not an oxymoron, it's truly a great French rifle

Holt Bodinson

The French Model MAS 1949/56 is one of the finest rifles ever to enter the surplus supply line. While critics often look askance at French ordnance designs--and some are rather bizarre--it's good to remember that the French invented smokeless powder and that France was the first nation to adopt a repeating rifle (1886 Lebel), firing a small-caliber cartridge (8x50R), loaded with smokeless powder (Poudre V).

The MAS 49/56 familiar to us is the final product of French research programs dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. The design is significant in the history of military arms development for two surprising reasons. It turns out it was the French who invented the carrier-controlled, rear-locking, tilting bolt; and it was the French who invented (in 1900) the most simple gas system of all--a tube that funnels gas directly into a bolt carrier.

I like to think of the MAS 49/56 as a French M14. Having carried an M14 in the field, I'll go out on a limb and state that in many ways, the MAS as issued to the troops was a better fighting package than the M14 ever was. In short, it's a well thought out, refined and beautifully executed design. It's one of those classic military rifles I would gladly head out the door with.

"MAS" is short for Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de St. Etienne, the name of France's oldest national arsenal. Elements of the MAS 49/56 emerge as early as the Model 1928, which was refined in the 1930s and scheduled for full production in 1940. Unfortunately, Germany had other plans and its occupation of France for four years put a hold on the rollout of the MAS 1940. It emerges after the war as the Model 1944, which sees action in Indochina, and is further refined in 1949 and then again in 1956. Between 1957 and 1978, 275,240 MAS 49/56 models are manufactured and the French army is completely armed with them by the mid 1960s. The MAS is then slowly phased out after France adopts the spacey-looking 5.56mm FAMAS bullpup in 1979.

The MAS 49/56 incorporates every bell and whistle an infantryman could wish for, except a selector switch. I can tell you from personal experience with selector-switch-fitted M14s that firing a cartridge generating as much recoil as the French 7.5x54 or 7.62 NATO full auto in a rifle is simply a waste of good ammunition. The French just knew it before we did.

Anyway, the MAS 49/56 incorporates a sophisticated grenade launching and sight system for direct or indirect fire, a gas cutoff switch used when firing grenades, an effective muzzle brake, a receiver peep sight adjustable for windage and elevation in increments of 100-meters for ranges from 200 to 1,200 meters, a front sight adjustable for elevation as well, an integral side rail for mounting scopes, an auxiliary set of night sights, a decent trigger and a safety that is easy to reach and operate.

The MAS 49/56 accessory kit supplied to the French soldier is the best I've ever seen. It consists of a night sight assembly and wrench, spare extractor and spring, spare firing pin, a combination screwdriver and ejector tool, two spare grenade launcher springs, a cleaning pull-thru and brass bore brush, a chamber brush, a flat cleaning brush, an oil bottle, a broken shell extractor, a rubber recoil pad, bayonet, sling, four magazines and, optionally, a Model 1953 range-compensating 3.85X sniper scope and mount. Whoever put this kit together spent time in the trenches. Most of the accessory pack items accompanied the MAS rifles imported here.

The MAS 49/56 is chambered for the French 7.5x54mm cartridge adopted in 1929. The .307" military ball weighs 139 grains and consists of a lead core and cupro-nickel-plated steel jacket. The powder charge is approximately 46 grains of a medium-burning flake powder. The official muzzle velocity of military ball is listed at 2,690 fps. In short, it is just about on par with the 7.62 NATO.

While original French military ball is rather scarce these days, we are currently blessed with unlimited supplies of boxer primed 7.5x54 ammunition under the Graf-Hornady and the Graf imported Prvi Partizan (Serbian) labels. French military ball is corrosive, and the primer cups are hard to prevent slam fires. Yes, the MAS can give you slam fires so if you reload, the use of CCI's hard No. 34 military-spec primer is mandatory. Hornady offers some excellent loading data and recommendations for the 7.5x54 in their 6th Edition manual.

When MAS 49/56's were pouring into the country and 7.5x54 ammunition was hard-to-find, a number of enterprising souls converted the rifles to use .308 Win ammunition. There were more bad conversions than good conversions, and now that commercial 7.5x54 ammunition is readily available, I would highly recommend that you avoid all .308 Win converted MAS. The French did experiment and modify 150 MAS 49/56's to fire the 7.62 NATO cartridge. Those prototypes were clearly marked 7.62N, and as far as I know, none left the government arsenal.

Looking more closely at the rifle, the barrel with muzzle brake is 20" long while the overall length of the rifle is 41". It's compact. With an unloaded magazine, it weighs 9 1/2 lbs. and 10 3/4 lbs. when fitted with the Model 1953 scope. The balance point is at the magazine.

The standard issue magazine holds 10 rounds and an optional 18-round magazine was also available. The magazine can be preloaded or charged with five-round stripper clips. In fact, the French ball is packaged in a cardboard box containing three aluminum stripper clips holding five rounds each. French armorers, I understand, commonly brazed two magazines end-to-end to facilitate a rapid reload. The side mounted magazine release is one of the few design features I'm not impressed with. While the latch spring is exceedingly strong, the latch is very exposed, and, it would seem to me, prone to being accidentally unlocked. Apparently, it held up in combat though. So much for theory!

In addition to grenade launching, another valuable use for the gas cut-off is to prevent corrosive primer fouling from entering the gas robe and bolt carrier when firing military ball, but only when employing the scope, since the cut-off blocks out the open sights. Using the cutoff, also lets you manually eject brass that will be reloaded.

The MAS sights are zeroed by using the front sight to establish elevation and the peep sight windage screws to dial in windage. Each half-ram of the windage screws and each quarter-turn of the front sight moves the bullet impact 5cm (2") at 100 meters. It's a well-made, rugged battle sight.

Ah, when night falls, the MAS keeps shooting with help of the issued night sight unit. The unit is a stout metal tube that slides over the front of the barrel and is secured in place by a wing nut. The tube carries a set of tritium illuminated open sights that are readily adjustable for windage and elevation for zeroing at 50m. It's a great little accessory for the foot soldier.

Accuracy? Using the issue scope to shoot three-shot groups at 100 yards, French military ball averages 1.4" to 1.7" and 2,562 fps while the new Prvi Partizan load averages 1.25" and 2,514 fps. I'll be testing the new Graf load in an upcoming ammunition review article. I haven't handloaded the 7.5x54 yet. When I do, I'll start with Graf brass, Sierra's 150-grain MatchKing, Varget, IMR 4064, IMR 4895 powders, and, of course, those CCI No. 34 primers.

All things considered, the MAS 49/56 is a great battle rifle that deserves a place in every military surplus collection.

Proud Promise

(French Autoloading Rifles 1898-1979) by Jean Huon. Hardcover, 199 pages. Collector Grade Publications. Ray Riling Arms Book Co., , www.rayrilingarmsbooks.com.

A MOST REFINED GRENADE LAUNCHER

The MAS 49/56 grenade system is really neat, and it gave every foot soldier the ability to launch standard; 22mm NATO fin-tubed, AP, anti-tank, illumination, smoke or signaling rounds. The sighting system is designed for both high trajectory AP fire and shoulder held direct fire for anti-tank and AP missions.

In use for high trajectory fire, the sighting bar is pulled to the rear, rotated up, and locked into place in the first notch (45-degrees) for ranges between 200 to 400 meters or in the second notch (740-degrees) for targets between 100 and 200 meters. The gas cut-off is flipped up to close off the gas tube and the magazine removed. The sliding ring is then positioned up or down the barrel so that the range appears at the rear of the ring, The grenade is slid over the barrel so that it comes to rest against the sliding ring. A grenade-launching cartridge is then chambered and fired sending the grenade down range. Rather than aiming through the sighting bar, the little auxiliary sights on the left side of the bar are used in high-angle fire.

The official manual offers two examples. For a target estimated to be at 175 meters, engage the sighting bar in the 74-degree notch and place the sliding ring on the 18 mark. For a target at 300 meters, engage the sighting bar in the 45-degree notch and put the ring on the t5 mark (1/2 of the distance value).

For direct fire, the sighting bar is engaged in the 74-degree notch, the sliding ring is positioned fully to the rear, and the graduated sight windows in the middle of the bar are used for ranges between 75 and 100 meters for anti-tank grenades and 120 meters for AP grenades. The sight picture uses the top edge of the grenade head as the front sight and the post in the appropriate window as the rear. In direct fire, the manual suggests positioning the butt under the armpit rather than on the shoulder.

GLASS

At the time the MAS 49/56s were being imported by Century Arms, the proper Model 1953 scopes were also being brought in. I bought one, and I am glad did. It's a great addition to the rifle. The scope is rated at 3.85X. It's very compact, being only 6:25" long, and is quickly clamped to or detached from the integral receiver rail by a short, swinging lever activating a cam clamp. It carries the common European hunting reticle featuring a pointed post bracketed by two sidebars. The elevation turret is calibrated for the 7.5x54 cartridge in 50-meter increments from 50 to 800m. After zeroing at 200m. the graduation dial can be reset if need be by loosening its three cap screws: Each graduation of the windage knob equals 7cm (2.75") at 100m.

The official manual observes that with the scope mounted, a sharpshooter should be able to hit a head or helmet out to 200m, a man lying down out to 400m, and a kneeling or standing man out to 600m.

The scope is mounted rather high and; while it permits elevating the receiver sight up to 400m with the scope mounted, your cheek is entirely off the comb of the stock when using the scope. I raised the comb with a strap-on padded cheek rest. and it really does help.

FIELD STRIPPING

The MAS 49/56 is a simple rifle with few working parts: It can be field-stripped in a matter of seconds:

1) Remove the magazine, cycle the action, and check that the chamber in empty.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

2) Depress the bolt-cover latch at the rear of the receiver, Push the bolt cover forward to disengage it and then remove it upward and to the rear while controlling the recoil spring.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

3) Grasp the bolt handle and draw the bolt carrier and bolt fully to the rear where they can be removed upward out of the receiver.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

4) Separate the bolt from the bolt carrier and remove the firing pin from the bolt. Reassemble in reverse order

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

5) The MAS 49/56 fieldstripped.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

COPYRIGHT 2005 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

Good read.

Little appreciated: the 49, the Ljungman, their predecessor Rossignol ENT, and later Hakim operate by way of direct gas impingement.

What's interesting is the vast majority of AR-15 owners think Stoner's design employs direct gas impingement. That myth is so pervasive even manufacturers who know better perpetuate the hoax. One could read Stoner's patent wherein he specifically refers to both piston and cylinder, but a minute of reflection on an AR-15's operating cycle ought to be sufficient.

Edmond, I fully concur. I bought one of these from Century Arms a couple of decades ago on my C&R license and really liked the rifle. Only issue was if using handloads, you wanted to be sure to use mil-spec primers to avoid going full auto with slam fires. Don't ask me how I know.



I would love to have that fine French weapon back again.

Owned a 49, about the crudest semi, I've ever seen. Let's not equate it to the M 14.

With such an in depth review of the French rifle in question, I am sure the demand for them will go sky high, really?? The rifle defies the basic design criteria of "form follows function," similar to the Citroen automobile, just plain ass ugly.

One of my game scouts in Tanzania had one of these.

It was butt ugly, but the ammo he had looked like leftovers from WW I. (I know it was newer, but... it looked bad...verdigris and all.)

But the thing fired when he pulled the trigger for the kabube celebration over the lion kill fo 3 shots. He also said he liked it better than an ak as he could hit a man at 200 yards with it.

If I could find one reasonably here, I'd buy one.