Price question Italian Vettreli-Vital

[CGSO 17-112]

About five years ago I was given an Italian Vettreli-Vital 70/87/15 chambered in 6.5 Carcano. I've been thinking about getting rid of it and have someone that is interested in my family. I have no idea what a good price for this rifle is. I've seen them for $295.00, $495.00 & $795.00. Out of those three I think the $495.00 looked the most like mine. I haven't finished cleaning the gun up yet as there is some light rust on the barrel, hopefully it will clean up as nice as the bolt and trigger assembly did. Since the barrel has not be cleaned up the only legible markings are the date of original manufacter (1875) and the matching serial numbers on the bolt, barrel and stock. Any insite is greatly appreciated. I'll try to attach pics if they are not too big. Thank you for the help.

 

[James K]

That rifle does not have a lot of value (your $295 figure is about right), but they are very interesting and almost a history of cartridge firearms.

The Model 1870 was a Vetterli-designed single shot rifle, using the 10.4x47R center-fire cartridge. In 1887, most were converted to use a single column magazine with a rather odd shape due to the way the spring worked.

Then, in WWI, when Italy suffered huge losses in men and material in the bitter "forgotten" war in the Alps against Austria-Hungary, the old rifles were taken out of storage and converted again to use a Mannlicher magazine, nearly identical to that used on the Model 1891 Mannlicher-Carcano, and using the same 6.5x52 cartridge and en-bloc clip. A few were reportedly issued to rear area and reserve troops as late as 1943.

Yours is the last version, as the conversion dates indicate.

Jim