Since we are in the middle of a series on French rifles, I figured it would be an appropriate time to take a look at what printed reference books are out there in English on the subject of French military arms. Unfortunately, the selection is very limited, and only two of these are still in print...

The MAS 49/56 was the final evolution of a French direct gas impingement rifle design that nearly entered mass production in 1940, but was interrupted by the German invasion. It uses a tilting bolt to lock (similar to the FAL) and a direct gas impingement system to operate (very similar to the AG...

The M1915 CSRG, commonly called the Chauchat after its primary designer, has a reputation as the worst gun ever put into military service. That reputation, however, is not deserved. It was not a great weapon, but it was a very serviceable gun for its day. The French needed a light automatic rifle...

The Chassepot was the French answer to the Dreyse needle rifle, and also the only other needlefire rifle to see major military service. It was adopted in 1866 and served as a primary French infantry rifle until being replaced by the 1874 Gras rifle, which was basically a conversion of the Chassep...

The mitrailleuse was one of the early types of mechanical machine gun, along with the Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfelt, and others. "Mitrailleuse" was originally a general name for a volley gun - one with many barrels in a cluster, which are fired sequentially (it now means heavy machine gun). The tw...

Colonel LeMat is best known for his 9-shot muzzleloading .42 caliber revolver with its 20 gauge shot barrel acting as cylinder axis pin - several thousand of these revolvers were imported and used in the field by Confederate officers during the US Civil War (and modern reproductions are available...

Jean Huon recently released a new two-volume set of books specifically on the MAS-36. I figured that rather than look at it along, it would be more useful to compare it to the other books available on the MAS-36. So, here's a comparison of the five different books I am aware of with major materia...

To order a copy, email the authors at [email protected] .

This very limited-print new book on Eugene Lefaucheux by Guillaume van Mastrigt and Arie Slingerland is an excellent reference on the Lefaucheux family, the business, and the guns themselves. Author van Mastrigt married into the ...

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The French Army used a single pattern of rifle scope from 1949 all the way until 1995 - the APX L806, which was essentially a German ZF-4. It was finally replaced officially in 1995, with the adoption of the Scrome J8 F1 for use on their FR-F2 sniper ri...

Immediately upon the liberation of France in 1944, the French military began a process of developing a whole new suite of small arms. As it applied to SMGs, the desire was for a design in 9mm Parabellum (no more 7.65mm French Long), with an emphasis on something light, handy, and foldable. All th...

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, France was seriously considering joining the NATO small arms standardization. They were equipped with the MAS 49/56 semiauto rifle at this point, and were looking at three possibilities:

1 – Convert the 49/56 rifles to 7.62 NATO. (This was actually tested wit...

In 1954, the Unique company (MAPF) in Hendaye France rebuilt a batch of 800 Berthier carbines into .22LR caliber for use by the Sûreté Nationale (later renamed the Police Nationale). These were to be used for training and also issued to prison guards. Both 1892 and 1916 pattern carbines were used...

At the end of World War Two, the Mauser factory complex was in the French occupation zone, and more than a few Mauser engineers went to work for the French. Among them were Ludwig Vorgimmler and Theodor Löffler. These two men joined the Centre d’Etudes et d’Armement de Mulhouse (CEAM) and worked ...

With the end of World War Two, it was finally time for France to replace the Hotchkiss 1914 heavy machine gun with something more modern. The German universal machine gun concept had garnered a lot of attention with militaries worldwide, and the French opted to look for just such a design. They w...

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The Chap takes you through how original French Chassepot M1866 paper needlefire cartridges were made, and how he does it. Contains lashings of black powder, and better-than-a-Dryse cartridges!

The Chap takes you through a new metallic conversion kit for the 11mm Chassepot Needle Rifle, which easily converts it to use particular metallic cartridges, and takes it out to the range and shoots it!

The kit is from H&C Collection

Both The Chap and The Bloke try their hands at a rapid fire unlimited mad minute with a MAS 36 in 7.5x54mm French.

This one was rather fun. Also includes a discussion about charger clip automatic ejection at the end.

Bloke and Chap take this well-worn French M16 Berthier Carbine in 8x50R Lebel for a spin. We could say it was fast and smooth, but we'd be totally lying.....

We belive this WW1 piece is in Battlefield 1....

Did you know that the French army had soldiers load 8mm Lebel reduced power gallery cartridges powered by magician's flashpaper? Let The Chap tell you all about them!

Extra keywords:
8x50 berthier flash paper

Monsieur Le Chap and Monsieur Le Bloke shoot a pair of French model 92 revolvers side by side: a proper St. Etienne Mle 92, and a Trocaola-made Mle 92 Espagnol, a Smith & Wesson M&P clone made in the Eibar valley. But which one is better?

So, does the French 7.5x54 MAS-36 automatically eject clips or not? Here is the definitive answer!

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Bloke and Chap discuss the whys and wherefores of how the French 1886 Lebel rifle came about, and why it was obsolete the minute it was introduced. Also digresses into tolerancing, rifle grenades, etc etc etc.

The Chap takes you through his French MAS-36 rifle, and gives it a good wringing out on the range.

Adopted by France for rear echelon troops while front line soldiers were supposed to get a shiny new semiauto, this rifle ended up as a state of the art front line weapon instead. The Germans als...