?Lebel? Single-shot Trainer

[Patrick Chadwick]

Alamo308, what you have is the successor model to the following, the pictures reveal the family resemblance:

The world's first purpose-designed small-bore trainer type
Well that's a sweeping claim! How do I justify it?

Attachment 16957

A little historical background is required.
The dealer had described this as an unknown rifle marked Nationale Rifle, and thought it was an English trainer.

Attachment 16958

The curious spelling suggested otherwise. It is a French trainer – in fact, one of the first-ever training rifles. It is in caliber .22 short, and is so light (2.4 kg), that a reasonably fit pistol shooter could fire it using just one hand. If ever a rifle could be described as cute, this is it.

It has a windage-adjustable backsight that is calibrated to 200 meters. When I took it to the club to try it out, the general opinion was that 100 meters would be tough, and 200 meters was a joke. Despite the doubters, this tiny rifle performed well at 100 meters.

Thus encouraged, I took it to an international friendship match at Pforzheim and showed it to members of the French team. They identified it as a French military trainer of roughly 1880-1890. Since then I have shot it at 200 meters, in France. The shots hit the target, and were even in the black, although the result could hardly be called a group. As far as I can ascertain, this was the word’s first ever purpose-designed small-bore trainer type, as opposed to full-bore rifles cut down and fitted with a small-bore sleeve in the barrel.

It was, in fact, designed before our familiar “.22 long rifle” cartridge had been conceived and become the standard small-bore rifle cartridge. The styling is reminiscent of the Gras single-shot BPCR that was the standard French rifle before the introduction of the 1886 Lebel with its revolutionary smokeless powder.

It was made in St. Etienne, the old “Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de St. Etienne”; more familiar to most shooters in the abbreviated form MAS. Although St Etienne is not marked on the rifle, the whole design is clearly a military one, the individual parts being numbered as for a service rifle, something that is certainly not usual for civilian rifles. At the end of the 19th century, St. Etienne was full of gunsmiths and small manufacturers, in addition to the state arsenal, and the arsenal is known to have farmed out work to private contractors, as was probably the case for this, the world’s first real small-bore training rifle.

The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 had ended disastrously for France. One result was a nationalist upsurge of demand for better shooting skills, to be learnt as early as possible. Shooting should be taught not only in the military academies, but in schools as well. So the French national shooting organization (their NRA equivalent) sponsored a standard cadet rifle, hence the inscription “Nationale Rifle”. One wonders why it was not called “Fusil National”, as Fusil is the French word for rifle. A masculine word, by the way, hence no "e" at the end of National in this case.

I put this question to the French shooters, and the explanation was: the rifle was the model approved by the Société Nationale de Tir (national shooting society) and, Société being a feminine word, the Nationale has an e at the end. So the name does not mean a national rifle, but the training rifle approved by the national society.

There remains the question of why the word rifle was used. Here the general hypothesis of my French friends was that as all things German were extremely “out” at that time, and France was starting on a pro-British phase that led to the “entente Cordiale”, the use of the word “Rifle” was what we would now call trendy. An early example of the modish “Franglais” that has annoyed the Académie Française ever since.

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Alamo308's trainer
Alamo308, what you have is an example of the model that succeeded mine. It is basically the same, but with the metal box added to give it a Lebel-look.

It should have an extractor fork which pulls out the empty case, but no ejector. No bolt catch, as the bolt is simply released by depressing the trigger very firmly and pulling the bolt back. The bolt should NOT come out WITHOUT the trigger being depressed.

If you post a photo of the open action, showing the loading tray and breech, I may be able to advise you further. Photos of any markings on the action body would be informative.

You may well find other marks from subcontractors on various components, but probably no manufacturer's mark on the action body, as the final rifle was a military trainer, not a commercial rifle. Very similar rifles were offered on the open market ,under the fanciful name of "Buffalo Carbine" etc, but those have a different bolt action.

These trainers were used by the French military and made available to schools and cadet forces in the drive to improve shooting skills at an early age. As far as I am aware, there was no further trainer type introduced until the MAS22.

Shooting: your rifle (assuming it is a 22lr) should group as well as most milsurps up to 100 meters, but it is worth while trying out every type of ammo you can get your hand on, to find the type that tunes with the vibrations in the long, thin barrel.

The backsight leaf should be graduated to 200 meters. As I have already explained, they do work at that distance, but do not expect great grouping.

You have got a rarity - not a backyard plinker!

Congratulations!

Patrick

P.S: unless you have sharp titanium fingernails, you will need an extractor! When you go to the range, be sure to take a long cleaning rod with you, so that you can push out the empty case!