French Carbines in Bolt Action

[Old Contemptable]

A Bolt Action rules question. My 1940 French Cavalry is armed with carbines. I haven't been able to find any rule specific to carbines nor are they on the charts. Do the Bolt Action rules treat them as rifles, having the same range as rifles?

[fred]

Given how short rifle ranges are in BA - I’d hope that carbines don’t have an even shorter range

[CapnJim]

If I remember right, those French carbines fired the same 7.5mm round the rifles did, just out of a shorter barrel.  Most WW2 carbines did that, save for the US M1, which essentially fired a beefed up pistol cartridge. 

[voltan]

It should say in the army list entry for the cavalry (depending on the editing), but they count as pistols when on a horsey and a rifle when you get off the horsey.

[Freddy]

Most ww2 "rifles" were actually carbines in early 20th century terms, or at least shortened versions of previous longer designs. The difference was in the long range precision (over 4-500m) which the soldiers were not able to utilize anyways (due to the lack of shooting experience and of the tolerances of mass production). It made much more sense to spare some material in the factory and and some weight in the luggage of the soldiers.

[SJWi]

Given the comments made already I would suggest that the French carbine has the same "battlefield effective" range as a rifle. The reality of most battlefields dosen't allow the user of a weapon to go out to the manufacturer's stated theoretical maximum range.

[Old Contemptable]

No horses but a motorcycle squad from the 2nd Light Cavalry Division. Thanks for all the information.

[FramFramson]

Most ww2 "rifles" were actually carbines in early 20th century terms, or at least shortened versions of previous longer designs. The difference was in the long range precision (over 4-500m) which the soldiers were not able to utilize anyways (due to the lack of shooting experience and of the tolerances of mass production). It made much more sense to spare some material in the factory and and some weight in the luggage of the soldiers.

Doubly true given how most combat ranges were found to increasingly take place in distances of 300m or less, and how through the war most armies became increasingly hungry for SMGs.

[voltan]

No horses but a motorcycle squad from the 2nd Light Cavalry Division. Thanks for all the information.

Ahh right, then they do just count as rifles.

[Freddy]

A scoped gun in the hands of a really talented shooter, maybe there it would make sense to add 6" range in the case of a full length rifle. For rank-and-file troops with iron sights it does not matter.
If there were rules for suppressive fire, like other systems add a little more range for each weapon for suppressive fire, also there I would add some minimal extra range for full-length rifles like the Soviet Mosin-Nagant.