Cheeeese Eatin' Surrender Monkey Rifle....

General Firearms Other Semi-Automatic Rifles
1

Just picked up this MAS 49/56.

Pretty decent shape, the barrel is in good condition with some frosting in the grooves.

Now I just need to pick up some ammo, spare magazines, and a white flag. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

That might be the 1st French rifle ever highlighted on M4C. :smiley:

Very nice though. I cannot wait to shoot it.

3

Pretty decent shape? Thing looks almost new for itā€™s age. Maybe itā€™s the old never fired and only dropped once thing. I seriously donā€™t know how you find this stuff. Very nice rifle. Now if that thing could talk it would have some stories to tell.

4

My local funstore used to have these by the dozen a few years ago. I havenā€™t seen any there in a couple of years, though.

Since I always saw them in the racks, sans-magazine, I never realized that they used an alligator clip to hold the mag in the gun.:eek:

5

Thanks, but someone fired a box of surplus (probably Syrian) out of it and didnt realize that stuff was corrosive, other wise it would have been damn near mint.

A lot of these were built up and sat in storage, a lot of them that were used were rearsenalled back in the early 80ā€™s as the FAMAS bullpup started getting to more and more backwater units.

My father was in the US Army in the early 60ā€™s, stationed in Orleans, France. He says that in the two years he was at that post, he never once saw a French soldier carrying a rifle, they all had the MAT-49 subguns.

6

MAT-49 subguns.

I looked these up. A subgun that weighs 8 pounds. I like it. It makes me wonder if maybe the mat-49 had a little bit of influence on the design of the UZI.

7

I donā€™t see a gas system - was it recoil operated? Tilting block or locking rollers?

M_P

8

Thatā€™s an interesting piece. Everything about it looks oddā€¦the muzzle device, the mag release, the safetyā€¦

9

You can have a complete set if you can find an ARVN rifle to go with it ā€œNever fired, only dropped onceā€.

10

IIRC, it is direct gas impingement (ala M16) with a tilting bolt.

11

Direct gas impingement like an AR, but against the bolt carrier, kind of like a Swedish AG-42 or a Hakim.

Tilting bolt.

http://world.guns.ru/rifle/rfl10-e.htm

Very handy rifle.

12

Yup, itā€™s French. :smiley:

13

Thanks for the information, thatā€™s a cool little rifle.

Just look at all the craftsmanship - staking, machining, knurling, etc. That would cost an absolute fortune to make these days.

M_P

14

What are these things worth anyways? An online classified site that services my area has a .308 cal MAS 49/56 good cond. listed for $525.

15

The Century gun butchers converted many of these to .308, and they did a piss poor job of it. Most donā€™t work.

Iā€™d stay away from a conversion.

I also think thatā€™s really high for a conversion.

16

Looks like you can make anything ATASā€¦

These are apparently some upgrades that the French have installed on some of the MAS 49/56ā€™s that still have in inventory to use for some jobs that needed more umph than the 5.56mm FAMAS had.

17

Thanks Templar, Iā€™ll keep away from it.

18

Bite your tounge! Tell me that that is not true!

19

Le Tapco, ou ā€œMoins cher que Dirtā€?

20

does it also mount an unsheathed and never used bayonet?