[Carguy714]

Great shape, 85% park remaining maybe more! Stock is in great shape, bore is filthy but the rifling looks sharp even dirty!! Re-arsenaled in 1976. Now can someone explain to me how to field strip this puppy so I can scrub it nice and clean to get it to the range in the next day or two?!?

$322 delivered!

 

[texaggie77]

Very nice. I would recommend getting the buttpad extension. The MAS 49/56 was way too short for me, and it was quite awkward to shoot until I got the buttpad extension.

 

[mpi]

there's a button to push on the rear of the receiver cover, it's pretty self explanatory from there. really, i figured mine out in about 5 minutes. great deal on a really nice rifle.

 

[draco]

Awesome...for two reasons

1- Great find
2- Proof that you can still find cool stuff for a decent amount of $

 

[Vaarok]

It barely disassembles, just pop the topcover and pull out the bolt, then clean the boltface, bore, and gas-tube (with a pipecleaner).

You're probably gonna want a buttpad for it, the stock's pretty short without one. But you'll like it nonetheless, they're great guns.

 

[Carguy714]

Thanks for all the compliments.
1) Yes there are bargins out there. I saw someone sell a MAS 36 for $100 delivered from the classifieds the other day...wish I wasn't so slow!
2) I figured out how to break it down...very simple.
3) Butt pad on order (another bargin for $10 from the Classifieds)! As well as extra firing pin and extracter...just in case.

Oh yeah...SOG has mags in stock for $8.95...I ordered some on monday, I hope they are in decent shape.

Someone mentioned concern regarding shooting corrosive surplus ammo and the difficulty in cleaning the gas tube. I heard it is stainless and we should not be too concerned with cleaning it more than putting a few drops of lubrication in it and letting it drain down into the receiver. Is this correct?

 

[The Stone Master]

Don't worry about the corrosive ammo; just clean the rifle not too long after shooting. If you can't clean soon enough, just swab with some Windex and later clean it normally. As far as the gas tube goes, it's a non-issue. I don't remember any rules about that when I was in the French Army (May be at the unit armory they might have done it on some basis, I don't know).
New commercial ammo is not corrosive and surplus is getting rare (except the Syrian stuff which has more problems other than corrosiveness!)

 

[ketoujin]

Depress the receiver cover release button and hold it down while you slide the receiver cover off and the recoil spring, bolt, and bolt carrier, out. The recoil spring is secured to the reciever cover by a rigid spring guide and usually just falls off the cover when you lift it up and out. The rifle comes apart basically like an SKS. My only complaint with the MAS 49-56 is that the rear wall of the reciever is too high to run a rod down the bore from the breech end, instead cleaning must be done from the muzzle end which is hard on the crown.

As Vaarok said above, a butt-plate for this gun is a must. Original French-issue black rubber butt-pads made at St. Etienne can be found on-line.

Best,
Gunnar

 

[Carguy714]

Thanks for all of the directions. I have broken it down only to find a sewer pipe of a barrel. It does shoot well...some mis-fires that I have measured and "adjusted" the firing pin to avoid on the next range trip. And I have picked up a butt pad/extension and even a couple of additional magazines. Waiting for the weather to clear up so I can try it again at the range. I'm cetainly not afraid of the surplus ammo as what I have is French and should function fine. I wanted to "save" the barrel the potential of additional corrosion. Now that I've seen the condition it is in, I'm not worried and will enjoy all I have, just making sure to flush it with hot water after shooting and before a good cleaning!

 

[YoungSurplusNut]

Are you sure the bore is a sewer pipe????

Because the French parkerized the bores during refurb, it will look dark.... but that doesn't mean its shot out.

 

[Carguy714]

No it isn't shot out...I did not realize that it was parkerized inside and out so you may be correct that it isn't as bad as it first appeared. But let me tell you the green crap I scrubbed out of that barrel simply sayd that someone prior to my buying it did not clean it after shooting the missing rounds of the surplus ammo I also bought with it. Wore out a bore brush and still had tinges of green coming out.

Speaking of parkerizing...that is a question I wanted to ask...what can I do to clean up the finish where it has worn off of the exposed part of the barrel and muzzel brake? Is there anything like "parkerizer in a bottle"? Something that I could wipe on like cold blue to get some finish on there? Am I smarter to just keep it clean and well lubricated?

Thanks