At the Fall 2021 meeting of the American Society of Arms Collectors, I had the opportunity to make a presentation on the development of French military repeating rifles. The story begins with the Mle 1874 Gras, and proceeds through three different patterns of tube-magazine Kropatschek type rifles (the Mle 1878, 1884, and 1885) before arriving at the Mle 1886 Lebel.
Competition
BUG Match with a 98-Year-Old 6.35mm Le Français
Today I’m at the BackUp Gun Match in Tucson with a first model Le Français made in 1923. This is an early French semiauto pistol design intended for pocket carry. It has a 7-round magazine […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Belgian 1886 Rifle Trials Report (Translated to English)
Our friend Thibaud has spent some time translating a report from the Belgian 1886 rifle trials into English – thank you, Thibaud! He notes that the text has a lot of specifically Belgian terminology and […]
Single Shot Rifles
French Remington Rolling Block in 8mm Lebel (Video)
The Remington Rolling Block, introduced in 1866, was one of the most prolific single shot military rifles in the world. The combination of aggressive marketing, low cost, and an excellent design led to Remington selling […]
Nicely done Ian. Very interesting lecture.
Outstanding history lesson sir. Thank you!
Omelette du Fromage.
The same General Boulanger who tried to overthrow the Republic in 1889, and later killed himself at his mistress’ grave in 1891.
Busy fellow…
I found this one of the most interesting videos you have posted for a good while. I like your stuff, but I am interested in history first, and guns a long way after.
I already knew everything you said from watching you, and http://www.candrsenal.com , but just having it said again a bit different seemed to work very well for me. Thank you.
Great job Ian, always great when the video is a French weapon!!
Congratulations on your arrival!
just goes to show you that there are people out there that never work a day in their lives because they get paid doing what they love. at least, thats the case now for Ian anyways.
You feel that you have wasted 50 years in France when you listen to such an interesting expose as this and from an american in America.But then Ian’s charisma and internet have certainly changed peoples ideas of french military weapons
Great historical info, love the small digressions that you add to your presentations, they add texture to what otherwise could be dry history!
This talk brings to mind the idea of a lecture or series on Interarms / Samuel Cummins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Cummings: so much history passed through there …