Your Privacy Choices
After Alex C’s excellent review of the MAS 49/56 rifle, I decided I just had to have one of my own. The MAS 49/56 is the perfected French vision of a semi-automatic infantry battle rifle, an important piece of late 20th Century history, and a very handy, relatively lightweight, and inexpensive civilian full-caliber semiauto. I found one online for sale by Cliff’s Guns, Safes, & Reloading in Boise, ID, and I picked it up from the local FFL. Then I took the rifle out for some photos, but I didn’t expect I would have a surprise visitor!
Carolina anoles are common in Louisiana, but they don’t often reach this size, nor are they usually this bold. The lizard was quite comfortable checking out my new rifle even with me standing only a few feet away snapping photos. These anoles are often called “chameleons” despite not being closely related to true chameleons, because they also have the ability to change color. This guy is bright green in these photos, but just a few minutes earlier he was a very dull mottled brown. Either is perfect camouflage for my backyard.
It’s easy to see how this guy got so big – he’s clearly not afraid of anything. After biting the MAS 49/56 to see if it was edible and/or a threat, he decided he was cool with it and went back to what he does best…
…Attracting a mate.
Louisiana’s a pretty fitting environment for the MAS 49/56, since it is a subtropical former French colony, after all.