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Picture Page December 2014 Not your everyday 6.5 Carcano cartridge...........
This box of 6.5 mm Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition was made under contract
by the Western Cartridge Company for use in the Italian Carcano rifle.
Various sources indicate production during WW2 to as late as 1954 for Italy,
Greece and even the CIA. A spokesman for Western advised the Warren
Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy that the
ammunition was made for the Italian government during WW2, but this seems
unlikely as we were at war with Italy at that time, so the 1954 production
date seems more plausible. The ammunition was produced in four lots of one
million rounds each; lot numbers 6000, 6001, 6002, and 6003 were assigned
and these numbers will be found stamped on the boxes when they are
encountered. Beginning about 1962, a large quantity of the
. Unfortunately, the company name on the box isn't helpful in pinning the production date down any more accurately. It indicates that production occurred between 1944, when Olin Industries, Inc was added to the name and 1954, when the name was changed to reflect the acquisition of the Mathieson Chemical Corporation by Olin, at which time Western became a Division of Olin-Mathieson Chemical Coorporation.. . .. .
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ammunition found its way
back to the United States as military surplus, along with many of the
Carcano Rifles for which it was made. Potomac Arms of Alexandria,
Virginia and Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago were two of the retailers who
sold these guns and ammunition. It was determined during the Warren
Commission proceedings that Lee Harvey Oswald purchased from Klein's
Sporting Goods in March of 1963 the Carcano rifle that was found in the
Texas school book depository building in Dallas. Along with the rifle were a
number of these WCC headstamped 6.5mm cartridges and spent casings.