Need help to ID old military gun
My neighbor dropped off a old gun for me to ID and I have never seen anything like it. It is a bolt action with a heavy wood stock that is split and covers the top and bottom of the barrel. The receiver has MAS on the side of it with M le 1936-51 (the le is small and underlined). IT is a clip feed gun but the really strange thing is at the end of the wood stock near the barrel end is a screw mechinism that moves a barrel band in and out that has numbers on it from 10 to 38 by 2's. Attached to the band that goes around the barrel is a flat pieace of steel that goes inside of the wood stock when screwed in and it has these numbers on it. Could it be a geranade launcher of some other type of launcher? All help you can give me would be greatly appreached. Thank you
0
-
french MAS 36 chambered probally for 7.5 x 54 french,however some of these were converted to 7.62 nato.someone else can give you more info,but that is the basic answer. 0 -
The rifle is indeed a French MAS-36. As you guessed the thing on the front end is a sight for the geranade launcher. If you notice the end of the barrel has rings machined into it, this is the geranade launcher. When you slide the geranade on to the barrel the number of rings covered determined the distance that the geranade will be thrown. There is also a bayonet in a tube under the barrel. Just squeeze the catch and pull it out, turn it around stick the handle into the tube until it clicks. To unfix the bayonet just reverse the procedure. The rifle was designed in 1936 but did not really get into production until after WWII. These rifles were used until sometime in the 1960's. They are chambered for the 7.5X54 French military cartridge which is about the same power as our .308 Winchester. Thousands of these rifles and the slightly updated 36/51(which is the rifle that you have) were imported several years ago and the rifle is quite common at the present time. The rifle has several draw backs. The bolt handle is to far foward makeing its use slow and clumsy. The bolt locks at the rear of the action which tends to produce a springy action. The rifle lacks a safety and should not be carried with a round in the chamber. These rifles are interesting,cheap and make a good addition to a military collection. Hope that this is of some help to you.Scout 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
2 comments