While the development of the MAS 49 had given France a very utilitarian rifle that could serve as both for both marksmen and grenadiers, it could still be made better. In large part, the change to the 49-56 pattern was motivated by the move to adopt NATO-compatible 22mm rifle grenades. With the n...

The MSE (Modified St Etienne) version of the MAS 49-56 was developed specifically for international competition shooting by French military teams. The standard MAS 49-56 service rifle was much more of a combat weapon than a target rifle, and the MSE improved several of its shortcomings in that ar...

This is an example of a needle fire conversion of a French 1822 rifle based on the patent of L. Merckelbagh. The conversion was done in Paris, probably in the early 1870s. Other base rifles were converted as well, but like most upgrade conversion systems it does not appear to have been commercial...

As the MAS 44 saw combat service with French Marines in Indochina, some of its shortcomings began to reveal themselves. The rifle was reliable and durable, but it lacked some capabilities, most importantly rifle grenade launching and optics mounting. After a test series of MAS 44A rifles, a new p...

Early in World War One, a small number (less than 200) Berthier rifle and cavalry carbines were adapted to use Chauchat magazines for aerial use. They were employed as defensive arms in observation balloons and as survival rifles in powered aircraft - applications where the larger capacity was of...

The French Army had been planning a semiauto infantry rifle since 1921, but indecisiveness and bureaucracy delayed its development. A major trial was held in 1931, and elements of two experimental rifles were chosen to be combined into what would eventually become the MAS 1944. It was put throug...

The Mannlicher 1894 is one of a small number of firearms designed with a blow-forward action, and also the first of these guns. It was the creation of Ferdinand Mannlicher, a brilliant and prolific Austria inventor who is also responsible for the en-bloc clip concept, very early experimental semi...

When Finland took its independence, the most common type of firearms in the country was the Mosin Nagant - and the second most common was the Arisaka. An assortment of Type 30, Type 35, and Type 38 Arisaka rifles and carbines were left to the Finns by former Russian occupying soldiers. Where did ...

The M1 Carbine was developed to be a personal defense weapon to replace the 1911 pistol for groups of soldiers like drivers, artillery crews, and others who did not need a full-size M1 Garand but did need a firearm of some sort. The idea was that a light carbine would be much easier to use effect...

While traveling through Albuquerque, I was invited to join the New Mexico Milsurps club for one of their long range rifle matches. This is no typical shooting challenge - the course of fire is 20 rounds (after the spotting shots to figure out your hold) on a 21" x 43" silhouette target at 800 yar...

The day has come to do some shooting with an RSC-1918 - and an RSC-1917 as well! The 1917 was the first selfloading rifle to see substantial combat use, with just over 85,000 manufactured in 1917 and 1918 and used on the frontlines by French troops. The 1918 pattern is an improvement of the desig...

Knights Armament introduced their "Assault Machine Gun" a couple years ago, and I had a chance to take both versions (5.56mm and 7.62mm) out to the range recently. The gun is the spiritual descendant of the Stoner 63, but is more directly mades on Eugene Stoner's Model 86 light machine gun. It ut...

The M60 was the first modern American military machine gun, developed from the operating system of the German FG-42 and the feed system of the German MG-42 in the years after World War Two. It has a rather schizophrenic reputation, being loved by many who used it in Vietnam and hated by many who ...

Yesterday we looked at the novel Radial Delayed Blowback system invented by CMMG for their 9mm AR carbines; today we are taking it out to the range to try. It does indeed do exactly as advertised - even in a lighter platform like this SBR, the recoil impulse is significantly less than in simple b...

Today I am out at the range to put the first shots through a completed replica of the French Chauchat-magazine Berthier conversion. The real versions of these guns were made on Mle 1890 cavalry carbines and Mle 1907-15 long rifles, as survival rifles for pilots and observers early in World War On...

After the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War, it was clear to the French military that the rationale for using paper cartridge in the Chassepot was no longer valid - a future rifle would need to use brass cartridges. A competition to design a conversion of the Chassepot to use modern ammunitio...

Émile Driant was a French army officer who served originally as an aide to General Boulanger (and married his daughter). This connection would tarnish his career when politics forced Boulanger to resign (and shortly afterward commit suicide). It became clear that he would never rise much in rank,...

The French RSC-1917 semiauto rifle was a major step forward in arms technology during World War One, offering a reliable and effective self-loading rifle for issue to squad leaders, expert marksmen, and other particularly experienced and effective troops. No other military was able to field a sem...

France fought the Great War with an array of weapons which were all sub-par in one way or another - the Lebel rifle was obsolescent by 1914, the Berthier was a cavalry carbine forced into rifle service, the Chauchat was an emergency wartime design optimized for production volume instead of qualit...

With the end of World War One, it was finally possible for the French military to replace the 8mm Lebel cartridge with a modern rimless cartridge, and they wasted no time in doing so. By 1924 a new round had been adopted, and along with it a new modern light machine gun. Next, the arsenals would ...

The French military had investigated the possibility of a Lebel carbine in the 1880s, but by the 1930s a different set of priorities was in place. In an effort to make some use of the vast stockpiles of obsolete Lebel rifles France had, a plan was put in place to shorten then into carbines for au...

The Model 1866 Chassepot was France's first military cartridge-firing rifle. It used a self-contained paper cartridge on the same basic principle as the Prussian 1841 Dreyse rifle, but was a substantial improvement on that system. The Chassepot fired an 11mm bullet at about 1350 fps (410 m/s), wh...