It seems when French rifles are brought up, instantly will see "dropped once", or "white flag of surrender included" posts, despite what the truth might actually be. I'll leave politics alone here, and rather focus on the self evident, of this amazing self loading rifle. To some eyes it's homely, but to me I love it, and LOVE how it performs. I have owned/shot many of its semi-automatic contemporaries, and IMO and in actual experience with this rifle, it holds its own very well, and is extremely underrated.
My rifle is all original (never refurbished) in the original 7.5x54 round, itself rather avant-garde, as was a lot of French military technology. It is absolutely dead reliable, VERY accurate, EXTREMELY robust and sturdy, its direct impingement gas system well thought out and simple, has a milled slot for a scope mount, has very few parts with dead simple disassembly, has a very functional grenade launcher system, very robust sights, well designed muzzle brake, good but kinda heavy trigger (there is a trick for this), and it handles quickly and feels good in the hand. It takes very well to handloads, where I pretty much stick to 150 grain-ish military ball bullets, IMR 4895, CCI #34 primers and keep velocities around 2500 fps. My wartime MAS 36 gains about 200 fps using the same ammo FWIW.
It is true that because of the firing pins design and weight (MASSIVE), you have to use 'hard' primers to prevent multiple shots on a single pull, but at least in my experience the cases are treated well, and not nearly destroyed as with my Ljungman AG-42. When these rifles first came out, you could get it, and a whole lot of accessories included for about $170! Have not checked lately, but I'm sure like so many Military surplus weapons, prices have skyrocketed. Although not the fault of the rifle, you will read of terrible conversions made by Century to 7.62x51, with some folks saying they got a good one. I have some very detailed .pdf articles about how the conversions were done, and how they should have.
So if you might have never thought about getting one of these fine rifles, maybe you will, or reconsider - They really are that good. I included my rifle with others to give you some perspective of size and appearance. Thanks for your time.
Fourth one down:
Between my Quality Hardware M1 carbine and SVT-40
My rifle is all original (never refurbished) in the original 7.5x54 round, itself rather avant-garde, as was a lot of French military technology. It is absolutely dead reliable, VERY accurate, EXTREMELY robust and sturdy, its direct impingement gas system well thought out and simple, has a milled slot for a scope mount, has very few parts with dead simple disassembly, has a very functional grenade launcher system, very robust sights, well designed muzzle brake, good but kinda heavy trigger (there is a trick for this), and it handles quickly and feels good in the hand. It takes very well to handloads, where I pretty much stick to 150 grain-ish military ball bullets, IMR 4895, CCI #34 primers and keep velocities around 2500 fps. My wartime MAS 36 gains about 200 fps using the same ammo FWIW.
It is true that because of the firing pins design and weight (MASSIVE), you have to use 'hard' primers to prevent multiple shots on a single pull, but at least in my experience the cases are treated well, and not nearly destroyed as with my Ljungman AG-42. When these rifles first came out, you could get it, and a whole lot of accessories included for about $170! Have not checked lately, but I'm sure like so many Military surplus weapons, prices have skyrocketed. Although not the fault of the rifle, you will read of terrible conversions made by Century to 7.62x51, with some folks saying they got a good one. I have some very detailed .pdf articles about how the conversions were done, and how they should have.
So if you might have never thought about getting one of these fine rifles, maybe you will, or reconsider - They really are that good. I included my rifle with others to give you some perspective of size and appearance. Thanks for your time.
Fourth one down:
Between my Quality Hardware M1 carbine and SVT-40
