little complex in design and
function for a military bolt action rifle. But
the complexity is nothing when compared to the
trigger design of a modern commercial bolt
action rifle or most military semi-auto rifles.
You can view the components that make up the
trigger in the
disassembly and reassembly instructions here
in the
Mannlicher Carcano 1891/41 section. |
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Figure 8 shows my very first
target I shot at 100 yards.
I set the adjustable sight at the 300 meter
setting. I then aimed at the very bottom of the target, dead
center. I was anticipating that the bullet climb
would be comparable to other long military bolt
action rifles. The range did not have SR-1 100 yard
targets, so I had to use 50 yard targets which
have a smaller bulls eye and are more difficult
to see. As seen in figure 8, windage was already
dialed in and I had only one
flyer at the top of the 8 ring otherwise the grouping was not
bad at all. As I said before, the 91/41's sights are excellent and
even with the smaller target it was easy to
shoot accurately. |
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Figure 9 shows two clips of 6
cartridges shot using the battle sight. Again, I aimed
at the very bottom of the target, dead center.
Note: Both targets (figures 8 & 9) were shot with the Hornady ammo and are representative of the
consistent groupings I was able to achieve.
When shooting the Norma ammo I was unable to keep my groups tight or even in the
black for that matter. The Norma ammo is a much
lighter 139 grain soft point boat tail bullet. |
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A lot of folks over the years including Mussolini
himself have maligned the Carcano rifles. In this I have to admit
that after owning a model 91/41 and three other Carcanos I believe this
opinion to be incorrect. Many studies have proven that the
Carcano rifles when in good working order and with a good supply of
ammunition can be a formidable and excellent weapon. The 91/41 and
most other Carcanos are well made rifles that exhibit old world craftsmanship
and are a fine addition to anyone's collection. The problem is finding one that has
neither been sporterized or thrashed beyond belief. But when you do
find a good specimen you will find as I have that any preconception
you had leaning towards the negative was not true.
On my Compulsive Disorder....I have now gotten rid of
quite a few duplicate and according to my wife
unnecessary rifles. The only problem is I replaced them
with necessary rifles.
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Adobe PDF
Downloadable Version of Article |
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| Article Written
by: Jamie Mangrum |
