France - Forgotten Weapons

Parisian Needlefire Knife-Pistol Combination

November 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 21

Combination knife/gun weapons have been popular gadgets for literally hundreds of years, and this is one of the nicest examples I have yet seen. This sort of thing is usually very flimsy, and not particularly […]

American Viven-Bessières WW1 Grenade Launcher

November 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 22

The standard American grenade launching system in World War One was the Viven-Bessières, borrowed directly form the French. It had been adopted by France in 1916, replacing copies of the British Martin-Hale rod grenades. The […]

The St Etienne Mle 1907: France’s Domestic Heavy Machine Gun

October 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 37

When the French first began testing machine guns in the late 1890s, they were one of the few countries that did not purchase quantities of Maxim guns. One of the reasons was that in France’s […]

MAS-36 LG48: A Grenade Launcher for the Bolt Action Infantry

September 28, 2017 Ian McCollum 16

Once it became apparent that the MAS-36 was going to be used in a substantial amount of frontline combat (to the contrary of its intended role as a reserve or secondary rifle), it became important […]

MAS-36: The Backup Rifle is Called to Action

September 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 44

There is a common assumption that the MAS-36 was a fool’s errand from the outset – why would a country develop a brand new bolt action rifle in the mid 1930s, when obviously semiautomatic combat […]

Shooting the RSC-1918 and RSC-1917 French Autoloaders

September 15, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

The day has come to do some shooting with an RSC-1918 – and an RSC-1917 as well! The 1917 was the first selfloading rifle to see substantial combat use, with just over 85,000 manufactured in […]

France’s Ultimate WW1 Selfloading Rifle: The RSC-1918

September 14, 2017 Ian McCollum 23

The French RSC-1917 semiauto rifle was a major step forward in arms technology during World War One, offering a reliable and effective self-loading rifle for issue to squad leaders, expert marksmen, and other particularly […]

Chatellerault M24/29: France’s New Wave of Post-WWI Small Arms

August 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

France fought the Great War with an array of weapons which were all sub-par in one way or another – the Lebel rifle was obsolescent by 1914, the Berthier was a cavalry carbine forced into […]

French Rifle Ammunition: 8mm Lebel and 7.5mm French

August 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 67

Today we are going through the French rifle ammunition used in the Lebel, Berthier, and MAS series rifles – 8mm Lebel and 7.5mm French. The 8mm Lebel cartridge began as simply a necked-down version of […]

M34: The Berthier Converted to the 7.5mm Rimless Cartridge

August 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 15

With the end of World War One, it was finally possible for the French military to replace the 8mm Lebel cartridge with a modern rimless cartridge, and they wasted no time in doing so. By […]