Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

I found an interesting video on disassembling a Carcano carbine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81cd0TbXq58

This one did not include a scope. 

A major issue is: how disassembled are you talking about?

He says you can do it with two tools: a hollow ground screwdriver, which is in contrast to the standard tapered screwdriver. You need the hollow ground because the tapered widens too promptly, reducing your bite and therefore your torque. 

The other tool you would need is the right size pin punch, but that's only if you're going to disassemble the trigger group. 

Remember: we are only talking theoretically here because Oswald did not order or own a rifle. 

But, from watching the video, I realize that, even theoretically, he could not have done it, not only because he didn't have a pin punch but because it involves parts that are so small that he couldn't possibly keep track of them all. 

But, for sure, he had to get it down to a bare stock. So, here's what it involves:

1. remove the bolt, which requires no tool
2. remove the cleaning rod, which unscrews by hand
3. remove the front barrel band, which unscrews and slides off
4. remove the mid-barrel band which involves releasing a catch. You also have to know that hand guard has to slide forward with it before you can slide that band off.
5. remove the trigger guard assembly by unscrewing two screws. Those screws would have been the smallest parts Oswald had to keep track of and avoid losing. Then he would wiggle out the trigger guard assembly.
6. then he would pop the action out from the stock

And that would be as far as he could go in disassembling the rifle, but he would have to go that far in order to get down to the bare stock.

   
But, I'm thinking he'd have to take the scope off too because it added a lot of dimension. Presumbly, the goal was two-fold: to reduce the length of the rifle so that it would fit into the bag and be totally contained therein and concealed AND to simply not make it look like a rifle. 

Also, this rifle had no sling which Oswald's had. Also there was the 6-bullet clip. 

More to come.