French Lebel 1886/93

It arrived today and finally ended my long quest. I'm pleased with it. It looks better than the auction photos which is always a plus. No rust anywhere and I did have the forend off. Not a lot of finish left which is a drawback. The buttstock I feared had a large gouge with a wood filler in it but it turned out to be what appears to be paint under a layer of varnish, all chipped and irregular. It does have one very neat repair about halfway up the forend. Bore looks great, it is not "N" marked on the top of the receiver. Bayonet will not quite fit which I'll have to carefully investigate. Tried two, neither will go on, both will go on my Berthier. About 3/16th of an inch to go and it freezes. None of the numbers match, everything functions well. I'll probably try to clean the butt stock up a bit. Get the goo out of the numbers and that paint off.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...92619216-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...d77cab6c-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...22d87365-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...c2a94fb2-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...4a02c15e-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...b4eecc31-1.jpg

Nice rifle and without the N stamp too (but that ok ) Difficult to find the Lebel with the action cover which also has the top on left of the butt cut awayAttachment 55340Attachment 55341

I believe the sniper variations were used into WW2

Very nice!

Congratutions! You finally got one..and a nice one at that! Well done!

---------- Post added at 08:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 PM ----------

Funny you mention paint...mine has what appears to be a very old splotch of green or khaki paint here and there on the buttstock as well.

The paint is in the first photo, above and to the right of the sling swivel. It looks like it covered a large part of the butt at one point but is mostly chipped away except for that one large irregular area. I was afraid it was a large putty patch but it appears to be paint. There are smaller areas here and there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

It arrived today and finally ended my long quest. I'm pleased with it. It looks better than the auction photos which is always a plus. No rust anywhere and I did have the forend off. Not a lot of finish left which is a drawback. The buttstock I feared had a large gouge with a wood filler in it but it turned out to be what appears to be paint under a layer of varnish, all chipped and irregular. It does have one very neat repair about halfway up the forend. Bore looks great, it is not "N" marked on the top of the receiver. Bayonet will not quite fit which I'll have to carefully investigate. Tried two, neither will go on, both will go on my Berthier. About 3/16th of an inch to go and it freezes. None of the numbers match, everything functions well. I'll probably try to clean the butt stock up a bit. Get the goo out of the numbers and that paint off.

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Could that be paint left over from a former parade rifle?

No idea, what does a parade rifle look like?

It's been on there a long time. Rifle was never upgraded to WWII specs. Fully functional with a great bore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

No idea, what does a parade rifle look like?

It's been on there a long time. Rifle was never upgraded to WWII specs. Fully functional with a great bore.

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From what I have been told, it was an old rifle that had the stock painted black.

The paint on this is/was probably white. It looks tan now. The "black" isn't paint, just age staining from what I can tell. I haven't done anything to this yet. Had too many other things going on lately.