Page 92 - GUNS Issue n.01

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1_An overview of the bayonet joints. From the right: the original type with a dual slider, the one with a lever release
adopted in 1916 and the one with a lever release converted to a button. These joints are attached to the front sight
base which is integral with the barrel, a typical feature of barrels with an octagonal chamber. Then we have two other
types, with a lever and with a button, made for barrels with a round chamber. These joints can be recognized because
they are mounted around the muzzle and they have a dovetailed front sight on them.

2_Comparison between two joints with push-button release: the one above with the old-style mounting system for barrels
with an octagonal chamber, the one below with the new-style mounting system and dovetailed front sight.

the postwar revolution
After World War I, the production of the cavalry carbine at the Brescia arsenal continued throughout 1919 with
only a few thousand firearms made and then it finally stopped completely. It was only in 1928 that the Terni
arsenal put into production a small quantity of carbines (about 4,000). In 1931, production ramped up at Fna, with
the same characteristics of the carbines produced during the Great War: bayonet joint with lever release attached
to the front sight base, octagonal chamber and quadrant leaf rear sight fixed to the barrel through two loops made
directly from the blank of the barrel itself.
From 1935, Fna was joined by three further manufacturers: the arsenal of Terni, the arsenal of Gardone and
Beretta. Precisely in 1935, thanks (perhaps) to the ramp up of production following the conflict with Ethiopia, it
was decided to make a substantial change to the production methodology of the carbine’s barrel: the octagonal
chamber became round and the rear sight was no longer attached to the loops obtained by shaping the barrel
blank; instead, the rear sight was mounted on a cylindrical sleeve pressed onto the portion of the barrel
immediately after the chamber.
At the muzzle, there was no longer a base for the front sight, which was instead dovetail-mounted directly onto
the bayonet joint, which had its upper profile modified in order to fit on the cylindrical-conical profile of the
muzzle’s section. The joint was then locked into position using a transversal screw, which passed through a small
groove cut onto the barrel. The bayonet release system remained the lever adopted in 1916, but the new joint was
in no way interchangeable with the old one and, therefore, it was a new design. Why the decision to change the
design? The official answer was not found in the original documentation, however it should be emphasized that
with these modifications the barrel could be almost completely made by turning, thus eliminating the complex
and slow procedures to mill the loops for the rear sight and the base for the front sight. In this way, production
could be considerably speeded up, as demonstrated by the Terni arsenal which, in 1936 alone, managed to achieve
an absolute production record, with about 140,000 carbines made. During first world war a similar result was
never even remotely achieved. However, the new barrel manufacturing method created some problems: the rear
sight had to be moved about 15 mm towards the muzzle, so it became necessary to design a new shorter barrel
cover, not interchangeable with the previous one. The handguard also had to be modified: a cut was made inside
the stock to accommodate the rear sight mounting sleeve, which protruded from the bottom of the barrel.
The most interesting thing to note, however, is that the modification in question was not implemented evenly
among all manufacturers: Terni applied it massively starting from 1935, but there are carbines with octagonal
chambers that were made in 1936 and 1937; Beretta and Gardone appear to have started making carbines
with the new methodology not before 1936, while Fna started in 1937. It is possible that the use of old barrels,
manufactured with the previous process, had been authorized, or maybe some old forgotten carbines were found
and put into service. In any case, all manufacturers have samples with octagonal chambers that have a higher
serial number compared to other samples with a round chamber.

90 Military rifles_Moschetto 1891 cavalry carbine