Zorros
Ultimate Member
My head is so full i don’t know what’s in it unless front and center.
MAS 44 and 49
- Thread starter Combloc
- Start date
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My head is so full i don’t know what’s in it unless front and center.
mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-Like Lazarus I couldn't ever remember the MAS 49 being part of the US military rifle trials to replace the M1 during the 1950s. But my memory isn't what it used to be so I spent a significant amount of time trolling the net along with my reference books including the only decent reference on French autoloaders: Proud Promise by Jean Huon. Blake Stevens classic FAL reference goes into minute detail about the 1950's light rifle trials and nowhere could I find any reference to the MAS 49 other than to mention the design being easier to field strip. The 1950 Light Rifle Trials was held with the British EM2, Belgian .280 FAL and the US T25 and all the control rifles were older US small arms. The 1953 US trials held at Aberdeen and Ft Benning were between the T44 (M14) and the T48 (FAL). Later trials in 1957 added the AR-10 (gotta wonder if it could have derailed the T44 or T48 that late in the game, even with a proper steel barrel).
-Now the French did a short run of around 150 MAS 49/56 chambered for 7.62x51 to see if standardizing to 7.62 NATO could be done but they were a failure and led to the development of the MAS T62 which was never more than a prototype.
-If you love French autoloaders as much as I do try to scrounge a copy of Huon's Proud Promise. It's an excellent read and will open eyes on just how advanced the French were in small arms design. Sadly it's been out of print for a while now and not cheap. One book that really needs another printing.
-Now the French did a short run of around 150 MAS 49/56 chambered for 7.62x51 to see if standardizing to 7.62 NATO could be done but they were a failure and led to the development of the MAS T62 which was never more than a prototype.
-If you love French autoloaders as much as I do try to scrounge a copy of Huon's Proud Promise. It's an excellent read and will open eyes on just how advanced the French were in small arms design. Sadly it's been out of print for a while now and not cheap. One book that really needs another printing.
Doco Overboard
Ultimate Member
Spare magazines can be found here on CMP Parts for sale in Other
http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=260403
http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=260403
mawkie
C&R Whisperer
That's the nice thing about the 49 family, lots of parts and accessories available. The one thing that isn't readily available and that nobody has repop'd is the cocking handle knob.
I was fortunate to have a collecting buddy in France who's a Gendarme. He was friends with the armorer tasked with breaking all the 49s when they were retired from active duty. Yes, thousands of MAS 49s and 49/56s were destroyed under the auspices of an EU treaty, not unlike what happened to US M14s during the Clinton administration (remember "Capt. Crunch?"). He smuggled a full MAS 49 furniture set to me, one of those very rare ones with the GL welded shut. And I traded him for it with a pile of Garand goodies. Allowed me to save a badly broken Syrian 49 that I bought to restore.
mawkie
C&R Whisperer
This is one of the best threads about the MAS 49 over on Gun Boards. An oldie but a goodie. Some photos that super French auto collector Buddy Hinton posted.
For the younger collectors among us take a gander at those Shotgun News ads. This is what the C&R world was like 20-30 yrs ago. Every gun show a new adventure as the world flooded the US with their old "cast offs". $40 Finn M39s and M91s, $100 arsenal reworked MAS 36s, $125 Swede M96 and M38s. You never knew what was going to show up the next month. I've always said that the 90s were the real Golden age, better than the 60s.
For the younger collectors among us take a gander at those Shotgun News ads. This is what the C&R world was like 20-30 yrs ago. Every gun show a new adventure as the world flooded the US with their old "cast offs". $40 Finn M39s and M91s, $100 arsenal reworked MAS 36s, $125 Swede M96 and M38s. You never knew what was going to show up the next month. I've always said that the 90s were the real Golden age, better than the 60s.
Attachments
Combloc
Stop Negassing me!!!!!
My rifles and all the extras came from Buddy Hinton. In fact, the black painted MAS 44 he shows in that thread is the one I purchased from him.
mawkie
C&R Whisperer
That explains a lot! You got yours from the best. Congrats! BTW, there's one of the stupid rare commercial semi auto FAMAS "exports" coming up for sale in an auction. The starting price? $16,000. Might very well be one of Buddy's. Always thought these were so cool. Sad that the French, like the British, have no state controller arms manufacturers left and now have to buy their arms from the Germans. Hundreds of years of innovative arms design history ended with a whimper.
Combloc
Stop Negassing me!!!!!
Thanks to the generosity of a fellow collector, my little "collection de fusils automatiques MAS" is one step closer to completion. Today I added a mid-production MAS 44 to the bunch. I wanted an example of both the early, painted finish and the later, phosphate finish and now I have them. It's always neat to compare to rifles that came off the same assembly line and especially so with old rifles because they really show variation in final finish where today's rifles all look boringly identical. Eventually, I'll do an in-depth writeup on the MAS 44 but today, I just want to show you my new French buddy:
They both have their original walnut stocks but, as is common with walnut, they vary in color. And while the stocks are nicely shaped with crisp edges and nicely fitted to their actions, both show plenty of final sanding marks. They were, after all, made for combat, not admiring.
Here we see some of those sanding marks on the bottom of the forend on N° 975:
We see plenty of them on N° 4338 as well. Apparently, the guy stamping the numbers on this stock left home angry that day as he really put the hammer the stamping dies that day. The "F" is so deep you can see the outline of the die body!
As is typical, we have the red paint on the back of the front sight:
This last picture shows the contrast in appearance between two finishes:
Alrighty, that's all for now. I'll see you when I look at you!
They both have their original walnut stocks but, as is common with walnut, they vary in color. And while the stocks are nicely shaped with crisp edges and nicely fitted to their actions, both show plenty of final sanding marks. They were, after all, made for combat, not admiring.
Here we see some of those sanding marks on the bottom of the forend on N° 975:
We see plenty of them on N° 4338 as well. Apparently, the guy stamping the numbers on this stock left home angry that day as he really put the hammer the stamping dies that day. The "F" is so deep you can see the outline of the die body!
As is typical, we have the red paint on the back of the front sight:
This last picture shows the contrast in appearance between two finishes:
Alrighty, that's all for now. I'll see you when I look at you!
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