Are Lebel Rifles safe to shoot.

[RBruce]

Assuming that there are not defects in the rifle, and that the correct loads are used, are the Lebel rifles safe to shoot? If so, what loads are recommended? If not, can you explain why.
--TIA

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Aragorn243]

With no defects in the rifle, they are safe to shoot with the proper loads, etc same as any other old surplus rifle. Check it over carefully or get a gunsmith to do so. They went through quite a few battles/wars with no difficulties.

The big safety issue with them is that there is no safety. Load it and it's ready to fire. I don't much care for that aspect about French Rifles but I guess their philosophy was that if you weren't going to shoot it, don't put a round in the chamber.

Can't help you with the loads, I don't have one yet myself. Privi Partisan may make them, I don't know.

[smellie]

Partizan makes the ammo, but we can't get it here due to Government bureaucracy and general BS. There is supposed to be a supply coming in later this year.

Remington made it in the USA up to about 1950.

The new stuff does not have the correct rim bevel, so that must be addressed somehow. Lathe can do a lot of rounds in an hour if you are careful. Otherwise, it's fine.

Bullet was a very odd design and many mike as high as .326 at the crimping groove. You can use standard .323 slugs; flatbases are fine.

Barnes (COTW-6) lists the military load as a 198BTFMJ at 2380 ft/sec for 2841 ft/lbs ME, which puts the Lebel at about 8% above a .303. The Remington 170 loading produced 2640 ft/sec for 2630t/lbs ME. He suggests that you can duplicate the milspec load with 46 grains of 3031 or improve it slightly with 45 of 4895, which will bring you about 100 ft/sec above factory. For the 170, he suggests 49 of 4895 for 2570 ft/sec and 2500 ft/lbs.

Graf's has the brass and Lee Precision makes dies, as do many other makers.

Hope this helps.
.

[RBruce]

Thank you both for the information
.

[Calif-Steve]

The Graf brass runs right. Watch the hot loads as the rifle kicks like mule.

[RCS]

Photo shows two Remington hunting cartridges, third is loaded by Kynoch for the Lebel rifle magazine, note the flat tip of the bullet, and the forth is a military load. Alot of Lebel rifles (and other French rifles and carbines) were altered for the machine gun cartridge M32 and if your rifle has a N stamped on the receiver ring, it would indicate that it was altered too. Best to not use any old military 8mm Lebel cartridges except to pull the bullets to reload, Brass can be made from 348 Win

[jmoore]

You can use pointed FMJ bullets if the cartridge bases are grooved as noted by smellie above. That was the French solution, so I suppose it is well enough a proven fix.

[RCS]

photo of the primer area

[jmoore]

photo of the primer areahttp://http://tinypic.com/m/fmt376/2

How about these?





RCS's "tiny pic" didn't show on my machine.

[samnev]

They are very safe to use as long as you do not use commercial brass without the safety ring as shown above. So you are restricted to use the Lebel's (not the Berthiers which are clip fed) as single shot rifles. I wonder how the new Hornady projos with the soft composite tips would work.? They are supposedly safe to fire in tubular magazine rifles.