MOSCHETTO MODELLO 1938
DEVELOPMENT
After the adoption of 7.35 and the new Fucile corto mod. 38 for the infantry, the other carcano models needed an upgrade, since they would still be useful in their roles (mobile troops for the Moschetto and Artillery/support troops for the T.S.) and since their update would be far cheaper and effective than giving a brand new short rifle to every enlisted man.
So the arms industry for the adoption and production of the Moschetto modello 1938 followed basically the same production pattern they used with the Fucile corto.
They took old, mistreated Moschettos, and made the following modifications:
- Rounded their barrel shank
- Drilled and rifled the barrel for the new .300 bullet
- Changed the old battered rear sights to brand new fixed sights zeroed for 200 meters
- Swapped the old front sights with the new Fin-like ones
- Swapped the stock to more properly fit the new features, often recycling former TS carbines with Tromboncino mod.28 stocks
and presto, they obtained a wonderful new moschetto, ready to be used in the new 7.35 supply lines.
Many of these converted Moschettos kept the old bayonet mount and front sight base, sometimes updating the bayonet latch to the new button one, or keeping the old lever and even the older slide tab latch.
All of these guns got the front sight updated to the fin-like one.​
Many Moschetto mod.38 can be found a recycled Moschetto con Tromboncino Stock, with the former holes filled with wooden patches.
PRODUCTION AND USE
Carbines were converted and produced by Terni, Gardone V.T., Beretta and FNA, total production numbers are around the 200k figures.
Conversions cost for these guns was of 71 lira for a complete rehaul, while the price for converting it while keeping it with the former bayonet was just 25 lira. You can clearly see the reason why so many have former bayonet latches and recycled stocks!
The production of this model of course ended along with the whole 7.35 mod.38 project when WW2 broke out.
These guns and the entire mod.38 family were consequently removed from the army 6.5x52 supply lines. Meanwhile, the factories simply switched their production to the same exact guns but in 6.5x52, leading to the Moschetto mod.91/38.
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Most Moschetto mod. 38 in 7.35 were used in rear guard use, with local militias, for training, police actions and similar, but in general kept as much away as possible from the front lines and from the army supply lines.