French Mas 36

[BCall]

I have an chance at a Mas 36 in very good condition, but it has been converted to 308. I have been looking up information an these, and it appears some have been OK, and some done by Century were not so good.

The rifle looks good, and I think I can get it for under $150. I see that stocks are available, but would it be possible to restore it to original? Does anyone know if there are barrels available anywhere? Thanks, Billy

[SlamFire1]

I believe 308 conversions are rare and I would leave it alone.

You will find that restoring to original military condition will leave you with a rifle that cost more than buying an all military MAS36.

[crazy mark]

They made a lot of 308 conversions because people didn't want to form their own brass. I would try to find a barrel. Where that might be I don't know. I see moe Mas 36 and 49-56 for sale in 308 than 7.5 x 54 out here. Mark

[KCSO]

Here's the deal as I bought several of these when they were $99 each and had to work on every one. First 308 is sone over pressure for the MAS action and I woudl stay with loads under 45000 psi. Next in converting them they shortened the barrel and the recoil lug under the barrel that mates in the stock is not solid and you will need to rework the fore stock to get any accuracy. Third you have NO SAFETY on the MAS rifles and for any practical use you will need to add a safety, i did trigger guard safeteys like the sks. So when they were $99 rifles and I added all the work I lost money on every rifle I sold. I use to mill the sights off the top and add a scope base too and that is more bucks. All in all unless the rifle is real cheap I wouldn't waste my money, the standard MAS at least has some interest to military collectors the 308 version is just an importer trying to make a quick buck.

[Multigunner]

Sporting rifles in non military or obsolete military calibers were built on these actions at one time, mainly for sale to French civilians in former colonies or Indo-China/Vietnam.
I examined one brought back as a war trophy from Vietnam many years ago.

We never established what chambering it was in, no chamber casting supplies were available.
This rifle was fitted with a thumb safety behind the bolt end cap. It moved from side to side to lock out the trigger.
I'm not sure whether this was a civilian owned rifle captured by the Viet Cong or if it was a former military carbine converted by the North Vietnamese.
I'd heard that some captured MAS rifles were cut down for use by female Viet Cong and youngsters and perhaps by ack ack or heavy MG crews.

The sporting rifles, some fairly simple and others very elegantly done, could be found in most older Mauser chamberings, and I've heard some were chambered for the 7.5 Swiss cartridges which could confuse matters when trying to find the proper ammo.

The French still use 7.62 NATO sniper rifles built on this basic action. I believe these were purpose built on the old machinery rather than conversions so they may have superior metallurgy.

Commercial sporting .308 cartridges with bullets in the 150 grain range should be safe enough. Heavier bullet loads are often of much higher pressure due to limited OAL and resulting intrusion of bullet base into powder space.

Since you will likely handload, much if not all with cast boolits, the rifles should serve well so long as the conversion was done properly.

[Ed in North Texas]

They made a lot of 308 conversions because people didn't want to form their own brass. I would try to find a barrel. Where that might be I don't know. I see moe Mas 36 and 49-56 for sale in 308 than 7.5 x 54 out here. Mark

More like they didn't want to pay the $ for the boxer primed ammo. Then again, I seem to remember I paid $300 (at the time these and the 49/56 were cheap) for a case of 1k rounds. Brass is still available, made by Prvi Partizan. I like these sort of weird French rifles, but then I've been called sort of weird.

[gew98]

The Mas36 is a neat little handy rifle..just the odd bend to the bolt handle..the french do it their way thingy.
Last one I had was a june of 1940 make , unissued and matching. I had gotten it from a vet and I did shoot it with brass I formed using 6,5 swede boxer brass. It was a fun gun to shoot but I really did'nt care for the lack of safety...hell the lebel & Berthier rifles had'nt had a safety either..those crazy french !. Anyway that was many years ago.
Lately though with my retired Army buddy he inherited an unusually nice condition Mas36 from his late brother. This Mas36 came from vietnam - his brother did more than a couple stints in vietnam in his active duty time ( 1946 -1977 ). Anyhow I've ordered some boxer primed new made ammo for him and it will bark again. In taking it apart it's actually very nice under the wood...there was some dried mud/dirt , and the rifle has gone through some kind of repair in it's day as evidenced by little metal plates tacked to weak or damaged ares of the forestock and buttstock hidden from view and done very artfully. Barrel is MAS 1950 so I'd say it is the original barrel to it and the bore is mirror clean - really unusual for a vietnam bringback Mas36.
On the .308 Mas36's. Everyone I have examined was done by the importer and the work is shoddy - rather generous chamber dimensions , and for that alone I would not mess with any of those cobbled up 308 chamber modified jobs. I have handled two Mas49's that were rechambered to 308... one sort of functioned reliably but the brass was rather bloated indicating a rather large remnant of the original french chamber , and the other did the casehead separation thingy ALOT. So my advice walk away from those importer conversion to 308 frenchies.

[Buckshot]

..............Or you convert it to 45-70:

http://www.fototime.com/4CE0AE555332580/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/D84C26951C36B50/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/0E6605AE3358FFB/standard.jpg

Gotta be carefull with that 12.5" pull and stout loads. I became familiar with watering eyes and snotty noses :-)

...................Buckshot

[gew98]

Were you able to get the magazine to work with the 45/70 cases ?. That beast looks like alot of fun !.

[BCall]

buckshot, wow! While I'm no stranger to watery eyes and the occassional scope "tattoo". You may have just convinced me to stay away from this.

12.5" length of pull? I've never shot the MAS, just looked it over quickly. But 12.5"? I'm a large guy (6'5" and long arms) and like a LOP about 3" longer, although I rarely get it. At 12.5", I'd probably find a way to bust my nose with powder puff loads. Thanks, Billy

[Buckshot]

Were you able to get the magazine to work with the 45/70 cases ?. That beast looks like alot of fun !.

............You have to do a bit of grinding to the feed rails and follower as they're set up for a cartridge very similar to the 308. Other then that the mag holds 3 slightly staggered. There is an angled groove in the bolt which creates a shoulder for the bolt stop to work against, that also needs a bit of work. Otherwise it can catch the rim of the next round in the mag when the bolt is retracted, and cause it to stand up :-)

BCall .............. buckshot, wow! While I'm no stranger to watery eyes and the occassional scope "tattoo". You may have just convinced me to stay away from this.

There were buttstock 'boot's available that worked on the grenade launching semi auto MAS's that should work on the bolt action and it'd lengthen it a bit. The 1903 Springfields were a tad short in the butt also, and many a trooper laid his thumb along the wrist instead of over it in order to keep their knuckle away from their nose :-)

Toward the end of my "load workup" journey I was launching 405gr Remington SP's at velocities that weren't shaded too badly by book 458 Win Mag loads. This is what I was shooting when I discovered that soft cast paper patched Lee 405gr FP's shot as well as jacketed @ 2200 fps :roll: Since they lacked quite a bit in the entertainment department, once I found it out I had no further legitimate reason to load (or shoot) any more.

...............Buckshot