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.  Now I have both.  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!

Nice rifles OP. I really like the one with the lighter color furniture.