Mle 1907/15 Range day

[Eaglelord17]

Hi all,

As I mentioned on a other thread I had some reloads I wanted to test out in my Mle 1907/15.

My rifle is basically as mint as they come mechanically, the bore being like new (and the rifle was actually taken out of the grease by me this year). The reloads I was using were 44grns of IMR-3031 with a 235grn .326 diameter bullet (pulled Balle 'N' bullets).

This is 100m shooting and my rifle shoots a high and to the right at that range with the battle sight.

First off a photo of the rifle


Then the results

This photo being a general grouping I did



And this one being my best 3rd grouping for the day (note the magazine only has 3rds). I suspect this was more luck than skill



Overall I quite like this rifle, and its quirks. I would love to get my hands on a Lebel or Mle 16 to try now as this one has already shown itself to be a new favourite. If I could just get my hands on some more 3rd mannlicher clips for a reasonable price, I would love to see what type of results I could get for a mad minute.

Information

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[butlersrangers]

'Eaglelord17' - Nice looking Berthier rifle and good shooting. What arsenal made your Mod. 1907/15?

[Eaglelord17]

It is a St. Etienne, manufactured in 1916. It does have the Balle 'N' modification, and it has a mismatched stock and bolt head (though the rest does match).

[butlersrangers]

'Eaglelord17' - My 'project' Model 1907-15 Berthier rifle was built in 1917 at Chatellerault. I got it very cheap at a local gun-shop, because it's ugly. The forearm was 'sportered' by Bubba and it was missing the tang-screw and front trigger-guard plate.

My Berthier has the Model-16 (5 shot) magazine, but, the 'follower arm spring platform' is broken. The rifle is missing its hand-guard and has the wrong (earlier) rear barrel-band.

The good news is all serial numbers are matching, the barrel is full-length, the bore is excellent, and it has the "N" chamber modifications.

I am rebuilding this Berthier as a 'shooter' in the '3 shot' configuration, which I think looks cool. I reassembled my trigger-group with a 3 shot magazine and obtained a tang screw and guard plate.

I need to get a front rifle barrel-band with stacking rod and restore the forearm. I have been getting good shooting results, firing it as is, with Prvi ammo.

Attachment 66785Attachment 66784Attachment 66786

[Eaglelord17]

Great results, these rifles are truly quite cool, and if it wasn't for the fact factory ammo is next to non-existant (at least in Canada), and the mannlicher clips are the same way (except for some reproductions if you know where to look) I imagine more people would enjoy shooting them more. For me to get this up and running, I had to find brass (only place supplying it in Canada sold out when I was ready to buy some, and I had to wait about 4 months for it to come back in stock), the dies (had to order from the states), and other than that I had the rest of the stuff required to get it going.

For me one of the coolest parts of this rifle is the fact I took it out of the grease. Since these were surplused just post WWII, I was the first person to shoot it since around WWII, maybe a little earlier. These French rifles are really growing on me, and it is making me want to try the others to see what they were like.