as compact as possible, the trigger and trigger guard were positioned well under the receiver bridge. Since the base of the bolt handle must be on the rear end of the bolt due to the bolt design, in order to keep the grasping ball from bruising the shooter’s finger it had to be arched forward. I haven’t found this bolt handle placement to be awkward or inconvenient when operating this action, but I don’t like the looks of it. So far, I’m still not used to the looks of the forward-bent bolt handles on the 600 Remington and 800 Mossberg rifles, but like the MAS M36, one should not mind the looks of the handle if the bolt is convenient to operate and is out of the way of the trigger finger.
7.5mm MAS and Rechambering
As previously mentioned, the 7.5mm French MAS (7.5x54mm) cartridge was introduced in 1929. It is a rimless bottlenecked cartridge nearly identical in appearance and ballistics to the 308 Winchester or 7.62mm NATO cartridges. The 7.5 indicates the caliber and bore diameter, which is .295”, and 54 indicates a case length of 2.12”. The overall length of the cartridge is about 3.00”. The standard military ball loading drives the 139-grain jacketed pointed bullet of .307” diameter at a muzzle velocity of 2674 fps.
The above figures for the bore and bullet diameter show that the cartridge is very close to being a 30-caliber like our 308 and 30-06 which have a normal bore size of .300”, and normally use .308” bullets. The groove diameter of the 7.5mm MAS barrel runs about .3075” to .3085”, and has a rifling twist of one turn in 10”. In handloading this cartridge, regular .308” jacketed bullets can be used.
The 7.5mm MAS cartridge was loaded only for military use and was Berdan primed. The problem presented to the handloader is that the 7.5mm case is an odd size, having a head diameter of about .481” compared to the .470” for the 30-06 case. The 7.5 MAS ammunition has always been very hard to obtain. I have heard that the best cartridge case to use in handloading the ammunition is the 6.5x55mm. However, I cannot vouch for this because I have never tried it.
Sporterizing
Since the end of WW II, military surplus arms dealers have imported and offered for sale many different bolt-action rifles. Most abundant of these have been the many models of the Mausers, Lee-Enfields and Carcanos. MAS M36 rifles seem to have been more scarce for I have not seen them advertised for sale for many years. There are, however, a sprinkle of them throughout the country, and I suspect that most of them were sent home by GIs who liberated them from the German Occupation Forces in France.
Though I have never remodeled this rifle, and probably never will, if I had one in the days when I did much remodeling and rifle building, I probably would have approached the job with great enthusiasm. This is what I would have done: I’d replace the barrel with one 22” of sporter weight chambered for 257 Roberts or 7mm Mauser; fit a tapered forend of the Model 99 Savage rifle pattern; remove the military rear sight and base from the receiver and install a Lyman or Redfield receiver sight and a ramp front sight on the barrel, or mount a scope on the receiver using a Buehler blank base. I’d weld a strap to the front of the trigger guard to move it about 1” farther to the rear and make a similar tang extension on the receiver for the guard screw; the trigger would be altered, positioning it to the rear in the relocated trigger guard. A crossbolt safety in the rear of the trigger guard would lock the trigger and a new buttstock with a capped pistol grip and panels forward of the grip like the Model 99 Savage stock. With the trigger, trigger guard and grip located farther back on the action, I would then bend the bolt handle down, and shorten its stem to place the grasping ball within easy reach. Finally, I’d polish and blue the metal parts, jewel the bolt and checker the grip and forend.
In my search for information about the MAS M36, I came across an item written by a well-known gun authority stating that Manufacture d’Armes had made a sporting rifle on the M36 action. According to him these were made in 7x57mm, 8x60mm Magnum and 10.75x68mm. The last two cartridges are longer than the magazine opening of the military action, therefore, the sporter action must have had a longer box. A safety was also provided in the trigger guard.
German Model 88 Commission Rifle FdH
(Pictured above) M88 (KAR.88) German Commission carbine.
THE GERMAN MODEL 88 rifle, adopted in 1888 and correctly known as the German Commission Model 88, was the official German military rifle until succeeded by the famous Model 98 Mauser in 1898. The M71 Mauser single shot and the M71/84 Mauser repeater, both in 11mm caliber, preceded the M88 as the official German military shoulder arms.
The 88 rifle was developed by a group of men, headquartering in Spandau, Germany, who formed the German Military Rifle Testing Commission, thus its unusual name. Although it has some features taken from earlier and Mannlicher rifles, it is neither a “Mauser” nor a “Mannlicher.” A well-planned and thought out rifle, the main features of the receiver and bolt were used long afterward on the Mannlicher-Schoenauer sporting rifles.
Developed with the M88 rifle was Germany’s first small-caliber smokeless military cartridge. It was a bottle-necked, rimless cartridge of 8mm caliber, and the forerunner of the world famous 8x57 Mauser cartridge.
Vast quantities of M88 Commission rifles and carbines were made in various German government arsenals. These rifles were usually marked “GEW.88” stamped on the left side of the receiver. “GEW” is an abbreviation of the German word Gewehr, meaning rifle. The rifles had a 29.1” barrel, the carbines with a 17.62” barrel; the receivers were usually marked “KAR.88.” “KAR.” is an abbreviation for Karabiner, meaning carbine. Both the rifle and carbine were made with a barrel jacket, a thin-walled steel tube covering the entire length of the barrel. The jacket is large enough to leave an air space between the jacket and barrel. The carbine has a turned-down spoon-shaped bolt handle, while the rifle has a straight bolt handle with a round grasping ball. A great many of these arms were also made in plants in Austria, including the great Steyr works.
As these rifles became obsolete, many of them turned up in the United States. During the 1920s and ’30s, the M88 Carbine was especially common, many of them used “as issued” for hunting big game.
Action Construction
The receiver is milled from a one-piece steel forging. The receiver ring is round except for a very small projection underneath which forms the recoil lug. The small recoil lug required that a square-stemmed cross-bolt be used in the stock—the recoil lug engaging a groove milled into the cross-bolt. A longer projection at the bottom rear of the receiver ring forms the cartridge guide. The front of the receiver is threaded on the outside for the barrel jacket collar and on the inside for the barrel shank. The breech end of the barrel abuts against two semi-circular shoulders milled inside the receiver ring; these shoulders partially ring the bolt head. To the rear of these shoulders, the inside of the receiver is milled out to receive the locking lugs of the bolt.
The rear part of the receiver, commonly called the bridge, is slotted on top so that the bolt handle can pass through it when opening and closing the action. A simple bolt stop is positioned on the left side of the receiver bridge and hinged there by a pin through a stud on the receiver. Tension is provided to the bolt stop by a small coil spring.
The bolt assembly is comprised of the bolt body with its integral handle, bolt head assembly and firing mechanism. The bolt body is a cylindrical, hollow tube drilled from front to rear. The opposed dual locking lugs are on the extreme forward end of the bolt body and engage matching recesses in the receiver when the bolt is closed.
The left (or top) locking lug has a narrow slot cut through it. This allows the bolt to pass over a finger on the end of the bolt stop—this finger activates the ejector when the bolt
