French MAS 36

The French MAS 36 rifle was designed mostly as a stop-gap since semi-automatic rifle production lagged behind. However, this new bolt-action was one of the best French rifles ever produced. Shorter than most "short rifles" of the time but longer than most cavalry carbines, the MAS 36's intermediate length, potent cartridges and reliable mechanism made it a success limited only by the short duration it was fielded in the war.

The MAS 36 is loaded with good features such as an aperture sight with a long sight radius, a side sling, turn-down bolt handle, and 5-round magazine capable of being loaded quickly with Mauser-style stripper clips.

The bolt handle placement does deposit your hand close to the trigger, something that is thought to speed up firing. In my experience, this slight difference is negligible. A nice feature for modern shooters is the ability to empty the magazine just by pressing a button which releases the floorplate. Just be sure to catch all the rounds as they fall out.

The MAS 36 is a tall rifle, as the height from the bottom of the magazine to the top of the receiver is higher than a lot it's contemporaries.

The rear sight on the pre-WW2 MAS 36 is slightly problematic. The rear sight is held in place by upward spring pressure. It's easy to see how bumping the rifle or possibly even recoil could be enough to move the sight slider. This was fixed after WW2.

I am a big fan of built-in front sight protectors, and I prefer the open top design of the pre-war MAS 36 over the post-war design.

The integrated bayonet, although convenient, does add a decent amount of weight out from of the rifle. Because of leverage, this additional weight feels heavier than it actual is. Removing the bayonet does make the rifle feel substantially better balanced.

This example was accepting into the French military in 1940 and mostly likely serviced during the Battle of France. The French suffered about 300,000 casualties and the Germans about 156,000 during this relatively short campaign.

A lot of MAS 36 rifles were captured by the Germans during the war. The Wehrmacht even issued these in limited numbers to troops as there was always a shortage of arms during the war.

Check out my YouTube video if you'd like to learn more.