The Position of the Bolt on the MC

[Mitch Todd]

Just to deal with a couple of points here Mitch.
When the rifle is discovered it appears from multiple testimonies that there are orders not to touch the rifle until Day has taken pictures of it in situ. Day is the first person to actually handle the rifle (so we can discard the notion someone other than Day moved the bolt handle before it was removed from it's hiding place).
Day has this to say about removing the rifle:

Captain Fritz was present. After we got the photographs I asked him if he was ready for me to pick it up, and he said, yes. I picked the gun up by the wooden stock. I noted that the stock was too rough apparently to take fingerprints, so I picked it up, and Captain Fritz opened the bolt as I held the gun. A live round fell to the floor.

So Fritz is the first person to touch the bolt handle after it is removed from it's hiding place and this is what the Alyea footage appears to show.
This is the bit I'm trying to understand. Am I correct in assuming the following:
To insert the clip into the rifle the bolt handle is pulled backwards and the clip is inserted from the top.
The bolt grip is then pushed forward to load the top bullet into the chamber[?]
After firing the first bullet the bolt handle is pulled backwards, the next bullet in the clip is forced upwards, the bolt handle is pushed forward forcing this next bullet into the chamber.
So the situation we see in the Alyea footage is that the third bullet has been supposedly fired, the bolt handle has been pulled back, the fourth bullet in the clip has been forced upwards but has not been pushed into the chamber.

In this scenario how does Fritz eject this live round?

When I watch the Alyea film's sequence of the rifle's recovery, I see events in the following order:

1.) Day reaches down and picks up the rifle by the sling and lifts it up off the floor.
2.) Day turns and presents the rifle, butt up, to Fritz, who takes the rifle from Day.
3.) Then it cuts to Day holding the rifle while inspecting it. This is the scene from which your still image is taken.

The continuity between Day picking up the rifle and Fritz taking it precludes the events in 3.) from occurring between the time that Day picks up the rifle and the moment that Fritz takes hold of the weapon. So the Fritz could have opened the bolt and ejected the round between 2.) and 3.).

It all starts about 45 seconds into this version of the Alyea film:

[Walt Cakebread]

Just to deal with a couple of points here Mitch.
When the rifle is discovered it appears from multiple testimonies that there are orders not to touch the rifle until Day has taken pictures of it in situ. Day is the first person to actually handle the rifle (so we can discard the notion someone other than Day moved the bolt handle before it was removed from it's hiding place).
Day has this to say about removing the rifle:

Captain Fritz was present. After we got the photographs I asked him if he was ready for me to pick it up, and he said, yes. I picked the gun up by the wooden stock. I noted that the stock was too rough apparently to take fingerprints, so I picked it up, and Captain Fritz opened the bolt as I held the gun. A live round fell to the floor. (see the video that Charles posted and notice how the shells are flung away from the rifle. )

So Fritz is the first person to touch the bolt handle after it is removed from it's hiding place and this is what the Alyea footage appears to show.
This is the bit I'm trying to understand. Am I correct in assuming the following:
To insert the clip into the rifle the bolt handle is pulled backwards and the clip is inserted from the top.
The bolt grip is then pushed forward to load the top bullet into the chamber[?]
After firing the first bullet the bolt handle is pulled backwards, the next bullet in the clip is forced upwards, the bolt handle is pushed forward forcing this next bullet into the chamber.
So the situation we see in the Alyea footage is that the third bullet has been supposedly fired, the bolt handle has been pulled back, the fourth bullet in the clip has been forced upwards but has not been pushed into the chamber.

In this scenario how does Fritz eject this live round?

Captain Fritz was present. After we got the photographs I asked him if he was ready for me to pick it up, and he said, yes. I picked the gun up by the wooden stock. I noted that the stock was too rough apparently to take fingerprints, so I picked it up, and Captain Fritz opened the bolt as I held the gun. A live round fell to the floor.

Day did not pick up the carcano by the WOODEN STOCK.      And He said a live round "fell on the floor".... If that live round had been seated in the face of the bolt it would have been EXTRACTED and flung away from the rifle....It would not simply have "fell on the floor"

[Jerry Freeman]

Mr. BALL. What happened after that?
Mr. FRITZ. A few minutes later some officer called me and said they had found the rifle over near the back stairway and I told them same thing, not to move it, not to touch it, not to move any of the boxes until we could get pictures, and as soon as Lieutenant Day could get over there he made pictures of that.
Mr. BALL. After the pictures had been taken of the rifle what happened then?
Mr. FRITZ. After the pictures had been made then I ejected a live shell, a live cartridge from the rifle.
Mr. BALL. And who did you give that to?
Mr. FRITZ. I believe that I kept that at that time myself. Later I gave it to the crime lab who, in turn, turned it over to the FBI.
Mr. BALL. Did you put any marking of yours on the empty cartridge?
Mr. FRITZ. On that loaded cartridge?
Mr. BALL. On that loaded cartridge.
Mr. FRITZ. I don't know, I am not sure, I don't think so.
Mr. BALL. Was there any conversation you heard that this rifle was a Mauser?
Mr. FRITZ. I heard all kinds of reports about that rifle. They called it most everything.

It was handed right to him. Both supervisors eyeballed the crap out of the thing.
They called it what else?...a Daisy Red Rider...a slingshot? 
Fritz made fairly sure that his were the only prints that would be on the bullet huh?
Prime evidence and he couldn't even remember if he marked it?

Mr. BALL. Well, did you ever make any---did you ever say that it was a 7.65 Mauser?
Mr. FRITZ. No, sir; I am sure I did not.
Mr. BALL. Or did you think it was such a thing?
Mr. FRITZ. No, sir; I did not....

By testimony time he had his story down good enough for government work

[Dan O'meara]

When I watch the Alyea film's sequence of the rifle's recovery, I see events in the following order:

1.) Day reaches down and picks up the rifle by the sling and lifts it up off the floor.
2.) Day turns and presents the rifle, butt up, to Fritz, who takes the rifle from Day.
3.) Then it cuts to Day holding the rifle while inspecting it. This is the scene from which your still image is taken.

The continuity between Day picking up the rifle and Fritz taking it precludes the events in 3.) from occurring between the time that Day picks up the rifle and the moment that Fritz takes hold of the weapon. So the Fritz could have opened the bolt and ejected the round between 2.) and 3.).

It all starts about 45 seconds into this version of the Alyea film:

A while back I found every piece of Alyea footage I could about the discovery of the rifle and cobbled this together:

Day turns to Fritz who grabs the strap. Fritz then produces a handkerchief and appears to grab the bolt handle (or around that area) and Day immediately pulls the rifle away from him. After this Day and Fritz examine the rifle together.

[Dan O'meara]

I found this animation quite a few years ago. I thought it might be helpful.

Here is an animated gif I created from the original MP4 file:





And here is a link to the webpage where I found it in case there is any trouble with the gif file and to give the original creator credit for this one:


https://imgur.com/gallery/30ws11v/comment/225371056?nc=1

Thanks Charles, that really is helpful.
In the above graphic the bolt handle is "in front" of the trigger when the bullet is loaded and fired and when the shell is ejected the bolt handle is pulled back to a position where it is "behind" the trigger.
In the grab from the Alyea footage below the trigger is picked out by the red arrow, the bolt handle by the yellow handle. It can be seen the bolt handle is "in front" of the trigger in this situation, corresponding to this moment in Charles' graphic:



It would appear that when the rifle was discovered, three bullets had been fired and the fourth, live round had been pushed into the chamber.

[Richard Smith]

Captain Fritz was present. After we got the photographs I asked him if he was ready for me to pick it up, and he said, yes. I picked the gun up by the wooden stock. I noted that the stock was too rough apparently to take fingerprints, so I picked it up, and Captain Fritz opened the bolt as I held the gun. A live round fell to the floor.

Day did not pick up the carcano by the WOODEN STOCK.      And He said a live round "fell on the floor".... If that live round had been seated in the face of the bolt it would have been EXTRACTED and flung away from the rifle....It would not simply have "fell on the floor"

The "wooden stock."  Now where have I seen that term used to describe Oswald's rifle?

[Charles Collins]

Thank you Charles....It is an excellent cutaway of a carcano being fired ....however it is a bit fast for me....Eventhough I don't need the video to know how a carcano operates ..... Some one who knows how to stop the action could really benefit from the video. If a person could stop the bolt closing just before the handle is pushed down to latch the bolt could see that the cartridge is nearly fully inserted into the chamber.....and if that cartridge was not seated in the face of the bolt the cartridge would prevent the bolt from closing all the way and latching into the ready to fire position.

Here are six still frames that show the last bullet being loaded and the bolt being latched:


























And here is a top view showing six still frames of the extractor in action:


























The extractor appears to work similarly to both of the bolt action guns that I used to own. Have you tried manually loading a bullet into the receiver with the bolt open and letting the bolt push it into the firing chamber? I believe that Robert Frazier testified that this could be done to allow the rifle to hold a total of seven bullets.