At the Fall 2021 meeting of the American Society of Arms Collectors, I had the opportunity to make a presentation on the development of French military repeating rifles. The story begins with the Mle 1874 Gras, and proceeds through three different patterns of tube-magazine Kropatschek type rifles (the Mle 1878, 1884, and 1885) before arriving at the Mle 1886 Lebel.
Select-fire Rifles
MAS Type 62: France Does the FAL, With a Twist
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, France was seriously considering joining the NATO small arms standardization. They were equipped with the MAS 49/56 semiauto rifle at this point, and were looking at three possibilities: […]
Light MGs
Yugoslav 8mm Chauchat M1915/26 Photos
Reader Mihajlo sent me a couple cool photos of Yugoslav troops with Chauchats converted to 8x57mm. Here’s his commentary: Here’s a picture from WW2 Yugoslavia I’d like to share with you. The guy on the […]
Book review
Book Review: Military Handguns of France 1858-1958
Since we looked at a couple French revolvers yesterday, it seems only appropriate to have a resource on them (and later French automatic pistols) today. Specifically, Military Handguns of France by Eugene Medlin and Jean […]
Nicely done Ian. Very interesting lecture.
Outstanding history lesson sir. Thank you!
Omelette du Fromage.
The same General Boulanger who tried to overthrow the Republic in 1889, and later killed himself at his mistress’ grave in 1891.
Busy fellow…
I found this one of the most interesting videos you have posted for a good while. I like your stuff, but I am interested in history first, and guns a long way after.
I already knew everything you said from watching you, and http://www.candrsenal.com , but just having it said again a bit different seemed to work very well for me. Thank you.
Great job Ian, always great when the video is a French weapon!!
Congratulations on your arrival!
just goes to show you that there are people out there that never work a day in their lives because they get paid doing what they love. at least, thats the case now for Ian anyways.
You feel that you have wasted 50 years in France when you listen to such an interesting expose as this and from an american in America.But then Ian’s charisma and internet have certainly changed peoples ideas of french military weapons
Great historical info, love the small digressions that you add to your presentations, they add texture to what otherwise could be dry history!
This talk brings to mind the idea of a lecture or series on Interarms / Samuel Cummins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Cummings: so much history passed through there …