The Bourke Small Arms Testing Ground is the closest small arms testing ground to Rome. It is only five kilometers away from the city of Rome and is one of the eight weapons testing sites designated by the Ministry of War.
As a weapons testing site just outside Rome, the Bourque Proving Ground has always been responsible for the main testing tasks of the Army's small weapons.
This time the inspection of the new rifle was also conducted at the testing ground.
"Your Majesty, this is a weapons testing ground established by our army in 1871. It was formerly a military camp in the Papal States. After the unification of Italy, considering that the environment here was very suitable for weapons testing, it was converted into a weapons testing ground.
"
In the test site, General Saraget, who is the Minister of War, is explaining the origin of the test site to Carlo. Beside the two of them, a group of old people wearing military uniforms and general titles surround them. Of course,
Mainly around Carlo, who is the king.
It is pitiful to say that a group of old generals wanted to use political means to resist Carlo's attempt to intervene in the army, but after searching for a long time, they could not find a significant ally.
If you don't accept this offer, you will disappoint the generals.
Since they can't find a significant ally, they have two options. They don't have the guts to change their monarch, so releasing their goodwill to Carlo becomes a reasonable choice. But even if they release goodwill, these above
The generals also had an air of Italian pettiness, and they tried to fool Carlo with trivial matters.
As for the vital military power, these old guys hold it tightly. Even the expired agreement to allow the Imperial Guard to exceed the size of 10,000 people has not been let go yet.
You must know that the Marine Corps has expanded to 15,000 men. These old guys are like ostriches, burying their heads in the soil and pretending not to know.
Even though they tried to fool him with things like inspecting weapons or inspecting the army, Carlo didn't say a word about the practices of these military leaders. Since the old guy dared to fool him, he didn't know who was fooling whom.
Of course, he is also very concerned about the next stage of the Italian army's standard rifle, after all, it is related to the army's combat effectiveness.
As for why Carlo was not brought back from Germany, the predecessor of the Committee 1888 rifle (also called Mauser 1888) made in Hanyang, which was famous in later generations, Mauser Company: This has nothing to do with me. If you weren't trying to fool people, you would actually do it.
Dare it be a rifle that is not from our company, add Mauser to the prefix).
On the one hand, Germany has not yet produced a prototype gun, and on the other hand, Italy does not like this German emergency standard rifle.
Why do I say this? Because this gun is really a German emergency product.
The gun action is improved from the Austrian "M1888 Mannlicher Rifle" by the Spandau Arsenal. The magazine has a 5-round leakage clip (the bullets must be loaded with a leakage clip, and the leakage clip remains in the magazine and cannot be reloaded until it is fired)
) is also improved from the "m1888 Mannlicher rifle". The barrel rifling is basically an imitation of the French "Lebel 1886", and the new smokeless bullet is improved from the Swiss 7.92mm rimless bottleneck bullet.
The reason why Germany is so anxious is because France has developed the world's first small-caliber military rifle that uses smokeless gunpowder. This rifle is far more lethal and ballistic than the Mauser 71 currently equipped by Germany.
/84 rifle, which will bring great tactical advantages to French infantry in terms of accuracy and range.
Faced with France's suppression of its own rifles, this immediately aroused great concern from the German military department. Under tremendous pressure, Germany immediately established a rifle testing committee.
The original plan of gpk was just to improve the existing Mauser 71/84 rifle, and replace the original 11mm black powder rifle ammunition with new smokeless powder and reduce the warhead. But it was not until December 1887 that gpk suddenly woke up to this
Modification did not bring much progress or advantages, so it was decided to combine the most advanced rifle designs available at the time.
This hodgepodge of advanced designs is the Committee Model 1888 rifle.
When a group of people arrived at the shooting range, a table had been prepared, with several unseen guns placed on it, and standing beside the table was a very distinctive middle-aged man. Why do you say that?
Well, because at first glance, I thought this person looked a bit like a yellow race, but after a closer look, I realized that he didn't look like that.
Before Carlo could ask, General Saraguet, the Minister of War, introduced him. "Your Majesty, this is the chief firearms designer of our Turin Arsenal, His Excellency Salvador Carcano. This is also the most outstanding firearm in our country.
Designer.”
Following General Saraget's words, Carlo had an idea. It seemed that this man was the designer of the new rifle.
Carlo did not wait for Carcano to come forward to greet him, but walked up to him in two or three steps. "Hello, Your Excellency Carcano, I warmly look forward to seeing your work appear in the hands of military soldiers."
Facing Carlo's first words, Carcano obviously didn't react in time. "You...Hello, Your Majesty, I am very willing to see this day."
Seeing that Carcano was a little nervous, General Tapea, who was the equipment director, said, "Carcano, let me first introduce the new rifle."
Faced with Admiral Tapea's words of relief, Carcano immediately focused on the state he was most familiar with. He took a rifle from the table and began to explain.
"Your Majesty, please see, this is the new rifle I designed. The gun has a total length of 980 mm and a weight of 3.2 kg. It uses a 550 mm barrel and can fire 6.5x52mm rimless round-nose rifle bullets. The bullet has an effective range of
It is 600 meters, which allows soldiers to have sufficient shooting range. In addition, the gun uses a six-round leakage clip, which can ensure that our soldiers have one more bullet shooting time."
It can be seen that this rifle is designed to cater to the Italian physique, so the weight and length have been reasonably divided.
With Carcano's introduction, even Carlo, who was not a soldier, became interested.
"Let the soldiers try it."
Facing Carlo's words, Admiral Saraget behind him nodded slightly, and several soldiers came over. They picked up the rifles in their hands and started shooting at the shooting target outside. And as they
On the side, several technicians holding notebooks and pens were making various records.
"Pah, pah, pah~~"
Bursts of gunfire made the test site lively. The soldiers not only shot standing, kneeling, lying down, etc., they sometimes rolled their rifles on the ground, or threw them in the dirt and then shot them.
Pick it up and shoot to simulate the battlefield situation.
There are good and bad aspects to these experiments, but they are all realistic representations of the various environments soldiers use them in.
Carlo and the others waited until the shooting was completed before looking at the recorder.
"Reportedly, there were five new guns tested this time, and a total of 500 rounds were fired. Three of them jammed, and one was to activate the primer. In the shooting situation, the gun was better than the current one in our army.
The Vitri rifle currently used meets the standards we have set, both in terms of rate of fire and accuracy."
Facing the recorder's report, everyone including Carlo had smiles on their faces.
"Since this gun is good, how about equipping it on a small scale?"
This is what Carlo is saying, because judging from the use of the soldiers, they have adapted to this gun. It seems that this gun has been tested many times. In this case, what else is there to say? It is a good thing to go with the flow.
.
When facing Carlo, the generals on the scene also nodded in agreement.
"Your Majesty, you are wise."
"Your Majesty, that makes sense."
"Then let's do it according to His Majesty's wishes."
As the generals agreed one after another, it seemed that Carlo was the leader of the army.
So amidst all the compliments, Italy's new standard rifle was decided like this. According to past practice, the gun was called the m88 rifle, but in customary terms, it was called the Carcano m88 rifle.
