French Lebel Carbine

[oldbiscuit]

My dad brought home a French Lebel Carbine rifle when he came back from WWII. The bluing is pretty well gone, but the metal is in great shape. The wood is in realy great shape. Dad has a FFL license and has aquired many many guns over the years. He even went so far as to order 2 cases (5000 rounds) of ammo for it years ago. My dad is getting on in years and has been giving my brithers and me a lot of weapons over the years. Yesterday I was visiting him and he asked if I wanted the Lebel ? Of course I said yes, so I loaded it and all his ammo for it, now I just have to find a free day to go out and fire it.

[MBI]

That's excellent. What a great keepsake.

Do you have any pictures of it?

[oldbiscuit]

Thanks MBI, it is indeed a keepsake. I've got several guns from my dad that he either bought new as a kid, or brought back from Germany. Here's a couple of pics of it and the ammo. That's 8mm ammo and it gives quite a kick

[gibson]

Oldbiscuit - From your picture it looks like it's in pretty good shape! That's some nice grain there on the stock. Somewhere on the receiver there should be a date and the arsenal where it was made. I have a rifle version of the same gun, that was made in 1917 at the St. Etienne arsenal. It was the first gun I ever owned, got it for my 12th birthday (1965). They originally were only made for three rounds, the metal magazine extension boosted it up to 5, so the poilu (French soldier) was only equal footing with the Boche, that change over was made in 1916. In about 1935 or so the French began making the same rifle in a rimless 7.5mm round, so that makes it at least 78 years old.

[oldbiscuit]

Gibson, It has on the reciever " Et's Continsourd M le-M-16" and on the top of the barrel under the upper wood "MA C 1922". Also both the barrel and reciever are stamped with "N" so I can shoot the stripped ammo.

[gibson]

Technically the rifle is a Mannlicher-Berthier Model of 1907/1915. In 1916 the magazine extension was added, hence the Mle M-16. I guess that your rifle started out life as the full length rifle, and was then altered in 1922. These things were really long, with a barrel length of 31.4 inches. According to "Small Arms of the World" by W.H.B. Smith, all of these rifles were modified to the carbine version by 1927.