NOT FOR SALE. INFO ONLY P9-13
French Lebel Mle 1886/93 R35 8X50R(8mm Lebel) Made at Tulle MA C 1938. Bore VG, All matching except bolt. Finish scratched, Wood Dinged. Has bayonet.
History:
More properly known as the Fusil d’Infanterie Mle. 1886, the Lebel M-1886 is notable since it is the first military rifle to use both smokeless powder and (what was considered at the time) a small-caliber bullet. (It should be noted that the rifle became known as the "Lebel," over the protests of Colonel Lebel himself – he did not design the rifle, only the cartridge.) The new round was a technical advance, but rather strangely-implemented; it was behind the times as far as feed was concerned, using a tubular magazine (in a bolt-action rifle, which is rather unusual), but ahead of the times as far as the ammunition is concerned. It essentially led to an arms race that would last some 20 years, until the Mauser series of rifles came into its own. In the meantime, the M-1886 was issued to the French military and the Foreign Legion alike.
The Lebel M-1886 is essentially a Mle. 1885 modified to use the new ammunition; changes included a new barrel, bolt head, and a new chamber. The M-1886 was forced to use round-headed ammunition by the tubular magazine feed (at the time, Spitzer (pointed-nose) bullets were quite unreliable in a tubular feed magazine, with the point of the bullet often setting off the primer of the round ahead of it in the magazine in the shock of firing the weapon). The bolt action had a massive, exposed receiver with a bolt handle that stuck straight out from the weapon. The peculiar bolt mechanism and the need for a large tubular magazine led to a long, heavy, and unbalanced rifle which took some time for shooters to get used to. The wooden stock was straight-wristed with a quite long length of pull. The magazine feed could be cut off, allowing for the feeding of single rounds into the rifle (French tactics of the time called for the shooter to feed single rounds into the weapon under most circumstances, using the magazine only to defend against incoming charges or when a large volume of fire was otherwise needed).
In 1893, minor modifications were made to the M-1886; the firing pin, muzzle band, and bolt head were modified. Despite these minor modifications, the rifle was given a new designation, the M-1886/93. It is identical to the standard M-1886 for game purposes. Another minor and relatively rare variation, the M-1886/93/R35, was a carbine version with a 17.7-inch barrel and a tubular magazine that held only three rounds.
Despite its being essentially obsolete well before World War 1, the M-1886 remained in service with the French until the end of World War 2 (in limited numbers).
The tubular magazine of the Lebel M-1886 was far too slow and difficult to load, especially as the feed spring in the magazine was very stiff. The Berthier modification (the Mle 1907/15, generally known as the "Lebel-Berthier") was a box magazine with a Mannlicher clip, in addition to allowing the weapon to use the new Spitzer-pointed boattail bullet. The original Berthier modification gave it only a three-round magazine in order to avoid having to do heavy modifications to the stock, but later a 5-round magazine was adapted to it by adding a sheet-metal extension to the bottom of the stock. This version was variously referred to as the Mle 1916, Mle 1907/15/16, and its official designation, the Mle 1907/15 et 1916.) For the most part, the M-1907/15 went to Foreign Legionaires; this gave them the best rifle in the world for a few years.
The Berthier modification remained in service until the 1950s; many were later modified to fire 7.5mm MAS (these had no official designation), and a few were given mounts for telescopic sights and used as ad hoc sniper rifles.
