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Most of the snotty comments about Carcanos come from: Not-Invented-Here Syndrome ... Italian Junk , Ignorance ... using "crappy" surplus ammo ... Using the wrong sized bullet ... using the wrong sight picture ... expecting a "battle rifle" to be a "target rifle". The same applies to French and Japanese and Russian rifles. Each/all "junk" in some folks' minds (NOT mine).
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FWIW. I am an avid collector of many of those junk rifles. this year alone I have bought a seriously mistreated French MAS36, 2 Mosin Nagant 91/30s(one to sporterize) and 2 Japanese Arisakas(one a type 44 the other a type 99). I love not-invented-here rifles with the exception of the 98 pattern mausers and Schmidt Rubins. both japanese rifles are built like tanks and despite a strange safety switch that differentiates the Arisaka from all other Mauser based actions, they are beautiful in their own way. all have smooth actions and perform just like they did when they were first made.
on the other hand the mosin nagants have the worst tool marks I have ever seen. they look like they were forged with an actual hammer and sickle. I would never call a mosin nagant a 'fine piece of engineering' and that has nothing to do with the fact that they were $125 when I bought them or the fact that they came from russia. I had one of my mosins out at a family outing yesterday for new years and as I passed it from person to person I was starting to get a little sick of having to rack the bolt for all of them because none of them were sure how much pressure was appropriate and it does have one of the stiffest, grittiest actions known to the world of WWII era C&Rs. I would never pay more than $150 for one and once they break $300 I will never recommend one to a person looking to start collecting C&Rs. the value is just not there in my opinion.
my reasons for not wanting a Carcano are based mainly from personal research combined with limited personal experience.
1. proper diameter bullets are next to impossible to find and I do not have the patience to cast my own.
2. every, and I mean every carcano I have played with had terrible wood that felt like a beach bum carved it out of drift wood. dry, shrunk down, banged up, cracked and otherwise nearly irreparable stocks are not something that I can easily overlook when thinking about buying.
3. brass and even pre laoded ammo are difficult to come by. one of my local shops has a little tupperware tray full of surplus 6.5x52 ammo, with the exception of that, I have never seen anywhere that has pre loaded ammo in stock.
4. the price for these guns is around the same as a good enfield or french MAS36. for a gun in that condition with that many problems and logistical headaches to overcome I wouldn't spend anymore than I would on a mosin nagant.
the German rechambered carcanos salve many of my problems with the carcano platform but with reports of reciever failures running all the way from late WWII to a few years back I would never risk buying one.