the Sniper rifle that never Sniped?

[chuckindenver]

over the weekend, took this in trade,
French Mas Sniper, older guy said he used it for Antelope hunting for years,
wanted a handgun, we did some wheeling and dealing.
before i move it down the road, i thought id share pics.

[Liam]

neat

Neat, handy little rifle. Hope you reload if you plan on shooting it. 7.5x54 rimless, I think. I was looking at the earlier, bolt version but decided on another. I'm not sure "sniper" necessarily applies. I think they all were manufactured with optics mounting as an option. I still want one! Notice to unique sights for grenade launching.

[chuckindenver]

i do reload, however, factory is not tough to find.

http://www.grafs.com/ammo/233

[Badgerord]

They are kind of interesting rifles, in a way, ahead of there time but for only about a week.

The Foreign legion used them for years

[Liam]

Mas

Widely-used in French Indochina. That climate must have been tough on the workings! Also have seen them, on video, in the hands of mercenaries in Rhodesia in the 70's.

[Enfield trader]

Nice rifle - I have thought about getting one of those

but haven't seen any for sale in my area.

[John R.]

Mercenaries in Rhodesia ???

Sorry to have to pee on your parade as it were BUT there NEVER WERE ANY MERCENARIES in Rhodesia and you can take that one to the bank

I was DRAFTED into the Rhodesian Army in April 1974 and knew Maj.Nick Lamprecht the OIC Recruiting very well.The bane of his existance were all the doofus' who were showing up from all over the known world wanting to be"Mercenaries" only to find out that they A)Had to do basic training and/or show INDISPUTABLE proof of previous service in a NATO standard army.IF you could fulfill that requirement WHICH WAS CARVED IN STONE I MIGHT ADD ,you were excused basic and put on an evaluation cycle to see IF you "might" fit in and at WHAT rank if any.THEN,IF you passed muster your were posted to a unit like RLI,Service Corps or whatever and were paid STANDARD Rhodesian Army pay rates and allowances.

As a "First Year" Captain for pay purposes I was paid the 'princely sum' of Rh$405 per month PLUS $0.75 cents per day "jump pay" and $1 per day IF I WAS IN THE BUSH.My company was paying me something like a total of US$75K per annum all the while(18 months) as I was on contract(and VERY UNHAPPY about playing silly buggers in the bush too)

ANYONE running about with a rifle in 7.5mm Ferog would have been in need of a TS Chit(as in Tuffsky Chitsky as they say in the Red Army supposedly)
when it came to ammo resupply,I had a Cpl who later got EATEN(as in for lunch) in Sierra Leone playing MERCENARY who had a AR-15 Sporter and wanted to carry it in the bush in Rhodesia.Only problem was AMMO.We had all the South African and Portuguese and FN(Target Ammo) 7.62x51mm BALL ammo you could ever need plus a similar amount of 9 mm PARA and lots of South African .303 British BUT NO 5.56mm and DEFINITELY no 7.5mm Ferog and NO MERCENARIES EITHER.

I hope that I have set this nonsense STRAIGHT too.

Cheers,

John R. Army No. 0941, Rhodesian Army ,1974-1975

[Liam]

Rhodesia

Thanks for the clarification and additional information. The show I watched was about an outfit called Executive Outcomes, a private military company formed by former South African Army personnel. Since they were private individuals hired for a job fighting in another country I thought the term "mercenary" was appropriate. I was mistaken in stating "Rhodesia" and , in hindsight, think it was Sierra Leone in which they were active.

[John Sukey]

Interesting that Rhodesia exported food to the other countries but now they are starving! (except for mugabe's tribe)
They trashed the farm equipment, ate the crops and THEN ATE the seed for next years crop!

Oh yeah, digging sticks work much better than dem "white opressors" tractors.

AND our much vaunted U.N. sends food instead of troops to turn mugabe into something useful, like fertilizer.

[BlitzKrieg]

Not Indochina service but Algeria onwards

The 56 in 49/56 means 1956. French pulled out of Indochina 1954-55.

This rifle saw service in Algeria and elsewhere with the French but not Indochina.

Now, the earlier MAS 49 semi auto with sniper scope saw Indochina service.

[Allen]

Nice rifle but why would the French ever want guns?

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

I can appreciate the humor for sure, and I make the same jokes, but the French have fought more wars than have we. I also find it amusing that although we look down on the French and their military, they hold us in high regard, particularly the WWI and WWI troops, as well they should. Our cemeteries in France look much better than our domestic cemeteries. It disturbs me than countries like France celebrate our war dead more than we do. Maybe it is the wine, or their age of consent or lack thereof.

Jim

[Allen]

Jim,
It may be from the U.S. saving their a$$'e$ from the Germans. If Hitler had not been defeated there would be no France today. The French have fought lots of battles, even here in America where they laid claim to certain territories. How many did they actually win?

[oscars]

Lets see - without the French in the Battle of Yorktown (Sept -Oct 1781), the definitive battle of the Revolutionary War, we might be singing God Save the Queen. The only war America won by itself was the Civil War (I guess you could count the SA War). The second largest force (outside of Britain) in the Gulf War was from France. Ask Stormin' Norman what he thought of the Light French during the Hail Mary Hook. Consider that France has far and away the toughest anti terrorist program in Europe. Yes, the French can be, well French, at times.

[Allen]

"I'd rather have the German's in front of me than the French behind me"

General George Patton