Testifying before the Warren Commission, FBI expert Sebastian Latona described the Mannlicher-Carcano as a "cheap old weapon."
No, he didn't. Sebastian Latona was an expert, all right...on
fingerprints. He never testified that the Carcano was a "cheap old weapon". You can read his testimony here:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/latona.htm
He testified the finish was poor for purposes of retaining fingerprints. He compared it to a stainless steel revolver in the context of fingerprint retention. Sorry, that's all the
fingerprint expert said about the rifle.
Army expert Ronald Simmons, also testifying before the Commission, said it was not an exceptionally good specimen or one that had been refurbished.
Dude, you really need to read! He didn't say anything like that. Simmons said:
Mr Eisenberg: "Do I understand your testimony to be that this rifle is as accurate as current American military rifles?"
Mr Simmons: "Yes. As far as we can determine from bench-rest firing."
Mr Eisenberg: "Would you consider that to be a high degree of accuracy?"
Mr Simmons: "Yes, the weapon is quite accurate."
http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/pdf/WH3_Simmons.pdf
Now that I review, I see that the Army experts, firing from a bench rest, found the weapon to shoot almost exactly 1MOA at 100Y. Granted, that's from a "mechanical bench rest" and presumably a human shooter would shoot a worse. But still!
When three expert riflemen tested it, he said, "Yes, there were several comments made - particularly with respect to the amount of effort required to open the bolt... And the scope was misaligned so the rifle shot high and to the right.
You forgot to mention: all three shot the rifle scoring hits similar to Oswald's! It's all there in the testimony. Simmons even states that the bolt would probably open easier if one was more familiar with the weapon.
We have no idea if Oswald used the scope or not.
There was also comment made about the trigger pull..."
...that it was a two-stage trigger, like 90%+ of all military bolt action rifles. I own many and they are all two-stage triggers (except the Mosin-Nagant): big, predictable slack, then light second stage.
You haven't read Simmons' testimony and you are completely misportraying it.
His testimony overwhelmingly states that Oswald could have taken the shots, the rifle was fine, and they reproduced his shots easily.
I suggest all armchair experts do the same before voicing ill-informed opinions.
Indeed!
The Carcano is a fair bolt-action rifle that was used to take some non-challenging shots by a competent shooter. Considering it started loaded, cycling the action twice in 8.3 seconds is not that hard.