French Berthier Long Rifle

Picked one up at the auction from hell yesterday. Paid too much but it was the last one I needed for my major rifles of France and I was ticked, not a good combo for bidding.

Exterior doesn't look too bad, bore looks great. Lots of surprises under the wood with heavy pitting but nothing to prevent firing that I can see.

It's marked 1907/15 but it has a 1916 barrel and a bent bolt so looks to be 1916 upgrade. 5 round magazine.

Stock has been sanded at some point probably during a refurb and it is very dry. Need to get some oil on it. It shows evidence of numbers on both sides of the butt but too faint to read them. Photos later when I get it put back together. My last French rifle, the long sought Lebel should be arriving Wednesday. It's a beater but appears to be rust free. Neither of these two is "N" marked so I need to find some Privi also.

If it has a bent bolt it is the 1st model. They started making the 2nd model with a straight bolt in november 1915. The 3 to 5 clip change started january 1916.

I must be going crazy, it does not have a bent bolt and that realization didn't set in until about an hour and a half after I started working on it. So it is probably correct for a 1916 rifle.

Torn apart, rust hopefully neutralized. Had a lot of luck with a product called PB blaster. I've used it before but not extensively (because it smells really bad). Basically dissolved the rust more effectively than anything else I've used. Wire brushed it and it came right off. It does not remove bluing.