Domestic guns of France

Indigenous firearm designs from France 🇲🇫

France was for years the leader in firearm technology, all the way going back to the blackpowder era. French black powder muzzle loading rifles like the Musket model 1777 was the for front of firearm technology. The M1777 was copied and adopted worldwide. The French were the first to develop smokeless powder and quickly after it they adopted the Lebel 1886, also a rifle that changed history. From big bore black powder rifles which were shorter in range, were slower and created a giant smoke cloud. The Lebel 1886 changed that with a smaller, faster and flater trajectory round.

In World War 1, the French were behind with firearm technology, the Lebel 1886 was outdated and the Berthier 1907 and 1902 were inferior to German and Austro-Hungarian rifles. In the late years of world war 1, the French were the first to mass adopt semi automatic rifle, the RSC 1917 and RSC 1918 (sorry forgot to add that one). 

In the interwar period, the French wanted to standardize semi automatic rifles. The development of one took along time, and in the meanwhile they adopted the MAS 36, a interim bolt action rifle which is very underrated. In the end the French came up with the MAS 44 rifle and later the MAS 49, a new semi automatic rifle for the French military. Later the French adopted the MAS 49/56. In 1978, the French showed their engineering with the FAMAS, the iconic bullpup. In 2018, France adopted the HK416F, ending domesticly made military standard issue rifles

The CSRG 15 is debatable of it was a French succes or not. The MR73 shows how the French are good in quality