Few weeks ago I got hold of a a Carcano rifle, Model 1891/41. Having never own one I wanted to find out what makes a Carcano tick. After clearing up the rifle and reading on what is fact and what is not face about the Carcano. I was going to test fire the rifle. As I was checking out the rifle one thing I notice was when the safety is on, if you pull back on the trigger the firing pin moves forward. To see how dangerous this could be, I put tape on the front of the bolt. Repeated what I had just done. The end of the firing pin had push up the tape over the hole on the bolt face. Did it a third time. This time I hit the back of the bolt with the side of hand, not very hard. The firing pin had put a hole in the tape.
At first I was thinking that something is wrong with my rifle. So I took the rifle apart to check every thing out a third time, everything was fine and working right. The only thing I could come up is a design fault in the Carcano's rifles. Pick your model, the fault would be the same. So what is going on? When the safety is in position the only thing holding back the firing pin is the sear stud and bolt stop. When the tigger is pull back the sear stud and bolt stop drop down letting the firing pin to move forward. This is a dangers fault in Carcano's rifles. So one should be very carefully when carrying a Carcano's rifle with a round in the chamber with the safety on. DON'T pull back on the trigger because the rifle could go off.
At first I was thinking that something is wrong with my rifle. So I took the rifle apart to check every thing out a third time, everything was fine and working right. The only thing I could come up is a design fault in the Carcano's rifles. Pick your model, the fault would be the same. So what is going on? When the safety is in position the only thing holding back the firing pin is the sear stud and bolt stop. When the tigger is pull back the sear stud and bolt stop drop down letting the firing pin to move forward. This is a dangers fault in Carcano's rifles. So one should be very carefully when carrying a Carcano's rifle with a round in the chamber with the safety on. DON'T pull back on the trigger because the rifle could go off.