French Berthier purchase from last weekend

[burb1989]

Hey everyone. I picked this berthier up last weekend and it has one heck of a history. I guy walked in to the gun show with it and no one wanted it because of its condition. He brought it to me and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It originally was a model 1890 with its original barrel but was upgraded over time to a model 1892 m16 carbine. It's all matching but is missing the bolt head, which I have ordered from Liberty Tree and it should be here in a couple of days. There are two cuts in the stock that I found very interesting. The one in the stock wrist was repaired a long time ago with "wiggle screws". The other is a recognizable duffle cut underneath the front barrel band. I talked to the seller and we came to a price of $60 for it which made us both happy as he just wanted to get rid of it. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

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[burb1989]

Here are some pics of the serial number and barrel date.

[Aragorn243]

That's a rough one. Not sure I would shoot it with that stock repair. Can't go wrong for the price. A little TLC and you could have something nice.

[burb1989]

Definitely it isn't going to shoot like it is and I'm torn between two routes. The first is after I get in my missing bolt head to just fix the duffle cuts in a way to where they won't damage the rifle during transit or to get another stock and have it for shooting purposes while keeping the original as a display piece (Liberty Tree has extra stocks but they do come at a price)

[Eaglelord17]

Very nice, personally I love when rifles have character rather than some pristine example that has never been anywhere.

Apparently these carbines pack quite a wallop when shooting them. I just recently got my M1907/15 shooting and that kicks a fair bit (and this is coming from someone who used to shoot a M95 carbine in 8x56r no issue), so I don't want to imagine what that would be like from such a little carbine.

[jmoore]

I haven't found my couple of Berthier carbines all that bad in the recoil department. Surprisingly accurate, yes!
(Avatar is a view down the sights of one carbine. At least when this post is written.)

[rayg]

My experience with duffle cuts is if you shoot it with just he ends just glued together, the pieces won't hold together. You need to drill into both cut ends and add a couple of long thin threaded screws with the heads cut off with some glue/expoxi applied. The threads give the glue something to bind to. Ray

[Aragorn243]

I think if I were to repair that cut I'd insert a heavy dowel in the middle of it first, then perhaps some screws. Or possibly cut out each side and make a laminate.

[burb1989]

I did a full cleaning out of the carbine today and I noticed a patch of rust inside the bore that's not horribly thick but is enough to warrant me not shooting it at all. I'll probably just replace the bolt head, reinforce the repair of the stock wrist, and keep it as a nice display piece alongside my Indochinois berthier from Vietnam. Odds are I'll find a nice berthier that'll shoot but for now I have a Gras that the bore is beautiful in and a friend of mine made some 11mm Gras ammo up so this weekend we'll be bringing our Gras's and our Arisakas to shoot as he has a couple he wants to shoot and I have my new mummed type 38 and my trusty bring back mid war type 99 to shoot as well.

[Aragorn243]

How big is the patch? I have a bore that is completely rust that I'm working on getting shootable. It's a carcano, not a lebel. Has very strong rifling or I wouldn't bother but a little rust shouldn't hurt it.