Small Arms of WWI Primer 071: Italian Vetterli-Vitali 1870/87

Try rly enjoyed yet another C&Rsenal WWI series. Having the Bodeo ( more commercial version made in 1932) , I had to take the gamble and purchased on of the recent Ethiopian 1870:87s ! I must say it arrives in much better condition than expected!! Having seen Meg fire yours and the great technical review and interesting , though eclectic history, I must put together new cartridges! You mention the cartridges Meg fires are your “ handloads”! There is what appears to be a jacketed bullet in the case. Seeing the 5 shots in about 2 inches at 75 yards, I’m impressed! What bullet did you load? Thanks for any resource. Thanks for the work on this!

WRT "When govt's. collapse they tend not to pay their bills," it's hard to believe that at this late date of the 19teens, *any* U.S. manufacturer would take a Russian contract at face value: their history with Colt [Gatling guns], Smith&Wesson, Merwin-Hulbert & other American companies is one fraught with failure to pay for product with the occasional admixture of outright design piracy & companies going under in consequence. Even today, 2 governments and a century later, if I was an American company receiving a large product order from Russia, it would be "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. And in your case, up front!" ::)

BTW, is there any way Patreon can show the links you have in the YT description?

Mae no like the hook on the trigger guard? But I though she hates straight wrist stocks? And at 1:06; but Mae, *is* it better than a stick? ;-D

I'm sorry I can't find the link for the Vetterli resource book? Can you resend?

Loved the episode! I,

Thank you for yet another highly entertaining and educational episode! Regarding your after-credit comment, I (as a non-American) am very happy with your dedication to stick with the shows core content and not branch out into modern politics.!

I've been awaiting this episode for awhile. I have one of the rifles marked with the Cyrillic P, indicating Russian ownership. The rifle also has 'made in Italy' stamped on the barrel. Both markings on the rifle strongly suggest this is a SCW example.

This and the Beaumont are my favorite BP cartridge rifles. A mild forgiving cartridge, a long sighting radius and a huge gee whiz factor when you haul it out on the range among the stainless and plastic guys. For me, the Italians get high marks for putting this rifle forward so early and coming up with low-tech and most importantly, low-cost but effective updates like the safety and magazine.....with charger!

"Vetterli-Vitali: Better than a stick since 1870" needs to be a T-shirt

I am kind surprised of my country army planners ability to get top line ammo for their service rifles: 10.4 x 47mm, the 6.5x52mm, rimless small caliber, the 7.35 x 51mm, low pressure. At the time of their introduction these were advanced designs. Most importantly: how the heck did you get hold of the cartridges?

Great way to start the day! Thank you for your amazing work guys!

I love how the episodes are getting longer and more detailed! You guys are incredible! Thank you!

Truly a wonderful episode!

Thanks for great episode. Some of Swiss vetterli rifles m1869 were smuggled to Finnish activist and russian revolutionaries during russo-japanese war 1905 by japanese. These guns were used during Finnish civil war (kind of service rifle during WWI)...

Another great episode on something until I watched this episode I would have only known as that Italian rifle that was second line use in WWI. I felt May shot a pretty good group considering how old that rifle was, so no smack talk from me about grip, etc.