WI: Italy had adopted magazine repeating rifles in 1870?

In 1870 Italy adopted the Swiss designed 'Vetterli' bolt action system for their army's official firearm. To save costs though they left the tubular magazine of the Swiss design out of their model. Which took away the greatest advantage of the Swiss Vetterli, relatively rapid repeating fire. It wasn't until 1887 that Italy took action to adopt a magazine rifle, and it did this by simply equipping the 1870 rifles with a 4-round magazine designed by one General Vitali.

Lets say that the Italians created an equivalent to the Vitali modification from the start. With a box magazine, albeit a novel idea at the time, in order to use less material than what would be needed for a tubular mag. How might this alter Italy's history? Might they conquer more territories?
 
Be like giving Italy a Lee-Enfield...

...Could end up with an eight or ten round magazine. Very bad news for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. Italy might dominate the Balkans if it can find adequate mountain artillery. Where's the TL on this?
 

Deimos

Banned
From the very same article provided by the OP:
[...] Vitali’s design also has the distinction of being the first rifle to use a clip. To load the magazine, a special cardboard en bloc clip of ammunition was inserted. To remove the clip the user pulled it out with a string (I kid you not). The result was the M1870/87 Vetterli Vitali. Most older M1870’s were converted and new production lines of the Vetterli Vitali were produced. Despite the improvements the Vetterli Vitali was behind the ballgame from the very start. The 10.4x47R used the the Vetterli Vitali was quaint compared to the new high velocity, smaller caliber spitzer bullets developed to used smokeless powder. While the Vetterli Vitali held four rounds, most other bolt action designs held five, while the Lee-Metford and Lee Enfield held ten. Finally the cardboard en bloc clip was a joke compared to new metal stripper clips and en bloc clips used by other countries.
The Vetterli Vitali had a short lived career as the service rifle of the Italian Army. By 1891, it was replaced by the more modern Carcano bolt action rifle. [...]
It would not be much of a gamechanger as there is far more to winning conflicts than a better rifle. The French had more modern rifles in the Franco-Prussian war and they did not win.
The only conflict it might help was conquering Eritrea and that might fasten the process of conquering said land.
 
Box magazine are way more expensive then tubular ones, so it would never see widespread use.
How so? I figured that the lifting mechanism and tubular mag of the Swiss Vetterli was more complicated than that of the Italian.
From the very same article provided by the OP:
It would not be much of a gamechanger as there is far more to winning conflicts than a better rifle. The French had more modern rifles in the Franco-Prussian war and they did not win.
The only conflict it might help was conquering Eritrea and that might fasten the process of conquering said land.
That was my main interest.
 
That was my main interest.

Then the title of this thread should have mentioned that, and you should have been more clear.

If your only objective is to make them a more successful colonial power, then they need more than just better rifles. They need to have a "Generals' War" of sorts, by which old, outmoded warfare techniques are replaced with newer ones at the institutional level---and East Africa is their 'training ground'. A better rifle helps, but achieves little if the people using them are bad at their jobs.

I recall an anecdote from the Franco-Prussian War that goes something like this: "Bavarian troops, equipped with repeater rifles, would form up, take aim at the enemy, and immediately expend all of their ammunition---they would then request to be sent to the rear to get more, so as to avoid the front".

The Italian Army in the late 19th century was little better than the Russians or Ottomans, and perhaps worse in terms of training and discipline---just lacking in martial tradition---so giving them a better rifle just makes them a paper tiger.
 
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