Mas 36/51?

[S.W.G.]

Hello everyone, I've been following this forum for a few months now, but an item I noticed at a local gun shop caught my eye, and I have some questions, so I figured now was a good time registaer an account.

It was a cool (to me) looking bolt-action marked 'MAS 1936 / 51'. It has a fixed rifle grenade launcher and a really neat folding sight that fits flush right behind the front sight. I'm new to guns, so I didn't really know what too look for in terms of condition and originality. One thing I noticed was the the fore-stock wiggled just slightly. Not enough to affect carrying or aiming (I think, I just picked it up and looked it over), but it's a little off-putting to someone who is kind of OCD like me.

Can this be fixed?

I'm interested in this gun as an interesting design and an occasional shooter, I don't really care about matching parts or special serial number ranges.

The store was asking $335 for it. I've tried Google and the like, but I couldn't really find an estimate on its value, so I don't know if this is a steal or a rip-off.

Anyone familiar with these? Any big flaws I should know about? Anything I should look for when I go back in a few days?

Thanks in advance.

 

[marktx]

That's a decent price if you are wanting one... you could hunt around and find one for cheaper but sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

You can probably tighten up the screws to fix the hand guard, if that doesn't work you could probably shim it up a bit. If that fails you can find new furniture for not too much.

 

[R.W.Dale]

Forearm wiggles?

Has this rifle been converted to 308 by the poorly trained monkeys at Century?

If so RUN far far away! They would shorten the barrels at the breach to facilitate the rechambering. As a result the forestock addy ends up being around 1/2" too long. Their ingenious solution!!! Cut that amount off the rear if the forend, RETAINING CLIPS AND ALL!!! so afterwards all that holds the forend on is the front sight jammed against wood. Imagine how well that lasts!


Otherwise when not defiled by the retarded primates at CIA they're an interesting rifle that typically shoots extremely well that no wwII collection should be without

 

[S.W.G.]

Sort of embarrassing for me to say, but I didn't check the caliber.

I didn't examine it under a bright light but I dont remember seeing CAI or Century markings on it, I'll have to check for that.

 

[marktx]

What you wanna look for is what it says on the left side of the receiver.... If it's 7.5 you are fine. If it has an overstamp changing the 7.5 into a 7.62 then it's a problem

I think most of them are Century imports but if it's not converted to 7.62 it should be good to go.

 

[BrocLuno]

Interesting rifle

 

[aka108]

I owned one for about 15 years. It sold for 325 about a year ago and was in near new condition. Interesting rifle since it was built like a tank and rather crude in machining and casting. Accuracy was so-so. Far from target expectations but for military purposes very decent. Most I've seen have been in pretty decent condition. As is said about French military rifles, they were never fired and only dropped once. Ammo can be a bit of a problem. Stuff I had was Privi Partizan I believe. I did get a good price on a bunch of Iraq made 7.5 but if was full of the click/bang or click and no bang stuff. Only reason I sold it was because it went with about half of my over the years collection and I simply owned too much for a old man.

 

[ball3006]

They are nice shooting rifles..

I bought one in unissued since rebuild a few years ago. It feels like a M1 Garand when shooting it. It has a bayonet in the tube under the grenade launcher. Boy, the price sure has gone up since I bought mine. I think I paid 150 for it. I am not sure but I believe the forestock is shimmed...chris3