Anyone owned one of these rifles before? If so how did you like it?



Spotted one for $500 locally and it looks Lightly used (dropped only once). Always heard good things about them historically speaking. Feels very light and handy, and with cheap 7.5 surplus now coming in, it seems like a good little carbine.


 

I like mine, Century 308 conversion (that works- many did not).  Indeed very handy.  Good battle sights, though target shooters may curse the thick front post.  Old school quality manufacture, very solid feeling gun despite the weight.  Feels like it will stand up to heavy use forever.  Very good trigger on mine.  It's got plenty of character- looks like the bastard child of an SKS and M14, uses direct impingement operation, has a cool looking grenade sight and weirdo mag latch that is amusingly French..  

If it was converted to .308 run the fuck away. in 7.5 not bad at all.

I've heard good things about the 7.5 ones. My .308 was a jamomatic. It is a good looking gun, for sure.

Ka-ching!

Go for it. Seems like every one of them I've seen is in very good condition which gives credibility to the never fired, dropped once joke.

Good rifle, one of my favorite C&R's to shoot.  Like others have said, make sure its not converted to .308.

I had a MAS 49/56, a MAS 49 and a MAS 44. I regret selling them all. Back then 7.5 was not as common and I wanted to trim down the C7R herd I had accumulated. I still have my Mas 36. All great shooters.

Good guns.

Prone to slamfire with commercial ammo (soft primers).  Google "gunboards + MAS firing pin mods"

Kelt talks firing pin mods here...

The .308 can be made to run reliably so long as the chamber itself isn't hopelessly fucked.

Quick and dirty fix involves replacing the recoil spring with a new full-sized one from Numrich ($12) , polishing the chamber, and maybe installing an adjustable gas valve ($25) made by Starmetal over on Gunboards.

A more in-depth approach can be found in an American Gunsmith Article, May 2005, by Russel Corbitt:

Here...

...and continuing HERE...

Note:  It is not my photobucket account, and my apologies if I have overstepped––I just found the article by googling, Kudos to Team Tumbleweeds.


The easiest way to tell the 7.5 French from the converted .308 at a glance is to inspect the front handguard.  The vent hole toward the front of the handguard should be set back a bit (3/4"?) from the metal clamping band.  On the .308 conversions the vent hole it is right next to the band, because Century had to cut back the handguards to fit.

Used to be you could find MAS 49/56's for $250 - $300, but the price is definitely creeping up.  Still, $500 seems a bit steep (not that the rifle isn't worth it), but try to beat the guy down to $375.  He might bite.

He forgot never fired.

If it's the 7.5 one, go for it.  Here's mine with its older brother 1936/51.

I have a 36 cool gun but always wanted the 49/56. Never came across a good deal for one they have always been 400-500 and I just never thought it was worth that much.

I own one, very nice and accurate rifle.
Only put a few mags through it.
Where is this cheap ammo you speak of?
Purchased mine, probably 8 years ago, only cheap ammo was linked belts, corrosive, and, still not cheap.
Still, cool rifle, and not many around.

I had 1 but I sold it because the gun would never cycle, I guess that is a common problem with some.

now I have a couple 100 rounds of linked ammo that I cannot get rid of

Well, it's not cheap, but at least this is non-corrosive.

http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=AP75FFMJ&name=Prvi+7.5+French+139gn+FMJ+20rd+Box&groupid=82

They also have de-linked corrosive surplus to for $325K for those that dont mind corrosive, I don't.

Aim Surplus, French Military Ammo....

ETA:  LOL. Beat by 30 seconds....

Thanks, don't mind corrosive, just have to know what, and how to clean.

Never fired?  Only dropped once?  The French used those in a large number of small bush wars in the Mid East and Africa, even after the FAMAS was available.  We kind of ignore it, but there was not a smooth transition in a lot of their former colonies.  They still have folks running around in Africa out of Djibouti.