That's absolutely where it came from. The Swiss came out with the Vetterli with a tube magazine in 1869, and then Italians adopted them in a single-shot version in 1870 (followed up by the Vetterli-Vitali with box magazine in 1887). When the Italians came out with the Carcano they just used the same system of sights their soldiers were familiar with. Interestingly, due to rifle shortages, in 1915 the Italians actually reissued Vetterlis converted to 6.5mm with a Carcano-type magazine to rear-echelon troops. I'm actually planning on picking one up soon-ish, though I have other priorities at the moment since they're not actually safe to shoot!
|