Italian Vetterli (DEACTIVATED)

6,5mm Carcano Vetterli M70/87/15.  This interesting rifle started out as a 10,4cm black powder single shot Italian Vetterli Model 1870, manufactured in Brescia in 1883. In 1915 these old rifles were converted to 6,5mm Carcano smokeless caliber by adding a barrel sleeve and a Mannlicher type magazine (you must have been extremely brave to shoot this conversion!). After WW1 they were used in the Italian colonies and for rear guard duties. This specific rifle ended up in the armoury of the SA Union Defence Forces where it was shortened, deactivated and issued as a cadet drill rifles (somewhere after WW2). Therefore it is safe to assume it was captured in Ethiopia or elsewhere in East Africa during the Abyssinian Campaign of World War 2. The action is welded up and the barrel drilled, but the bolt handle can turn and the peculiar safety switch still works.

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