Mannlicher-Carcano?

[John Corbett]

I still see people using the misnomer Mannlicher-Carcano to refer to Oswald's Carcano rifle. Carcano is a family of bolt action rifles designed by Italian gunmaker Salvatore Carcano in the late 19th century. Mannlicher refers to the feeding system that used an en bloc clip to load into the fixed magazine.
The following paragraph explains the various names used for these Carcano rifles.

"Although this rifle is often called "Mannlicher−Carcano", especially in American parlance, it was officially the Fucile Modello 1891 (Model 1891 rifle).[5] The "Mannlicher" title came from the en bloc loading clips system, having nothing to do with the action itself, which was a modified Gewehr 88 action (which itself was a combination of the action from the Mauser Model 1871 with the Mannlicher en bloc loading);[6] in Italy the rifle was commonly reported by army and civilian sources as "Carcano−Mannlicher" since the action engineer is usually named before the magazine designer's in Italian nomenclatures (like with Vetterli-Vitali and others)."

[Benjamin Cole]

Yes, "Mannlicher" refers to the loading clip.

Some contend LHO's Carcano was actually a "carbine" or "short rifle."

The "Carbine" Label: Because the Model 91/38 (the model LH actually received) was significantly shorter than the standard WWI-era long rifles (cut down from 780mm to 540mm barrels), it fits the general modern definition of a carbine—a shorter, lighter version of a standard rifle.

But when in Rome do as Romans do.

Everyone calls LHO's weapon a "Mannlicher Carcano rifle."

One can fight the tide...

[Charles Collins]

I just wish that the Carcano model 91/38 short rifle was not as popular as it has become as a collector’s gun. It has become way too expensive and hard to find for us regular folks.

[Mark Ulrik]

The FBI forearms experts pretty consistently used the term Mannlicher-Carcano, so it's in a lot of documents and not that easy to get rid of.

On a related note, the pronunciation of Carcano isn't necessarily as straightforward as one might think. I've always put the stress on the second syllable, i.e. Car-KAH-no, because that sounded the most Italian to me, but it seems putting it on the first syllable is actually correct.

[Benjamin Cole]

The FBI forearms experts --MU

I am not much of an expert on forearms, so I will defer to the FBI.

The CAR-ka-noe carbine!

[John Corbett]

I just wish that the Carcano model 91/38 short rifle was not as popular as it has become as a collector’s gun. It has become way too expensive and hard to find for us regular folks.

I priced them online a few weeks ago. The carbines are selling in the $400-500 range which isn't a bad price. Good luck finding a short rifle. That is the one that collectors have bought up and seem to be hanging on to. Oswald ordered the carbine but Klein's had run out of them so they substituted the short rifle for that. I would bet that if one came on the market, the asking price would be at least double, maybe more. A lot of carbines are being sold as short rifles. The key is the barrel length. The carbine had a 17.5 inch barrel while the short rifle had a 21 inch barrel. All the Carcanos I've seen offered are 17.5 inch barrels if they barrel length is stated at all or are the long rifle. I've found a few listings for the short rifle but every one I checked indicated the rifle had been sold. 

[John Corbett]

The FBI forearms experts pretty consistently used the term Mannlicher-Carcano, so it's in a lot of documents and not that easy to get rid of.

On a related note, the pronunciation of Carcano isn't necessarily as straightforward as one might think. I've always put the stress on the second syllable, i.e. Car-KAH-no, because that sounded the most Italian to me, but it seems putting it on the first syllable is actually correct.

In the recently posted Nova program, Luke Haag pronounced it CAR-cun-no which I believe is correct. I've been pronouncing it wrong all these years too. I also learned that I have been misspelling the last name of Luke and Mike Haag for as long as I have written about them. I have spelled it Haas because that was a surname I was more familiar with.