Carcano 38TS pre restoration

I can't get enthused about "improving" an historical artifact. For those of you who find one of these with the Arabic "Taleem" (for training) mark in white paint, they are worth a premium to collectors.

The "improved" examples are only good as shooters. Another tip - since these were assembled post-war by speculators after a fast profit, headspace is often out of spec. as is bore diameter so use caution before shooting one.

Since I've gone this far, hit the rewind switch for the whole story.

After WW2, speculators bought parts remaining in Italian arsenals at spot market scrap metal prices. The workers assembled these on a piece work pay basis. What to do with them then?

Good British Enfields and a wide variety of Mausers were available at bargain basement prices. The Carcano 8mm conversions were eventually sold to Egypt, Syria and the UAR for use as trainers. Recruits used them for drilling, parades & such. Thus the white "Taleem" word painted on the stock.

Typically, these will have excellent bores having been fired very little - if at all. The main reason was that clips were never made. A few pre-production prototype clips have surfaced, but they were never made.

Then there's the recoil angle. With the light weight and stout 8mm surplus ammo, they recoil with vigor.

Gun show BS you will hear about these includes the line they were "made for use by the Volkssturm" in the final days of the war. No.

Kreighoff converted a few during the war as an experiment, but they are well-marked... and worth quite a bit.

The vast majority of these will be marked as made by (or at) the FNA arsenal, but a few can be found made by the Terni arsenal. I have a theory Terni made some up during the war as an experiment but lack definitive proof. I'll discuss that with comparative pics in my next book.

Terni did make a few M41 long rifles in 8mm Breda caliber as an experiment, but those weren't accepted for production.

But I'm getting off track here... I can babble all day about Italian rifles.

I'll shut up now. SW

Great post @NebrHogger I'm not a gun nut but its always good to see some historical & useful facts.

To clear things up, a little more info will be useful...

The model shown is an M38TS (Truppe Speciale) in 8mm Mauser caliber. The positive identification for these is the two added recoil lugs through the stock, the receiver relieved for the longer 8mm cartridge and the letter 'S' on the receiver ring and bolt handle. 7,9 or 7,92 will be seen on the rear sight. Once in a while, the rear sight will be blank. (the work was not done by craftsmen)

Typically, these are seen beat all to heck. It's like the boot camps mentioned practiced a drill called "when out of ammo, throw your rifle at the enemy - hard" and it was practiced often. It's also common for these to have the firing pin clipped off.

Drill instructors were apprehensive about recruits getting ahold of ammo and revolting? Hard to say.

These can be fired using altered 6,5 Carcano clips which will hold 5 8mm rounds. I can post a link of making these using common tools if there's interest.

Also, if anyone has an Italian rifle and would like the marks identified, I will gladly do that. SW

Nice to have a firearms expert here mate, as I have said I am no expert mainly due to my countries strict laws on possessing guns. I do however like guns and enjoy learning about them so any info would be of use to me and I am sure other members too.