Mas 45

[Mk42gunner]

Anybody have any experience with a MAS 45? From what I have been able to find out this evening, I did good to get one for $225.

To sum up what I found, the French started making .22 trainers that were pretty close to the Mauser .22 on Mauser equipment in Germany, then moved production to France. Some rifles were marked Mauser, some with both Mauser and MAS, and at least the ones made in France with only MAS. Supposed to have been made from 1945-47 with only 12,000 made, but my serial number is in the 21,000 range?

Seems like a well made rifle, I will have to try it out tomorrow. The rear aperture is marked 30,50,80,100,125 and 150 windage looks to be two opposing screws for adjustment.

Robert

[PB234]

Accurate well built rifle. $225 is very cheap if it is in good shape. Hard to get parts for but there is a guy on rimfirecentral.com who collects and may have some spare parts, but look at how solidly it is built and you probably will not need replacement parts. 5 and 10 round mags can be found although they have gotten more expensive recently ($25 or so and up from $10 or so). Very enjoyable rifle to shoot. A solid rifle perhaps a bit heavy if one is used to a typical light weight 22, but it feels like it should for what it is. My guess is it might become a favorite rifle for you.

[Mk42gunner]

Yes it is a well built rifle, and I can see it will be accurate when I have the time (and ammo) to test for what it likes.

I really don't forsee a need for repair parts on this particular rifle, maybe a spare magazine or two just in case of loss.

What I can use is a shorter front sight. During a function test today with the rear sight set at 30 (meters? probably) POI was about an inch and a quarter low, with the "target" @ 15 yards. Last night I did find a forum post somewhere that claimed the front sights were made in about five different heights. Whether any were actually imported with the rifles is another question.

Ammo was Winchester Xpert 22 hollowpoint bulk pack from about a dozen years ago.

Robert

[PB234]

Try searching the web for a site in France that sells parts. IT has probably been 5 or more years since I saw the site and it might also require a friend that reads French to make a go of it. Try posting on www.rimfirecentral.com in their military trainer forum. The gentleman who collects and may have spare parts for Mas 45s visits there. If nothing else he is likely the best expert you can find. I don't know why this is now being underlined, but alsl suggest bying a box of Wolf Match Target and see how that goes.

[Forrest r]

Mas 45's front sights are replaceable, simply press the button in front of the sight and it will slide out of it's slot.

On the side of the sight is a #, sets go from 00 to 25.

Other sights will fit the mas's front sight slot, namely:
Anschutz
mauser
cz (new ones/plastic can be ordered for $8)

[cuzinbruce]

Congrats! They are neat rifles. I have been looking for one for a while. On Gunbroker, they seem to go in the $450-600 range if I remember right.

[wv109323]

They are a well made .22LR. Disadvantages are scope mounting and no trigger adjustments.
IIRC the rifles were always built in France, but the factory was taken over by the Germans during WW2. The Germans used them for training rifles since they are close to the Mauser. The different butt plates are according to who was in control of the factory.
B-Square made a scope mount but it has been long discontinued.
There was a craze when they were used in smallbore silhouette and most are considered tack drivers with the right ammo. I have never heard that 12,000 were made. I thought production was before WW2 and slightly there after.
They were imported into this country in the early to mid 1980's as surplus. Most were used but had a lot of useage left in them. IIRC the LGS sold the used ones for $169 and they received 2-3 that were new. IIRC I bought a new one for $189 in the early 1980's.
Since they have doubled in price that should speak to something as to their demand.

[Nueces]

I bought one of the surplus bunch some years ago. $145 for the rifle and $5 for each spare magazine. Years later, I found a nice sporter stock on ebay and another time, a new Lyman M48 sight, model M22, that fits this rifle. It is a fairly heavy 22 for a sporter, but dead accurate.

Years ago, there was a gun shop in nearby Llano, Texas that specialized in turning these rifles into the Mauser equivalent of the Winchester M52 Sporter. I wish I had known of it when they were doing this.

[primersp]

here a mas 45 are 600€ and a mauser 1000€ ,the price are higher because an new discipline "tir aux armes réglementaires" T.A.R (shoot with reglementary weapons ) were introduce few years ago ,in 80 they were sold 120 € with a sling and 2 magazines .

[bullet maker 57]

I found that ammo is the key accuracy. I have quite a bit of Lapua training ammo that it likes. Wolf match target is another.

[gnoahhh]

The MAS 45 is quite a nice gun, and even the $4-500 they're fetching now seems reasonable. Mine won't keep up with my Model 52 (1/4-3/8" groups at 50 yards), but it will keep up with my M2 Springfield (1/2-5/8" @ 50). I've been threatening to do a full custom rework of it for years but I just can't seem to get around to it! (Sadly they all shoot their very best with Eley 10X or Federal Gold Ultra Match, and my stash is getting down to the last couple of bricks!)

Judging from the numbers of them I've been seeing for 30 years now, I suspect they made a lot more than just 12,000 of them.

[btreanor]

Unfortunately, I had to sell mine a few months ago. However, I just found several of the factory 5-round magazines stashed away if anyone is interested. I would let them go for $15 each plus shipping. Just PM me if you're interested.

[Mk42gunner]

Thanks for the reminder gnoahh, I have a couple of bricks of the Federal Gold Medal match ammo squirreled away. I will have to dig it out and see how it does. Sadly I don't have any of the Eley Tenex (Red box from the early 1990's) left.

Quite frankly, my eyes are getting bad enough that I might not be able to tell the difference between good ammo and bad with iron sights.

The two stage trigger on mine isn't bad at all. I don't think I would want to try to shoot one bullet diameter ten shot groups with it; but it isn't distracting.

Robert

[gnoahhh]

I hear you re: eyes. I mount a Fecker target scope on the 52 to get the bug hole groups. With its Lyman 48, group size increases somewhat. The rest of them (M2, BSA 12/15, MAS 45) will get scope blocks on them this winter so Mr. Fecker and Mr. Unertl can help them shrink their groups a bit. I can still see ok to use aperture sights, but there just is no denying the advantage of magnification + fine cross hairs to dot the "i" at 50 yards.

Try some of the new Federal standard velocity Target ammo. I bought a brick of it a couple weeks ago and found it to shoot almost as good as the $20/box stuff. I'm going back to grab what he has left this weekend, if it's the same lot number as the first brick.