Carcano Modello 91/38 Short Rifle

About the Carcano Modello 91/38 Short Rifle

The Carcano Modello 91/38 (Fucile Corto Mod. 91/38) is an Italian bolt-action short rifle of the Mannlicher-Carcano family, fed by a 6-round en-bloc clip and chambered in 6.5x52mm Carcano. Adopted from 1940, it was a simplified, mass-production wartime version of the Model 38 pattern that reverted to the older 6.5mm cartridge, abandoned the Carcano gain-twist for a constant-twist barrel, and used a fixed 200 m rear sight in place of the earlier adjustable tangent sight.

The M91/38 is infamous as the rifle Lee Harvey Oswald used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963; that specific rifle (serial C2766) was made at Terni in 1940 and mail-ordered with a 4x scope for $19.95 from a Chicago sporting-goods store under an alias.

Carcano Modello 91/38 Short Rifle specifications

The exact constant twist rate is not definitively documented in surviving records. The simplified fixed 200 m sight is a key distinguishing feature from the long M91 rifle. This model is infamous as the rifle type used in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.