When the US entered World War One, the country had a grand total of 1,453 machine guns, split between 4 different models. This was not a useful inventory to equip even a single division headed for France, and so the US had to look to France for automatic weapons. In June 1917 Springfield Armory t...

The lads have a go at the @Riflechair #cabinfeverchallenge 2024 in Division 5, Muzzleloading, at 50m with a French Chasseur carbine in 18mm. How did they get on?

Sorry for the poor audio - I was filming in an indoor range with a loud ventilation system running. But it was a chance to shoot a proper select-fire SIG-Manurhin 540, and I wasn't going to let that opportunity get away! It's a quite nice rifle, weighing in at 3.5kg / 7.75 pounds in 5.56mm. Frank...

In part 2 we explore the why, who and how. Why was it adopted, who was it issued to and how was the conversion done. We also finally have some range time with it.

I came across this prototype (serial number 7) PDW/compact SMG in a collection, and had the opportunity to take it out to try on the range. I don't have any specific data about it, but it was made by Matra Manurhin, which only existed for 5 years, from 1985 until 1990. This was part of the repeat...

Today we have a short look at two of the predecessors of the French MAC 1950 service pistol. The first is the Type SE MAS 1948, which retains many of the characteristics of the previous MAS 1935 pistols. After that is a preproduction MAC 1950 (serial number F 20), which has the same style of safe...

The Chauchat is a machine gun with a reputation for being unreliable - a reputation that is only partially deserved. But what the Chauchat does completely deserve is its reputation for being notoriously difficult to shoot well. The grip design, stock design, sight placement, trigger, and the dyna...

Part 1 or a two part series on the French 1867 conversion, usually called the Tabatière, Tabby or "that French Snider knock-off". In this episode we take a look at how similar the 1867 action is to the Snider and what prior breechloading systems might have influenced it. As a bonus we look at the...

According to many internet articles the FAMAS was designed for steel cases and simply can't function with brass cased ammunition. It'll cause malfunctions and not shoot straight innit! Well acktchually... Let's get this myth busted once and for all!

In the late 1940s the French developed a new suite of small arms, including a competition to replace the 7.65mm MAS-38 submachine gun with a new 9x19mm SMG. The eventual winner of this program was the MAT-49, which became an iconic part of French Army weaponry in Algeria and elsewhere. The St Eti...

When France was developing it's new suite of small arms in the late 1940s, there was a debate over whether to adopt an intermediate-power cartridge or retain the full-power 7.5x54mm round for the infantry rifle. Initially, a French 7.65x35mm cartridge was developed and used for several years of d...

War were declared with Prussia, a heavy defeat at Sedan, Metz falls and the national arsenal is serverely depleated. Such is the dire situation for the governement of the national defence proping up France at the beginning of the 1870/71 war. General mobilisation is in force but with what can the...

While I was at InterOrdnance unpacking French rifles, I took the opportunity to pull out a couple different examples of Gras Cavalry Carbines to show the differences between original French production examples and Belgian commercial conversions. What we will see today are how to recognize:

- Fre...

EDIT: Shoot, I managed to get the gear ratio backwards. Sorry! The recoil action provides the necessary delay, and then the gear ratio provides acceleration to ensure the bolt can open reliably, akin to the accelerator in a Browning M1917 or 1919 machine gun, or a Lahti L35 pistol. Please excuse ...

"EROP" was a small company based in Paris, which produced about 18 submachine gun prototypes between 1954 and 1956. These were submitted to French military trials in several different configurations first in 1954 and later in 1956, and none of them were given any further consideration after that....

Less known than the Martini-Henry but just as active around the globe at the time was the single shot Gras rifle in all its varients. It was chambered for the 11x59R cartridge, one of the many 11mm-ish cartridges of the era and quite close to the 45-70. In 1878 the French navy adopt a Kopatschek ...

The Portative was an attempt by the Hotchkiss company to make a light machine gun companion to their heavy model (which had found significant commercial success). The Portative used the same feed strips, albeit loaded upside down, and the same gas piston operation, but a very different locking sy...

The “Guycot” is a rocket ball chain rifle system named for its two creators, Paulin Gay (the designer) and Henri Guénot (the financier). They patented the idea in 1879, and manufactured it in both rifle and pistol form - I have a previous video on one of the pistols and today we are looking at tw...

Gevarm was the gun-making subsidiary of Gevelot, a long-standing French ammunition manufacturer. In 1956 they brought a simple new submachine gun to market. It was chambered for 9mm Parabellum, with a simple blowback action. The construction was very basic, a combination of a tube receiver, stamp...

Following on from the presentation of France's first rifled musket, this vid focuses on the musketry training that conscripts underwent on a yearly basis. See how trigger control was trained, and also, how do you aim at targets at 400m and 600m if your only means of aiming is a fixe 200m notch?

A combatant in Ukraine shared recently photographs of himself with a French FR F2 sniper rifle. The 7.62x51mm rifles have only been sighted in theatre once before in March 2022. There has also recently been a sighting of a single FAMAS. While individual sightings aren't indicative if a substantia...

While the British rapidly adopt a rifled musket for their infantry relatively quickly, it is a different story for most continental european militaries, notably France, who's massive conscript armies cannot be easily and economically equipped and effectively trained in marksmanship to make it wor...

In this live fire episode Matt gets behind a Hotchkiss ‘Portative’ light machine gun. The Hotchkiss was one of the earliest light machine guns to see general service. It was used in action by a number of countries during the First World War, the example we’re examining today is a British Mk1 Hotc...

In this live fire episode Matt gets his hands on a French Modèle 1950. The Modèle 1950 replaced the earlier Modèles 1935A & S pistols in 1951. Chambered in 9x19mm it remained in service throughout the Cold War until it was replaced by a licensed copy of the Beretta 92. The Modèle 1950 is a simple...