Enough Gun, Maybe
No silly, orphan guns aren’t for shooting orphans with. They’re guns chambered for oddball cartridges that didn’t do well in the marketplace. Everybody and his damn dog owns a .308 or a .30-06. How many folks own and shoot a 9.3x74R? Or a .32-20? Or a .348 or a .356? Or even the once very popular .300 Savage, which is a superb short length mid-power round. Or the .41 Magnum or the .380 Super Automatic, two superb pistol cartridges nobody sees anymore.
Wildcats are handmade cartridges that are not available commercially. They are not orphans, even though they are even less popular. The .338 Hawk is an example of a semi-standardized wildcat. It’s a significant improvement over the .338-06, which itself was a wildcat until about a decade ago. You have to make wildcats yourself, or pay a gunsmith. Build the gun, then build the ammunition, which includes forming the brass cases. Lots of work.
Orphans are otherwise good cartridges that just didn’t fit the marketplace at the time they were in it. Esoteric imports, on the other hand, are cartridges that are popular in other parts of the world, but not here. The 9x57 Mauser is an example. It’s a great short range bear killer, and is superb medicine for wild boar. You will almost never see one in the USA. We have the .358 Winchester instead, which is nearly identical in size and performance ... and these days, it too is an orphan.
on 01/19/2011 at 05:27 PM
Jeesh that is a lot to read and that is awesome material. LOVE IT!
I can’t pretend to understand all of it, but if I keep reading I’ll get the hang of a lot of it. I hope. I’d peg this to the top but don’t want to get in your way or interfere in your post. So you stick it there for me. Bet there’s a lot of ppl be happy to see this.
You missed your calling. You could teach this stuff someplace surely.
I guess most of this is common knowledge to folks familiar with the subject. But for a total novice like myself it’s an eye opener, and I bet there’s more then one person out there just like me. And those guns are are really Eye Candy in a big way. Beautiful.Ah ... they shoot corks, right? lol.
Looks like a lot of work Drew but you should try for one a month or maybe 2 a month depending on how much time you have. I know you didn’t put this together in five minutes.
And thanks.OT - sort of - NG did a special - The Lost Kennedy Tapes - was made up of all the local stuff done during the Kennedy visit, assassination and afterward. Seems that Oswald bought his gun for $12.78 by mail order.
Don’t we wish - just another thing inflated by reducing the numbers of companies manufacturing it, turning a high percentage of the country against it, making the purchase of said item nearly impossible in some places and finally the general inflation of caused by a government that spends worse than a bunch of drunken sailors on shore leave!
I like Vermont - least amount of gun (restriction) laws of all the states, highest gun ownership of all the states, allows conceal carry w/o a permit, A state Rep has proposed to tax all non-gun owners for being in violation of the 2nd Amendment, and oh yeah - they have the 3rd lowest crime rates in the country. Wish more states would think so clearly.
Don’t forget that in 1961 the minimum wage was $1.15/hr.
Oswald’s gun was a M1938 Mannlicher-Carcano, a “fucile corto” (carbine) bolt action repeating rifle that was military surplus from WWII. Italy had used the basic design since the 1880s, so when they joined NATO and adopted the standard 7.62 NATO cartridge and the gas operated rifles that fired it, it was time to let those old Carcanos go. They dumped probably a quarter million of them on the international market. Which meant that they could be bought for about nothing.
The cartridge it used was the 6.5x52, a small bore, short length round about equal to the venerated 6.5 Swiss round. Although both the round and the rifle were poo-poo’d in the post-assassination period, the rifle was a robust enough design, and the cartridge was, in hindsight, almost 100 years ahead of it’s time. It’s what we would call an assault rifle cartridge these days, a “mid powered” round. Short length, light weight, low recoil, yet terminally effective out past 400 meters. Compared to the 1000 meter military cartridges of the era - .30-06, .303, 8x57 - it was a popgun. Compared to today’s rounds - the 5.56 NATO and the 7.62x39 - it’s a blockbuster. As issued it used a very long and heavy 162gr bullet (good old sectional density again) which limited trajectory performance somewhat. Modern loadings for modern rifles that use a shorter and lighter pointed (spitzer) 110gr bullet can easily push that bullet to over 2850fps. This makes it an ideal round for modern military concepts if they aren’t locked into the “2.25” OAL” mindset. Alas, the 6.5 Carcano fits into that niche of a niche; it’s an orphaned military cartridge.
Funny that you mention that rifle.
The only gun I own is my grandfather’s rifle from his service in the Italian Army (insert “only dropped once” joke here). It’s the model 1891 carbine in 6.5 that he carried in the late 20’s /early 30’s. He gets out of the army and goes to work for the rapidly expanding railroad system (under you-know-who) and my Fascist-hating Nana insists that they leave and come to America. And he knew better than to argue with her.
When they finally came over in 1936/7 he brought it with him. And from when I was a little kid I was fascinated with it.
Drew, do you have any good gun resource sites that might know something of this rifle by some markings on it?
01/20/2011 at 07:28 AM
