For argument's sake, let' just say there was four rounds in the clip, three had been fired, why couldn't the fourth, live round be in the firing chamber? Because the elevator never scratched the live round? Is that known for certain?
let' just say there was four rounds in the clip, three had been fired, why couldn't the fourth, live round be in the firing chamber? Because the elevator never scratched the live round? Is that known for certain? the elevator never scratched the live round... That's one reason.....If that live round had been the last round in the clip it would have been scratched every time the rifle recoiled when the first three rounds were fired....
why couldn't the fourth, live round be in the firing chamber? The way you are describing the action that live round could have been (
and should have been) in the chamber WITH THE BOLT CLOSED AND LATCHED behind it . Thus the rifle would have been ready to fire , by simply pulling the trigger.
The action of firing the three previous rounds would have been the same for round #4 ( the live round) IOW... After firing of the third round the shooter would have opened the bolt and extracted and ejected the spent shell from that third cartridge, then by reflex action he would automatically close the bolt ....Thus feeding the fourth round into the annular space on the face of the bolt and loading the live cartridge into the chamber and automatically ( reflex action) CLOSING AND
LATCHING the bolt .
IOW...... If that live round had been in the clip as the bottom cartridge, then it would have been scratched by the elevator when the three previous rounds were fired...
( There are no scratches caused by the elevator on the live round ) And the bolt would have been closed and latched .... BUT.....as Tom Alyea's photo shows the bolt is NOT closed and latched. The bolt handle is standing in the exact position it would be if someone had simply dropped the live round into the chamber and attempted to close the bolt. The carcano cannot be loaded( made ready to fire) with a single cartridge by dropping the single cartridge into the chamber because the bolt cannot be closed and latched. The cartridge MUST be loaded into the chamber by being attached to bolt by being served up into the bolt by the elevator.
Notice that the elevator is just pushing the live round up and into the annular space on the face of the bolt.
One other point.... IF the rifle had been loaded with four rounds in a clip,..... when the third shot was fired and ejected the elevator would have automatically fed the fourth round up into the face of the bolt and THE CLIP WOULD HAVE DROPPED OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE MAGAZINE. So ....The clip should have been lying on the floor in the so called "sniper's Nest" ....
The fact that the clip was still in the rifle when Lt. Day was dusting the rifle for prints ( see Alyea's film of Day dusting the rifle ) is simply another point that reveals the clip, like the live round,, was placed in the rifle just before the yokel hid the rifle.
