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Question: What was the official name of the MAS 36 series of weapons ?
Answer: The were officially called the following:
1. Fusil a Répétition de 7,5mm Modèle 1936
2. Fusil a Répétition de 7,5mm Modèle 1936 CR39
3. Fusil a Répétition de 7,5mm Modèle 1936-51

Question: What year was my rifle made ?
Answer: Without taking the forearm and handguard off the receiver, which is refered to a question below, to find the date on the barrel, the simplest method it to use this guide ...
Fusil Modèle 1936 (MAS 36) ... Serial number prefixes F, G, H, J, up to around K 3100 were all pre-war made. In on or before October, 1944, the French restarted where they left off in June of 1940 somewhere around K 3100. L, M, N, P,and Q were finished off by 1950. They then went to block letters: FG, FH, and FJ and so on until 1957.
For the "G", "K" and "L" add +/- 500 units, as a near margin of error, Pre-War is from script "F" up to script prefix 'G 79000' / Pre-Armistice would be to script prefix 'K 29000' or 'L 4000'. The "K" and "L" being a concurrent production run.
Fusil Modèle 1936 Crosse Repliable 1939 (MAS 36 C.R.39) ... These were a conversion of the Fusil Modèle 1936 and will have various serial number prefixes F, G, H, J, K, and L.
Fusil Modèle 1936 Lance-Grenades 1948 (MAS 36 LG48) ... These were only made at the arsenal in the "FG" series in 1950 and 1951, many are conversions and are stamped "L.G. 48" after the designation on the receiver .
Fusil Modèle 1936-1951 (MAS 36/51) ... Used block Letters, F and up starting in 1951 and ending in 1962.
** Please see this informative post for more information on the dates to exactly where your weapon falls into to date it better:
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread. ... -New-Forum
Note: The barrel date is just that and does not indicate the year of the rifles assemblage. The date can, and has been shown to be several years earlier or as much as a two decades later than the chronology of the firearm's acceptance due to many of these weapons were re-built during their lifetime.

Question: What series is my MAS 36, I can not read the French script on the receiver ?
Answer: See chart below
Note: The "Q", looks like a stylized '2' and the "J" more like an scripted letter 'I'. Please understand these are the best charts I could find of the various French scripted letters.





Question: I noticed that my MAS 36 is counter-barreled about a quarter inch on the inside of the bore. Is this part of the refurb process or the way they were made? Does it affect the accuracy of the rifle?
Answer: All MAS 36 counter-bored barrels were factory built that way, these originally intended for the rifles to be used for grenade launching (MAS 36 LG48), it was extended to the whole production, so a standard rifle could be transformed into a dedicated grenade launcher by only swapping parts.
These counterbored barrels have a large G stamped on the left side ahead of the front sight, they are found on all MAS 36 rifles built after 1948 starting with the Q series and can also be found on earlier production rifles rebarreled in the 60's.
The counter-boring doesn't affect the rifles accuracy

Question: Should I remove the forearm/hanguard from the rifle to check for the date it was built or for cleaning ?
Answer: No, If you remove the forarm/handguard of your rifle to check the barrel date and/or condition you will need to shoot a few rounds after re-assembly before your rifle accuracy is restored, providing you retighten the screws exactly as they were. This is why the military designers went for these type of slotted screws: Mas 36 rifles had to be checked at the range to confirm that they would shoot at point of aim or adjusted after any work involving the furniture removal, hence the interdiction for the ordinary French soldier to take off the furniture for rifle cleaning.

Question: Is there any where that I can find the tool that you take off the barrel bands with ? Why did the French make screws like this ?
Answer: You will have to modify a flat-tip srewdriver to make this tool as these tools are very uncommon to find here in the U.S.A. Below is the dimensions to make these special tools
These screws were made this way so that the ordinary French soldier could not take that part off the weapon which was only to be done by the armourers at a main armament facility. (See above question as well)



Question: How to correctly make Sight Adjustments to MAS 36's ?
Answer: The correct way of adjusting a Mas 36 is by replacing its rear sight leaf by another one with the peep hole drilled off center. There should be a letter or several signs stamped on the top of the rear sight leaf, indicating if it is centered or offset.

Value of offset
N = 0 (centered)
-4 or +4 = bring the group 135mm down or up at 200M
-8 or +8 = bring the group 270mm down or up at 200M
D4 or G4 = move the group 135mm to the right or to the left at 200M
D8 or G8 = move the group 270mm to the right or to the left at 200M

D = Droite/Right, G = Gauche/Left

For the post WWII rifles there are 24 different rear sight leaf available for adjustment beside the N sight and only 8 for the pre WWII models. As for any modification to the fit of the barrel in the forend and handguard, it is best to leave it as is was designed unless you are very experimented in tuning rifles.





Question: What is the diameter of the peep hole on the rear sight of a MAS 36?
Answer: 1.6mm

Question: How do I tighten a loose forend to the barreled assembly?
Answer: As the wood has shrunk a bit over time, the best way to restore a tight fit of the forend to the barreled assembly, you will need to insert one or several shim plates under the steel hook connecting the back of the forend to the front of the receiver. To remove the steel hook (item R), undo the two screws (M) holding the hook to the forend wood, if the back plate (N) is stuck to the wood, leave it there, it doesn't matter. Use the two screws to pull the hook straight off the wood, it's a tight fit and any motion but straight will damage the wood. Cut several shims as in (P) of 0.2mm thickness to fit at the bottom of the recess cut in the wood , position the hook over the shims in the wood recess and tighten it up.
Position your shimmed forend in place, get the hook in the receiver and rotate the forend up. You will have a good fit when you need to apply some force to bring the forend in contact with the barrel from say 15° away from the horizontal. A tight fit is paramount to a good accuracy, the armorers used shims on both the forend and stock fit the the assembly. The forend should be in contact with the barrel at both ends only and the handguard should contact the barrel only under the middle band.



Question: Why is there no safety on the MAS 36 or any of French bolt action rifles ?
Answer: The French military theory of why no safety was used was based upon the Volley Fire theory, which basically states that the soldier loaded and fired his weapon to the commands of the officers as a single group instead of individually. Basically the soldier was to load his magazine prior to engaging the enemy, then chamber the round immediately upon engagement and continue reloading and firing it until the end of the action. Once all firing ceased the chamber was cleared of any rounds and then the magazines were replenished. The French soldier was taught by very strict instruction you cycle the bolt back and forth twice once the last round was fired and each and every time you did this you looked into the chamber to see if any cartridges are in the chamber. If any cartridges are in the chamber doing this he was severly punished for it. The French also believed that a safety was useless on military rifles as the soldier with wet, dirty, etc. hands could possibly have a hard time taking the safety off and thus getting himself killed while trying to do so.

Question: I noticed that the refurbished followers have a bolt stop while the non-refurbished ones do not. Which follower came first and when did they switch?
Answer: The magazine follower without a bolt open feature is pre-WWII and follower with a bolt open feature is a post- WWII modification. If any pre-war MAS 36's that went through the re-furbishment had the later style followers added.

Question: What type of finish was used on the metal of MAS 36's ?
Answer: Black paint was used until the early 1950's on production rifles and they used a Iron type phosphated finish under the paint which was not evenly applied, since it was going to be painted and varnished. They did not try to get an even coating but just enough to etch the metal so that the paint would adhere properly. The latest series that has been observed with black paint is the "P" series in 1949, along with a couple of early "Q" series guns from the same year. Heavy Zinc-Phosphate was used after 1950. Full parkerizing began sometime in 1950.

Question: I have a MAS 36 in .308 were these converted by the French, if not by whom ?
Answer: NO ... These conversions were done by Century Arms, Inc. to make them more appealing to the American shooter.
Most of these conversions were badly done by them ranging from bad chambers to improperly putting the forearm/handguard on the receiver.
There were only a few legitimate French conversion MAS 36's to use the .308 cartridge but 99% of these have remained in France and very few, if any, were exported to the U.S.A. Most of these were to build the FR-F2 Sniper platform.

Question: What is the minimum and maximum chamber size in a Fusil Modèle 1936 (MAS 36) as well as bore diameter and groove diameter ?
Answer: See charts below

Chamber minimum size


Chamber maximum size


Bore diameter : minimum = 7.50mm, maximum 7.54mm
Grooves diameter : minimum 7.80mm, maximum 7.83mm


Cartridge Dimensions


Question: How do you use the grenade launcher on the Fusil Modèle 1936-1951 ?
Answer: The launcher sight is locked at 45° to shoot anti-personnel grenades at various ranges from 100 to 400 meters which has 20 meter increment adjustments, range then was adjusted by moving the sliding range ring to the proper distance, the rifle is then lined up with the target by using the front and rear sights located on the left of the launcher sight in which the shooter must keep the sight horinzontal for the range to be correct.
For direct shooting of anti-tank or multi-purpose grenades, the sight is locked at 90° making sure the sliding range ring is all the way down, the rifle is then sighted with the tip of the grenade lined up with the target using the correct distance chevron on the sight. For anti-tank grenades you use the 100M, 75M and 50M chevrons and for multi-purpose grenades you use the 120M chevron.


© This article is copyrighted. Please do not reproduce this article in whole or part, in any form, without obtaining my written permission

Thank you Patrick very interesting.

As posted by orcmastiff on gunboards.com

some notes on sight assemblies, bayonets and their captive-channels:

1) Type 1 SIGHT which was used, barring further revelations, until the Armistice. Note the slide-stop ridges on the 'slider spring-arm' and the closed upper end of its channel)
2 & 3) Type 2 MODIFIED/Transitional: This first appeared on the elegant Vichy tir reduit sub-calibre trainer of 1941(Photo #2 from Vivelacolo's excellent thread on the "tir reduit"), and then on the first post-Liberation serial production "K"s, starting in October, 1944(Photo #3 provided by "28 mosin, of his interesting "K"). The 'arm' is now smooth and locked by a detenting button which engages the notches, but the 'channel' is still closed at its forward end.
4) Type 2 is the most common configuration found early-on after Liberation, and upon most all reworked examples. The 'arm-channel' is milled through at its forward end. The sight remains as discribed in "2 & 3".

5) Some common, ,basic and distinct types of BAYONET barrels/handles, showing design and serial number placement changes. Variations in the knurls/checking are not considered as they occur randomly among the different configurations. (Note: Any of the top three could be correct for a reworked rifle, while, specifically, one of the bottom two is proper for 'stoved' or black enameled examples) Top to Bottom:
a] Late, sterile/unserialized bayonet with an anodized-looking finish and a slotted end-cap. This is sometimes found on reworked rifles. The 'failsafe' unlocking access hole is found here, as well as on the next two. It can be seen aft of the forward locking-sear, and when it is aligned with the spanner-hole in the bayonet-channel, the locking-sears may be depressed. (REF: More on this in the figure #7 narrative)
b] Second down, and perhaps the most common, is the heavily parkerized, sterile handle with the usual style end-cap.
c] Middle unit is distinct as its end-cap is marked with the last two digits of its host-rifle's serialization.
d] Second from bottom is 'stoved', end marked, but without the access hole. This may be correct for some of the "K"s, "L"s and even the "J"s, and would be so for later 'script' rifles, so long as the black 'stoving' or paint were used as their general finish. (The first confirmed use of this type, of which I am aware, is with the Vichy "tir reduit" trainer of 1941. I have witnessed this configuration on "Ks and Js"; sometimes near, but never matching.)
e] Bottom is the first configuration with the full serial number stamped upon the aft side of the handle. It has no 'lightening-hole' and the end-cap is blank. This is the 'Type' found with the "F", "G" and "H" series, and may have still been used for the "J,K (through serial # 25,000/?/30,000) or L (to #4,500). I am not aware of such an example for these later, pre-Armistice series, and any help on this matter will be appreciated and credited.
6) This view of the end-caps corresponds to the above figure #5; top to bottom. Note the the three upper examples appear to be 'staked' at the spanner notches or at the end of the slot, in the upper instance.

7) This is a simple view of the captive bayonet-housing/channel/copula. The 'hole' at the forward end served as an assembly aid, allowing purchase for the spanner which was used to install the unit into the forearm. (Note that the aft end of the 'channel' is threaded and is secured by the thread-block/nut that is imbedded within the stock; the top of which may be seen just aft of the tube, and is below the fair of the barrel inlet.) When a secondary unlocking methed was required, the simple and elegant solution was to incorporate a hole into the bayonet-handle which, when aligned with the spanner-hole of the channel-tube, would allow the lock-linkage to be depressed. Since this linkage does not appear prone to breakage, there may be some weight to the tale that the measure was necessitated by the occasion of two rifles finding themselves locked together by the same bayonet !

Continuing with Mle 1936 trivia; quite often a comment is passed on the short 'LENGTH-OF-PULL'. The questions are posed as, "Were people that short?", etc.; but when these same individuals are handed an 'AK' they are more likely only to remark that a longer stock might be required.

Well, some people were that short, as they are in any population, and that is the point. Also, France had far flung interests that were in instances peopled by those of slight stature. The same regions provided enough rubber for Michelin and all the butt-boot stock extensions/slip-over recoil pads, (of at least two differing thicknesses), that the diverse soldiers of France could ever need.

Post-Great War there was a trend toward the 'universal short-rifle'. France, rather than simply changing the dimensions of existing models, created a new, purpose-built design to serve that function. (Here, let me 'weasel' a disclaimer, for the following suppositions are based upon my observations and prejudices.) As a measure of economy and universality the short butt-stock made sense. It was more facile and adaptive to add to, rather than to diminish length. The bulk of cold weather attire and the requirements of the individual could be quickly met by installing or removing a 'boot'. Also, as with most short stocked rifles, the Mle 1936 comes-up quickly, cleanly, and is eminently pointable.

I am sure that another feature was a part of this consideration. The bolt travel is an inch shorter than that of the Mauser or the Berthier, and with their 'cock-on-open' design, the '1936' has an overall advantage of approximately one and three-eights inches, when the total 'throw' is measured. (The '36' also 'cocks-on opening', but the bolt-cap does not extend)

The pictures below show the contrast, left to right:

1) A Mle 1936 beside a Mle 1907-15 with the butt-plates aligned, as shown more by the shadows cast from the 'toe' of each stock, than by the perspective distortion from the camera's lens. Here the Berthier appears to have a slight advantage, but it is close to a tie, and had a Mle 1892 carbine been substituted, the '36' would have prevailed.
2) From a slightly better angle, it is of note that the aft end of both bolts reach the 'crest/forward drop' of the comb, and that the ball of each handle is aligned.

Keep it coming Patrick keep it coming.

The early bolts had also a different internal machining than the post WWII bolts, they had a deeper recess cu to cater for the cam of the early round plug, if the plug was not fully locked on bolt closing, the cam would lock on to the side of the firing pin head forcing the plug to fully rotate to the locked position.

The post WWII bolts do not have the internal cut and cannot accept the early round plugs, while Pre WWII bolts can be fitted with the modified plug providing the receiver tang has the machined slot to activate it.

Here is a document showing the difference between the early round plug and the modified plug:


There is another little problem with pre war bolts, some of them, when installed in a rifle with the newer sight, will hit the sight slider when opened with the slider to the full rear position. I have checked the hoarded guns I have, and seen that about 50% of the pre war bolts will hit the cursor on the post war guns. This explains the slight change in contour and bend on the post war bolt handles.

At some time this defect that appeared on some rifles was also noticed and reports were made.
Somewhere in the 1950 the "Arms Bureau" released a document (have a copy of it) giving the proper instructions to bend the "wrong" bolt handles in the proper position. Will roam in my files and will try to post copies as soon as possible.
As soon as I get that I will post it up for you all
Patrick