Range Time: The Ugly French Duckling

First off, need to link the original blog to this new one here. The gun blog. Recently, I revisited this rifle to get it ready for hunting season, to get me ready for the way it shoots...or the way it doesn't.


http://dumbasscarpenter.blogspot.com/2011/02/countdown-continues-ugly-french.html


When I set this rifle down last, I was fixin' to get ready to head to the range, and last weekend, that's just what I did.


The funny thing about being in a gun club with over a thousand members is the fact, that on any given Sunday, you can almost bet the place will be deserted. Too many husbands, and too many fathers "don't have time" to go to the club--which, is good and bad. It means I can saunter downrange whenever I want without worrying about harshing some guy's "shot string". No polite, (see, we all have guns, so we're all polite) "Mind if I stroll down there to hang a target, Sgt. Slaughter?"


The bad news is that the husbands and fathers don't get to the club in time to do their range work and end up just having faith that the gun is still holding its zero, or that the ammo they bought the day before their first hunt will also shoot where the cartridges they can't find from last year did.


So I started out with my French MAS all by my lonesome with plenty of time to poke around the range, and even take pictures. Notice how ugly a rifle can be. To be fair, the wood and the metal's finish is absolutely gorgeous. But it's all put together like a duck-billed platypus. The french obviously never had to worry about patent infringement with the Mauser corporation like the U.S.A. did with our early combat bolt gun.

My 1950's vintage MAS 36 with the factory recoil pad from a Mas 49/56.

Now this rifle, when you look down the barrel (with the bolt removed--duh!), only has what I'd call a ghost of rifling. Nothing I've read, and nothing I've seen on You Tube suggests that this thing would be accurate. So I wasn't expecting much when I opened the box of cartridges that been collecting dust in the garage since the kids were tots.


There were three kinds to choose from, some old 6.5X55 Swedish conversion cartridges, and two other loads with real 7.5X54 MAS brass. The recipes, at this point, were a mystery to me--the loads were lost to the ages. Too bad. Because I grabbed three of the same kind and sent them down range and was astonished--you know it's true, because I hate that word--at how accurate the load was/is.

That's a three shot group!

That's from me, brett mothershead, with 45 year old eyes, open sights, and a 61 year-old rifle with just that hint of rifling at 100 yards. This is amazing accuracy for any rifle with a scope! Could I repeat this? I have no idea...probably not, but I know when to stop. The bad news? I was holding center on the orange card. The thing shoots at least 8 inches high at 100 yards. That could be a problem for a hunter. What good is stellar accuracy if the thing won't shoot to point of aim.


The sights on the rifle, though very functional, were at the end of their adjustment for close up work--close up for combat purposes. To regulate the point of impact for this particular load at 100 yards, I'd have to get someone, a gunsmith I know (named Brain), to weld an extension on top of the front sight blade to lower the point of impact...but hunting season's just around the corner, and I don't have a year to wait before I use this rifle (it's a Brian/crabby-gunsmith thing; think sloooow). A challenge is a challenge.


The good news? I had more cartridges with honest 7.5mm brass with a different recipe. I'm assuming I got these out of that great reference book Cartridges of the World and just judging by the look of the bullet, they're 150 grain Sierras. The awesome yet shoots-em-high load looks like a Hornady, but I'll have to yank one apart and backwards engineer it. Anyway, I held on the card again with the other load and was met with exactly what I'd expect from the rifle. Nothing so amazing, but good enough to make a lethal shot on game.

The card's 5.5"X7" and the group's 2.25"--plenty strong for deer.

The group is a tad right, but taking the forearm off and tapping the front sight over seems like alot of trouble considering to punch the lights out on a deer-sized animal one need only place one shot into a lung-sized target. No, I'll hunt with that load--whatever it may be--this year and revisit the other load, the very accurate load, when I have more time and influence over a recalcitrant gunsmith who can raise the front sight.


Satisfied with that load, I shot away the last of the Swedish conversions and threw the bulgy, though not so sooty as I remembered, brass casings away. I'm sure some other trash can-diving reloader will have them out by this weekend. What can I say...we're a frugal bunch.


By the end of my time at the range, I'd readied one other rifle, a Marlin 336 in 30-30, and came to share the range with some others. It was nice to see, a father and a husband out doing his range work--on his muzzleloader and his young-uns.

The next generation out and about.

I'm always ready to lounge and watch and wait on the next generation of shooters, hunters, and little people. We crabby old men need to recognize that these fellas are going to make the future of our sport possible. I like to say, "Hook 'em young." That way, there'll always be someone on a range in the fall. I've dragged mine to The Rock many times and it makes me happy to see fathers doing the same with their kids. When you "have time", you can do lots of good things for your upcoming hunt, and your upcoming hunting partners.