The M1870 Italian Vetterli with dust cover open and bolt partially retracted.
        The "hook" protruding from the top and front of the bolt is the extracter/ejector.
        The "keyway" throught the receiver to the rear of the bolt is the bolt stop.  It engages
        the extractor where it protrudes upward to lock the bolt in the receiver.  Removal of
        the bolt is as simple as drawing the key outward to the left to it's full travel (the key is
        locked in by a screw to prevent loss) and withdrawing the bolt.
 
 

        Bolt is unlocked but still closed.  The case hardened piece is the safety which
        rotates into the notch in the stock to keep the bolt from fully locking and the
        firing pin from striking when in the "safe" position.
 

        The early quadrant sight of the M1870.  After 1881, later models were fitted
        with an improved Vecci pattern quadrant sight graduated to 1,200 meters.
 
 

        Reale Fabbrica d' Armi di Torino (Arms factory of Turin)
        Built a year before the intorduction of the Vecci pattern sight.
 

        The "P.P." appearing in an oval on the top of the knoxform behind the sight
        represents "Parti Permutabili" the Italian phrase for interchangable parts, a
        novelty at the time and a direct result of mass production.  The M1870 was
        the first mass produced Italian military rifle.
 

        Back of the lower tang.  Even the smallest parts are marked.
 

        Metal nosecap.
 
 

        Top of the buttplate.
 
 

        Butt stock cartouches; Fabbrica d' Armi di Torino (Arms factory of Turin)