Rsc mle 1917

S

Saskgeol

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A little bit of a selfish present for Christmas. I had been looking for one for years, and finally got a line on one in Iowa. Thanks to Irunguns for getting it up here. Gun is a late model 1917. Excellent bore, matching numbers, with the gas system intact. Also has the bolt catch/hold open, and a nice strong cartouche on the butt stock. Just need to find some 5 shot chargers, as this one came without. Truly an incredible piece of engineering.
Big thanks to Patrick at Irunguns for being excellent throughout the import process. And a great big thanks to everybody on this forum for sharing so much information. Invaluable to us new members.
Sorry for the picture quality.


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From what I've found, there were several attempts at semi auto battle rifles: the French Meunière or MLE 1916. The Swiss/Mexican Mondragon. Mauser had several prototype auto loaders (some examples are for sale in the upcoming James Julia auction catalog). Winchester had its 1907 auto loader etc. The French had other designs on the board, most of them better, and dropping the rimmed 8mm round, but in the dark days of WW I the 1917 got built because of its ostensible parts similarity with the existing 8mm Lebel. In reality only the stock was shared. The 1917 used a purpose built 5 shot charger, (which are impossible to find) while the 1918 model adopted the berthiers much more common charger design, as well as an action cover to keep the ever present mud out of the internals.

My great great uncle carried one of these for the duration of its issue, he described his as very accurate. Apparently they were issued to designated marksmen, kind of a forerunner to the m14. What's so interesting to me is to see the way the battle rifle has progressed. Supposedly James Garand appropriated the basic design elements for the M1 Garand from the 1917. Here is an article where they try and make the case. http://mountainpreparedness.########.fr/2011/04/french-connection-in-history-of-m1.html

I don't know if I will ever fire it, too scared of ruining history. Maybe if I found a charger and got some weak loads, just so nothing got too stressed. But to think of something surviving the horrors of trench warfare and almost 100 years of evading Bubba. Alot of these were turned into single shots, and had the gas system removed or plugged. Supposedly out of the 80,000 built there is less than 500 surviving semi auto capable examples. I think it will be static display. I'm just happy to have a piece of history and keep it preserved.

Although I wonder if Tapco makes a stock kit?

J/k
 
Friend, you do NOT apologise for posting photos of something THAT bloody rare! Most of us will never have one of these in our hands.

A nice piece of period engineering, especially considering the tremendous stress they were under at that time.

French rifles are interesting but (sometimes) incomprehensible. They use the best materials and the finest workmanship, but they use them on wonky designs. This rifle is remarkably straightforward.

You are so very lucky to have it..... and even luckier to have known someone who actually used one in Service to his country.

If they had monthly award around here for this forum, I would think that you just won it!

I congratulate you on a FINE addition to a collection.

(BTW, Tapco is Crapco. Send it here and I'll make you a Tanker out of it!!!! Can install an MP-40-type folding butt at the same time, put on a couple of Picatinny rails and a decent laser with a flashlight, infrared rangefinder. Whaddaya think of that?)
 
OP, pick up the 2014 issue of Military Surplus magazine. There's an article in there about your rifle. It says that original chargers for it go for around $300 :eek: in the States IF you can find them, and the Belgian repro chargers usually need some work to get them to feed right. They're not cheap or easy to find, either, according to the author.
 
Awesome, nice find.

BTW I don't know if the AD is still good, it's from 2012, but you can always PM the fellow on gunboards.com , he has/had a clip for $300, perhaps a lead to another?

ht tp://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?261539-WTS-French-1917-MA-T-RSC-semi-auto-loading-clip
 
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Well for sure it isn't something you see very often up here or anywhere for that matter.

Nice find and congrats! Thanks for posting that up. It was really cool to see.
 
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