Armaguerra Mod. 39 (OM-44)

About the Armaguerra Mod. 39 (OM-44)

The Armaguerra Mod. 39 was an Italian semi-automatic rifle designed by Gino Revelli in 1938 and produced from 1939 to 1941 by Societa Anonima Revelli Manifattura Armi Guerra (Armaguerra) at Cremona. It used an unusual short-recoil action with a swinging-block locking system and fed from a 6-round integral magazine loaded with a Carcano-Mannlicher clip. The rifle was offered in both 7.35x51mm Carcano (520 mm barrel, 1030 mm overall) and 6.5x52mm Mannlicher-Carcano (594 mm barrel, 1170 mm overall). Notably, it had no conventional cocking handle; the front sling swivel served that function. Fewer than 300 were built before Italy's wartime priorities and material shortages ended the program, and surviving examples saw limited service through World War II.

A missed chance for Italy: the Armaguerra Mod. 39 might have given the Regio Esercito a modern self-loading rifle years ahead of many rivals, but it lacked even a cocking handle - soldiers charged it by pulling the front sling swivel - and wartime steel and labor shortages strangled production at fewer than 300 rifles before it ever reached the front in numbers.

Armaguerra Mod. 39 (OM-44) specifications

The 'OM-44' designation is used by some collectors/databases for this rifle; the standard published designation is 'Mod. 39'. Around 200 were built in 6.5mm before cancellation; by June 1942 the Army held roughly 100 rifles. Cartridge dimensions for the 7.35 and 6.5 Carcano are approximate.