Question about 1886 Lebel

Hello all. I've always wanted an 1886 Lebel but have never actually come across one in person. In a week or two I will be in a position where I will be actively looking to buy one. I'm wondering What should I expect to pay for a decent, mechanically sound, shootable example with a good bore? Also where should I start my search for such a thing? I'm not terribly worried about the ammo situation as I'm a farily experienced reloader and will be going that route. I can find brass and dies and will likely just shoot cast bullets to keep down on wear and tear on the rifle, I don't need full power loads nor do I need to shoot it thousands of times.

Thanks in advance for any info.

M1886/93 rifles in very good or better condition, in my opinion, are over $1000 now, add alot more for nice
condition and matching numbers. Difficult to find with original barrel date and with the N stamp (conversion)

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Originally Posted by RCS

M1886/93 rifles in very good or better condition, in my opinion, are over $1000 now, add alot more for nice
condition and matching numbers. Difficult to find with original barrel date and with the N stamp (conversion)

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I was figuring somewhere in the $1000-$1500 range. Matching numbers would be nice but depending on the rifle it's not a deal breaker.

Matching numbers on Lebels are rare. Finding a Lebel these days is tough. When I was hunting for one a few years ago they were tough but still showed up from time to time. I haven't seen one for sale in a long while at gun shows. Best bet to see one is probably Gun Broker. I'd also keep an eye out at the larger gun auctions in your area. With online bidding with sites like Hi-bid, you can also check auctions nationally. Problem with these is descriptions are almost non-existent. These got real popular with Covid shutting down the physical auctions. I had hoped they were temporary but I expect they are here to stay now. Makes it a lot harder to get deals at auctions.

I got real lucky with an R-35 at a physical auction. The auction house had the action messed up so it was inoperable. I knew enough about them to know it was fine but apparently no one else did so I got it cheap.

Royal Tiger Imports has a shipment of Lebels from Ethiopia for $1250-1500.

French 1886 M93 Lebel Rifle

---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------

I bought a Berdan from them and was very happy with it. A lot of people don’t like them much. Condition will be well worn.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Royal Tiger Imports has a shipment of Lebels from Ethiopia for $1250-1500.

French 1886 M93 Lebel Rifle

---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------

I bought a Berdan from them and was very happy with it. A lot of people don’t like them much. Condition will be well worn.

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Thanks for the info, I’ll look into that. I’ve heard good and bad about RTI, might end up looking for something else. There’s a lot of empty spaces in my milsurp collection to fill. Maybe I’ll have better luck finding a Ross rifle.

---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Matching numbers on Lebels are rare. Finding a Lebel these days is tough. When I was hunting for one a few years ago they were tough but still showed up from time to time. I haven't seen one for sale in a long while at gun shows. Best bet to see one is probably Gun Broker. I'd also keep an eye out at the larger gun auctions in your area. With online bidding with sites like Hi-bid, you can also check auctions nationally. Problem with these is descriptions are almost non-existent. These got real popular with Covid shutting down the physical auctions. I had hoped they were temporary but I expect they are here to stay now. Makes it a lot harder to get deals at auctions.

I got real lucky with an R-35 at a physical auction. The auction house had the action messed up so it was inoperable. I knew enough about them to know it was fine but apparently no one else did so I got it cheap.

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I got my K31 that way last summer. The shop that had it only wanted $375 to begin with. They didn’t know what it was, the tag said “Swiss? 7.62 NATO? $375. “

Someone had pulled the bolt out and the charging handle had come off. Apparently neither the shop owner or anyone he’d talked to could get it back together. So I got it for $250! It’s a 1945 gun, all matching in about 98% condition complete with troop tag.

I’d been looking for a K31 for years and the one I bought was only the second I had seen in person the first one was back when they were $99. The K31 was a slippery slope that led to a very clean 1889 Schmidt-Rubin.

"...Finding a Lebel these days is tough..." And that's being polite. Easier Stateside, but not cheap. An M93 runs $1795US with a bayonet at .ima-usa.com. $1495 without. Yep $200 for a bayonet.
"...Just in from Africa!..." Isn't a good thing. Shop I worked in long ago had some Ethiopian AR-10s that still had desert in 'em. African troopies don't exactly care for their kit well.
Oddly Budget Shooting Supplies in BC has Fioochi brand 8mm Lebel ammo. $78Cdn per 50. No exports though. Graf's lists PCI and Prvi at about $30 per 20. Out of stock of course.

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Originally Posted by Sunray

"...Finding a Lebel these days is tough..." And that's being polite. Easier Stateside, but not cheap. An M93 runs $1795US with a bayonet at .ima-usa.com. $1495 without. Yep $200 for a bayonet.
"...Just in from Africa!..." Isn't a good thing. Shop I worked in long ago had some Ethiopian AR-10s that still had desert in 'em. African troopies don't exactly care for their kit well.
Oddly Budget Shooting Supplies in BC has Fioochi brand 8mm Lebel ammo. $78Cdn per 50. No exports though. Graf's lists PCI and Prvi at about $30 per 20. Out of stock of course.

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Yeah I've pretty much determined that if I want a Lebel I'm going to be looking in the $1500-$2000 range. I'm not surprised at $200 for a bayonet, I've seen certain bayonets go for over $500! Were Lebels ever plentiful and cheap here in the U.S.? In the 20 years I've been shooting I've never seen one but most of the shops around me act like all milsurps are some kind of bombs and turn most of them away, if they do take them in their almost always mislabeled and dirt cheap. I tried to trade a really nice all original trapdoor to a local shop late last year, owner was firmly convinced it was an Indian fake. Never mind I'd been through a whole process authenticating it, I even have the books on the Trapdoor. I've seen some cobbled together trapdoors but can't say I've seen an all out fake. But that's the kind of shops I have around me. I ended up turning a nice profit on it to an individual as the shop I got it from also didn't know anything about it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point, I'm just kind of sitting on my money and letting it grow while I wait for something to really jump out at me. As far as milsurps go I'm more into the WWI and earlier stuff espcially the BP cartridge guns but a Lebel is one of my longtime wants.

I'm not terribly worried about the ammo, as long as I can find brass and dies and that doesn't seem to be a huge issue.

I just put in another order from RTI for an 1888 Austrian Mannlicher. They put things on flash sales periodically and it was $300 off for 24 hours.

As for bayonets, you should be able to get one for less than $100. They are pretty common on ebay.