Brain Fertilizer

I fulfilled my obligation! Sort of...

I didn't complete the purchase on the 15th...it was more like the 10th. I didn't take delivery on the 15th...it probably won't arrive for another week or so. I buy nearly all of my guns online through Gunbroker auctions, so actually purchasing one on an exact date is problematic. But since the whole process bracketed April 15th nicely, I consider my duty discharged.

So which gun did I buy?

This one:

It's a MAS 49/56 semi-automatic battle rifle.

Yeah, it's French. [insert inevitable derisive French jokes here]

But let's be honest, the problem with the French is their government, not their military. It wasn't a lack of bravery that led to the fall of France in WWII, it was incompetent leadership. French artillery has been famous for its superiority for centuries. The French Foreign Legion kicked butt. Napoleon didn't conquer most of Europe with mercenaries, he did it with Frenchmen. The French also led the world in various aspects of small arms development over the last 150 years, including the first of the modern smokeless rifle calibers (the 8mm Lebel). Their FAMAS (known affectionately as "The Bugle") is actually an amazingly effective weapon, for a 5.56mm...

In any case, the French MAS 49/56 is an excellent battle rifle. It has been battle-tested throughout the world in post WW-II French Colonial regions, meaning both South-East Asia and all over Africa. It hasn't been commonly seen in the US until just recently...but ammunition is relatively cheap and plentiful because of the rifle's ubiquitous presence worldwide.

It uses the same direct gas-impingement system found in the M-16, but since tolerances are a little looser, it doesn't have the Black Rifle's jamming problems. It fires a .308-class bullet with a little more powder behind it than the NATO 7.62mm/.308, so the round is powerful and potentially very accurate, and the rifle itself performs within a very respectable 2 Minutes of Angle (meaning shot groups will spread 2 inches for every 100 yards). That means you should still be able to hit a dinner-plate sized target within 300 yards, which is dang good for any non-match-quality semi-automatic rifle.

And you can get them for as inexpensive as $240. At least, that's what mine cost.

For those of you who were reading at my previous site, you'll remember I used to own one of these before. I'm sure you are wondering, What Happened?

Well, I had two, as you may recall: one in the original 7.5mm French, and one in .308 NATO. They both chambered flawlessly, and I couldn't decide which one I wanted to keep. So I put them both up for auction, with the winner getting to choose which one he wanted. I sold it for about $350, and the winner chose the .308 NATO. Then I saw a French 7.5mm rifle for sale on Gunbroker for about $180, and the picture was misleading...it was taken from a distance and didn't show the bolt handle, making it look like a MAS 49/56 with the magazine removed. [frown]. I don't blame the guy, though, because caveat emptor is the law of the land in online auctions. So when I won the auction for it, I immediately sold my other 49/56 in 7.5mm French, thinking that if I sold it for the going rate and picked this one up for less than $200, I came out ahead by about $150. Well, it ended up selling for $300, and then I found out I had purchased the bolt-action MAS 36. Argh!

So I saved my money and watched Gunbroker. Over time, the price of the MAS 49/56 has dropped to the $220-$270 range, and I was able to get mine for $240. If you do all the math, I made money off of all of my transactions if you exclude the bolt-action rifle. We'll see if I can sell it for at least $150 to break even on all my scheming. If not, well, sometimes life's lessons carry a price tag. [shrug]