• PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
    31·
    28 days ago

    Notes From Original OP:

    I got to shoot one of these earlier this month. One of the first things I noticed was how ergonomically natural it felt to reload — the low capacity makes the magazine short, so you instinctively cup it from the bottom, which brings your hands right over the mag release. Because they insert straight in and out rather than rocking forward, you’re unlikely to fumble them. The clothes hanger-style pins on the mag also make it easy to clip extra mags to your pockets or belts.

    …and yet, this also seems like one of the dumbest and most unnecessary design choices. Now magazines are will be much more complex to manufacture, there’s zero chance of compatibility with other rifles (even of the same caliber, as many MAS-49s were converted to 7.62 NATO), and they’re harder to store in regular pouches.

    Indeed, no one will question the Frenchness of the engineers behind this.

      • iocase@lemmy.zipEnglish
        7·
        27 days ago

        On behalf of Ian from Forgotten weapons (peace be upon him) I take issue with this!

        French artillery recoil management? It was ahead of its time by decades and WWI artillery was more accurate and deadly coming from the French, who didn’t have to choose between being accurate or fast since their weapon stayed put after each shot, whereas other pieces used their inertia and rolling to manage recoil.

        The minié ball?

        Historically the French were like a nation sized Keltech where they threw shit at a wall and the world looked on with concerned interest (and often copied the best ideas that stuck to the wall the hardest)