mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-Always on the hunt for French arms, I ran across a recent online auction of a Remington Mle 1907/15 Berthier rifle that got my attention. Most Remington Berthiers stayed in the US and are relatively easy to find. But around 9,000 were accepted into French service and these are extremely rare in the US. So when I see a battered Remington Berthier it gets my pulse up.
-However, the deeper I delved into the listing and photos the more questions it raised. The big mystery was why there was a single SN on the receiver and a large "S" stamped into the stock beneath it. Remington did not apply SNs to their Berthiers, this was done by the French after the arm was inspected and accepted into inventory. They placed numerous SNs, with an E prefix, on the barrel, bolt, trigger guard, etc. Also had a cartouche placed on the buttstock. Not what I was looking at!
-So it was never in French service. Perhaps it was exported to Spain for the SCW? I have a Remington M91 that served in Spain and it's documented that Wolf sent around 25,000 French rifles, assumed to be Mle 1907/15s, to Spain in 1937. But I've never seen one of these in the US and am not aware of any in a collection as well.
-Then a light bulb goes off and I start a different type of search on Google. I remember Fox Studio marked Lebels that were used in movies over the years. Bingo! I find that the SN is an inventory number for a Hollywood prop house. The large "S" on the stock has to be the initial of the prop house. Will dig a little deeper to see if I can't find the exact name.
-However, the deeper I delved into the listing and photos the more questions it raised. The big mystery was why there was a single SN on the receiver and a large "S" stamped into the stock beneath it. Remington did not apply SNs to their Berthiers, this was done by the French after the arm was inspected and accepted into inventory. They placed numerous SNs, with an E prefix, on the barrel, bolt, trigger guard, etc. Also had a cartouche placed on the buttstock. Not what I was looking at!
-So it was never in French service. Perhaps it was exported to Spain for the SCW? I have a Remington M91 that served in Spain and it's documented that Wolf sent around 25,000 French rifles, assumed to be Mle 1907/15s, to Spain in 1937. But I've never seen one of these in the US and am not aware of any in a collection as well.
-Then a light bulb goes off and I start a different type of search on Google. I remember Fox Studio marked Lebels that were used in movies over the years. Bingo! I find that the SN is an inventory number for a Hollywood prop house. The large "S" on the stock has to be the initial of the prop house. Will dig a little deeper to see if I can't find the exact name.
