The French MAS 36 is often dismissed as garbage, if not outright overlooked by most shooters. That is however a shame, as these incredible little rifles have a lot to offer at a very affordable price point. So, let’s take a look at what it can do.

Old MAS 36 video:

Transcript …

– [Voiceover] Hey guys, it’s Alex C with TFBTV and for today’s run and gun we’re going to be using a French MAS 36 rifle.

We’ve actually done a video on the MAS 36 in the past.

That kind of stemmed from an argument I had with some people online who were saying it was one of the worst bolt action rifles ever fielded and I didn’t feel like this little rifle got due credit.

So, I did some research and basically made a video explaining why I thought it was not only not bad, but actually one of, if not the best bolt action rifle ever fielded from a military perspective.

I’ll link to that in then end card as well as in the description.

There’s several features that make this just incredibly easy to use and very fitting for a soldier of the time.

They had a bayonet that stowed very easily, they cycle very quickly, and they had a modern, rimless cartridge with a very short action.

With practice you can actually cycle and maintain a sight picture too and they’re incredibly easy to use with the stripper clips that come with them.

At the time they were also, had the ability to share tooling with semi-automatic fire arms.

Optimal bolt handle placement also means you can cycle them quickly.

Other great features like they’re counterbored so you can’t intentionally damage the ground very easily.

They’re rear locking for mud and sand resistance.

Simple and cheap to make.

They had a fixed rear aperture sight so they couldn’t really be knocked from zero.

Above all they are short, light, and very very handy.

These rifles were, they look crude, let’s get real here.

They don’t have a manual safety.

Soldiers were expected to carry these without a round in the chamber and just quickly bolt the rifle basically to get one in their and get to business if they saw an enemy or were engaging a target.

And these were used to great effect in World War II.

And after, of course, there was a 3651 that could launch rifle grenades and stuff like that.

I will say the one thing I don’t like from a hobbyist shooters perspective is that if you want to change the windage you actually do have to order a rear sight leaf from somewhere like Numrich.

But that’s not that big a deal most of these come sighted pretty well realistically.

You didn’t want soldiers to knock it from zero and that’s why they did that.

They wanted these to be effective for basically getting the most out of their dollar and they certainly did.

Let’s take a look and see how it does on the new and improved run and gun course versus the old one which, was in a way, the original.

And we’re going to do the same thing, fire 25 shots with four reloads, engaging at the targets starting at about 75 yards out.

Let’s check it out.

– Alright, French M. A. S. or MAS 36, here we go.

(gun fire hitting metal) – I like this little gun, let’s go talk about it.

Alright guys, we’ve had very few perfect run and guns since we’ve been doing this series.

And I believe I just got 25 out of 25.

I’ll verify that and put the hits versus misses here.

But people always ask me if I could take one bolt action to war what would it be? And that’s this one right here.

It’s short, light, handy, great mud and sand resistance, the clips work easy.

The one hiccup I had is actually a round separated from one of the clips so I had to single load one.

But still, you can work the action very fast and damn I love these things.

Anyways, let’s go back to the room and finish this one up.

– [Voiceover] So I think the results of this run speak for themselves.

We’ve had very few 25 out of 25s since we’ve been doing this whole run and gun thing.

And this one can rightfully take its place near the top of the hierarchy of bolt action rifles we’ve used for this.

Everything is just so well thought out.

It’s the result of French learning experiences in World War I and so on.

And everything comes together well.

It’s quick to cycle, easy to run, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s so fun to shoot.

Anyways guys, big thanks to Ventura Munitions.

We hope you enjoyed this.

Click the link in the end card here or in the description again if you’d like to see our old MAS 36 video.

We’d also like to thank you for watching this one and we really hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed shooting it.

See you next time.