St. Etienne Mle M16 rifle.

Took a departure from Lee Enfields this weekend and picked up a Berthier Mle M16 at the local gun show. Rifle is a mixmaster, seems to be in pretty good condition, receiver is not marked N. This is my first French rifle, know virtually nothing about them. It does appear to have a W in a box marking on the left side of the receiver. Any idea what that is? Anything I should look for as far as other markings go? Have not disassembled it yet. Noticed that Privi Partsan manufactures some 8mm Lebel, so I'd like to put some rounds through this one. What kinds of headspacing issues should I be concerned with, if any? Thanks in advance

Well be careful or you're going to find you won't be able to have just one French rifle as they are so reasonably priced. About a year ago I picked up a Berthier 07/15 rifle for $40 and started cast bullet reloading for it. Well since that time I ended up getting 6 more rifles, carbines and a Lebel. The Lebel was my most expensive one at $200. The others were all under $200. Lots of fun researching the various models. best bargains out there, Ray

I'd love to see The French Collection (sorry). Photos please.

I have recently decided that I want an Mle 1907-15 rifle, so have begun a casual search.

Always difficult to find and almost always expensive. The RSC Model 1917 uses a special clip which sells for $50 to $100 (even repros) the Model 1918 ued the standard rifle clip. Note the N over the chamber, this came back from WW2

Another rare rifle to locate is the Lebel M1886/93 conversion to 7.5mm.

Yes, as I said, this is going to be quite the learning experience, as I mostly collect British military firearms. This rifle, as mentioned, is a complete mixter. Is this typical? A very interesting piece, I hope to learn a lot about it over the next days.

I have used, repaired, and collected French rifles. I had an RSC 1917 and fired it.Revolutionary. Never saw a RSC 1918. The MAS 44 and 49/56 are superb. I make my ammo from 6.5 Swedish gallery cartridges. They are addictive. gary

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Originally Posted by RangeRover

I'd love to see The French Collection (sorry). Photos please.

I have recently decided that I want an Mle 1907-15 rifle, so have begun a casual search.

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Oh oh, now I have to try to find a RSC Model 1917. Nice one.

Check out this forum for more info on French guns. I've posted some of my finds there under RayG_Wisconsin,
Ray

French Firearms Board

The rifles can be found and will be expensive, be careful of incomplete RSC 1917's as parts can be difficult to impossible to find (some Lebel parts can be used) and some rifles had parts from their gas system removed or were in rusted condition - you have to make sure the gas system is complete.

Finding the correct clip is another problem, there were some repros made in France and even these need some work to function. Photo shows a RSC Modele 1917 clip

I've one of those incomplete RSC 1917s, and need a donor mixmaster Lebel to fix it up. The gas system parts aren't too hard to make if you have some samples or drawings. (I have had both, but the samples were returned and the drawings are safely stored...somewhere!) Nice to know there's clips to be had, even if they need tweaking.