Chatellerault M24/29: France's New Wave of Post-WWI Small Arms

France fought the Great War with an array of weapons which were all sub-par in one way or another - the Lebel rifle was obsolescent by 1914, the Berthier was a cavalry carbine forced into rifle service, the Chauchat was an emergency wartime design optimized for production volume instead of quality, and the handguns were a mixture of old revolvers and desperate imports from Spain. Once the war finally ended, the French military would move to replace the whole lot with new and modern arms.
This would begin by finally replacing the 8mm Lebel cartridge with a non-tapered, rimless cartridge - something that would be well suited to use in magazines and repeating arms. Simultaneously, a new light machine gun would be found, as this was deemed to most important improvement to be made. The cartridge was adopted in 1924 as the 7.5x58mm, but it would soon be realized that there was a critical problem with that round. The French military had a large supply of German arms taken as war reparations, and the new 7.5mm cartridge looked very similar to the 8x57mm Mauser cartridge. Worse, the Mauser round would chamber and fire in the new French chambers, causing serious damage to guns when the 8mm bullet was squeezed down to 7.5mm. To fix this issue, the French cut their cartridge down by 4mm, resulting in the 1929 adoption f the 7.5x54mm round - the chamber of which would no longer fit a German round.
As for the machine gun, the first choice was to simply adopt the Browning BAR - but France insisted on obtaining the technical data package and producing the guns in France, and they could not come to an agreement with Colt over the price of such a license. So, the French held trials of other guns, looking at virtually everything then available. In the aftermath of the trials, it was decided that the Chatellerault arsenal could design its own weapon using the best features of the other existing guns. The arsenal rather quickly produced prototypes, and they were adopted in 1924 (and then updated to use the shorter version of the 7.5mm cartridge in 1929).
The Chatellerault M24/29 is a quite good weapon, especially considering how early it was designed. It uses a tilting bolt and a top-mounted 25 round magazine. It has two triggers, the front one firing in semiautomatic and the rear one in fully automatic. The wooden front handguard allows for fire from the hip or shoulder if desired, and a set of thorough dust covers keep the gun free from ingress of mud or dirt. About 188,000 would be manufactured, and it would stay in service for many decades.
/ forgottenweapons

[@sethrich5998]

The French seem to have a habit of being ahead of the curve in firearms development and then being left with an outdated system by the time the next war comes.

[@delta2372]

Seth Rich the french also seen to have a habit if having terrible commanders when war starts to.

[@MrReded69]

That's because they didn't have mandatory retirement for Septuagenarians and Octogenarians.

[@calebhu6383]

The French invented the first practical smokeless powder rifle (Lebel), hydro-pneumatic cannon (model 75), "modern" light tanks (FT 17), etc. and unfortunately other countries would take these ideas further and better and leave France behind.

[@PerunAU]

This pattern applied at sea all too often as well. They launched the first ocean going ironclad in the form of the Gloire, only to have HMS warrior launch soon humbling the design and cutting down the idea that France would suddenly have superiority over the wooden British fleets.

[@hugoquelquechosecommeca3560]

@@calebhu6383 the tank leclerc (french tank) is one of the best of the world, really better than the abrahams ! your aviation is really good too ! we are not behind dont worry x)

[@RandyLeftHandy]

So a Bren walks into a BAR........

[@Pdro-gw7lu]

RandyLeftHandy I hope we C Z end of this joke

[@fademusic1980]

P3dro 2486 ...and refuses to pay child support

[@thegreenman2030]

I see what ya did there... :)

[@GARDENER42]

Well played sir! :-)))

[@GermDGator]

Frère Jacques Frère Jacques Dormez-vous Dormez-vous Sonnez les matines Sonnez les matines Ding, ding, dong Ding, ding, dong

[@Hockeygekko]

Hey that's fun, I'm from Châtellerault, you didn't butcher the name too much, good job. The gun factory's been turned into a museum "Auto, Moto, Vélo" (Car, Bike, Bicycle), an ice rink and a Music and arts school we call a "conservatoire". Yeah I don't know where I'm going with this comment but hi anyways

[@davidlacoste]

Do you know when the factory closed?

[@Hockeygekko]

@@davidlacoste Opened on King's Order in 1814 and closed 1968 because it wasn't needed anymore. It mostly made blades and armor at first. Forgot to mention there's also a pretty good circus arts school in there.

[@davidlacoste]

@@Hockeygekko King's Order in 1814? Louis XVIII?

[@Hockeygekko]

@@davidlacoste My bad I typo'd the opening date, it's 1819, works began in 1820. Still, Louis XVIII was indeed the man on the throne back then.

[@davidlacoste]

@@Hockeygekko The more i listen to Gun Jesus, the more i get angry at our politicians who destroyed our military industry. The MAS, the MAT and the MAC were making so beautiful guns.

[@The_sinner_Jim_Whitney]

I always am impressed with the tool marks on these old guns, like someone cut that part all those decades ago and STILL there they are, never worn off. Really cool gun, by the way. I'd never heard of one. Thanks!

[@aries_9130]

16:20 "We can see that there is a smiley on the firing pin."

[@Kyp031]

I love Devin Townsend. Lol

[@Chaosrain112]

Ian I really want to thank you for your extremely thorough work on cataloging French firearms. I've become enamored by their quirky designs and "stop gap" background. You've made me a Francophile.

[@frenchouiaboo816]

Your French improved a lot, well done

[@ForgottenWeapons]

Merci!

[@1leggeddog]

And YOUR english sucks

[@UnintelligibleYT]

Your attitude sucks Karine, go bully someone else on Grindr

[@NoBrainSilent]

Couldn't hold a rictus at "Fusil mitrailleur" tho' !

[@Zorglub1966]

Hi, Despite some exceptions, or some proper nouns, when the last letter of a french word is a consonnant, it's mute. "Fusil" is said "füzi"

[@Kargush]

We should all donate hard so that Ian can buy that gun.

[@pdittrich]

RIA estimated price ~$16k. Divided by ~5k Patreons = ~$3.5 per Patreon. You know if Ian went ahead and made a video like "guys I really want this gun, can you help me out with like three fiddy" that would totally happen. When is his birthday again?

[@Kargush]

It's Gun Jesus! Make it an early birthday and Christmas gift all wrapped into one!

[@thelegate8636]

pdittrich Ian is a Goddamn loch ness monster

[@kennys9644]

Shit I'll give him 20!

[@404Matt]

Seems appropriate since he's writing a book on french small arms.

[@artfact2]

Chatellerault: Doctor, I cannot get an ejection, I think my rod might be broken. Doctor: Hmm, let me see, a yes, you've put the rod in the wrong way, let me fix that.

[@mattarndt841]

I love french arms because when I first started looking into history and historical weapons I was in love with english weapons the more I see and research the more I realise the french were in many ways better at it. And this from an American who due to shitty school history was taught to have bias against both those nations

[@farengarsecret-fire9597]

Very good, I f***ing love german, french, american guns!! M1 garand was our best choice of all time (in ww2) kar98 was an absolute mule, m36 was an awesome rifle, m1919a6 and other variations of it, were pretty nice. Mg34/ mg42 were genius, chatelerault was great ←i apologise for poor spelling there

[@namenotallowedinyourcountr2709]

@@farengarsecret-fire9597 M1 garand isn’t a American gun though it’s canadian

[@leshatcatski5089]

+Forgotten Weapons : I've submitted a French translation for this awesome piece of history (and this great lecture). Dunno how the review system works (first time I've submitted subtitles for someone other's video), but I hope it passes and helps you widen a little bit your public. Also, even though I've tried to document myself, I am no gunsmith and I hope I didn't get things wrong when you go all technical on this stuff :) If you're interested, I can send you the subtitles in a separate file, so you can use them on another site.

[@Zorglub1966]

Congratulation to the guy who wrote the french subtitles, he did a pretty darn good job! Bravo!

[@masaharumorimoto4761]

I've learned SO much over the last few years from watching your videos, I truly feel that Forgotten Weapons should be played on monitors in break areas at Basic Training Bases everywhere 24/7 so that new recruits can get a better feeling of weapons. When I went through basic, I knew nothing about guns and simply memorizing the C7 (Canada) wasn't very helpful because it was forced knowledge that had no reference, historical or otherwise!

[@RangeTeaGaming]

Masaharu Morimoto I couldn't agree more considering that when u.s. basic is allowing you to work with a wide variety, there is really no back drop on reference. Occasionally you may get reference to older u.s. guns but there is no explanation on how they got to that point and into now.

[@alexrennison8070]

Very good point!

[@jeffreytam7684]

I love that mag release. This is *ideal*. You can do it one handed, smoothly, while keeping your trigger hand on the gun, and possibly even your eyes on the sights. The dust covers are a good addition and a useful application of the lessons learned in WW1. They are also sane and easy to use, which is a plus

[@honkhonl7308]

According to an east german (GDR) handbook the french indeed tried to market this weapon abroad, e.g. to the Romanians and Yugoslavians. During a demo a weapon exploded (perhaps because of the wrong ammo?), injuring several members of a romanian military delegation. The deal did not come about.

[@MrReded69]

Ironically, the Romanians who marched alongside Von Paulus' German Sixth Army were equipped with some of these! In lieu of more modern German weapons.

[@ArcturusOTE]

Probably should've came with notes saying that the 24 isn't meant for 8x57

[@xanniieeyy]

Call Of Duty 2 The Big Red One PS2 ahhh memories. Without that game i will never know this gun,other French firearms and some Italians firearms lol

[@Zrod0964]

Xanny I remember not being able to pronounce it so I just called it the "chatter-alt"

[@l23fireye]

Haesu yoooo same goes for those Mas smg, Italian breta shitty stripper clip LMG and smg. That game is legit memories

[@thefollowing8127]

@@l23fireye even as a clueless kid i thought the breda sucked ass, but looked neat.

[@farengarsecret-fire9597]

Holy fuck, I played that game so many times over... It was legendary at the time 😌 I never knew how to pronounce it, so it was shit-rault

[@seanclaiborne8570]

I've been waiting for this video for so long

[@kaymio6547]

Detonating a .300 Blackout in a 5,56x45 chamber would make a great short video on InRangeTV. Maybe you find some super cheap and old beater AR to demonstrate.

[@MarvinCZ]

Walter Bishop That seems more like Demolition Ranch's area of expertise :)

[@bleh8789]

Still could be incredibly interesting to witness

[@normanlesley1867]

Try .308 in A .270 can be A bit hard to get the bolt open.

[@Elenrai]

@@normanlesley1867 *Cries in industrial tolerances*

[@RT42069]

@@MarvinCZ or IV8888

[@Ashfielder]

Saw this in a museum once in Normandy and wasn't able to identify it for a while. Which reminds me; in the same museum they had a slightly obscure US submachine gun, a United Defence M42. Any chance of a video on one of those?

[@ForgottenWeapons]

Yes, I have one filmed but not posted yet.

[@Ashfielder]

Forgotten Weapons What are the chances of that? Great to hear!

[@MrBioniclefan1]

Forgotten Weapons nice

[@bowmen08]

There is a video of that now!

[@longiusaescius2537]

@FlyingScoots nice pfp

[@teppokuusisto144]

Finland recived 100 Chatelleraults and one million rounds together with 5000 Chauchats from the French during the Winter war. Chauchats were distributed to trainingdepots during the Continuation war but these Chatelleraults stayed in warehouse. But there are official manuals etc for both guns.

[@TheJarric]

we did booby trap few of em but not even soviets wanted em

[@ArcturusOTE]

I guess Finland didn't bother recharmbering them to 54r or 53r

[@mikep3180]

this weapon brings back memories from CoD Big Red One

[@chrisfyfe4047]

Neat piece , amazing for the eary post WW1 period !

[@JohnnysGoldenFiddle]

Ian back at it again with the French small arms videos

[@martentrudeau6948]

That is a beautiful gun, a lot of thoughtful engineering went into it. amazing for 1921.

[@MisteriosGloriosos922]

Love to see it, great work bros!!!

[@lavrentivs9891]

I've seen several photographs of this weapon being used by the FNL/Viet Cong guerrilla during the Vietnam war. Perhaps not so odd to find them in a former french colony, but interesting all the same =)

[@trevorcorey7910]

They love baguette too

[@BattyNos1922]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated!

[@JohnDoe-pv2iu]

@15.30 ,I bet in Vietnam several of those were operated with various bolts or screws to replace the lost takedown pin! That really is a pretty well designed weapon and especially for 1923. Great video!

[@joansummers873]

Somewhere in Russia, in the home of a retired KGB agent is a bookcase filled with copies of Ian Fleming novels and a hidden Vss Vintorez rifle waiting to be baptized by Gun Jesus. I patiently await that day.

[@rediius]

Joan Summers Hopefully with the matching briefcase, suppressor, and PSO-1 optic. I'm curious to see if they have their own reticle or if they just grabbed SVD Dragunov scopes.

[@Lumadous]

And also hopefully an as val and a groza too

[@ColdCoorsBanquet]

Lumadous as val😍

[@Raikos371]

Simply answered, yes, the VSS and any other 9x39 caliber gun has to have their own optical sight since the 9x39, being a dedicated subsonic round, has a very slow velocity. The VSS only has an effective range of 300 to 400 meters and the scope reflects that. This particular version of the PSO sight is called the PSO-1-1. Googling that shows you the reticle.

[@_-.-_-_.._--.-_-_----_-.--_._-]

And somewhere else, in Germany, a century old hostel still stands, a survival of two World Wars. Down the stairs and underneath the concrete basement floor, is a cache of Gestapo SDK silenced rifles wrapped in cheesecloth... awaiting their recovery. However, I doubt that day will ever come. Too rare a find. Nice to dream.

[@GuntherRommel]

I appreciate that you edited the description to add the sale price of the auction!

[@alicastrillo3138]

Great video as usual. Any chance to make one for the Mat-49? It is both a remarkable and forgotten weapon indeed.

[@TheGabrielhwmga]

Awesome gun and review.

[@patalo299]

I don't know who made the subtitles but congratulation and thank you!

[@ghostbride8718]

Love how French guns usually have a lot of good ideas. It ends up being sometimes 'real good', but even when it's full of nice ideas ; and never perfect. There is always a stupid idea in the load of good ideas- Feels like the actual french government.

[@FantadiRienzo]

... and the problem is: one stupid idea can make the entire gun unreliable.

[@thibaudduhamel2581]

the french government is much more: "a good idea in a load of stupid ideas"

[@robosoldier11]

Kinda the same thing with Italian stuff. Decent concepts. Really emphasize on quality but either just aren’t as good as the other options or they can’t make enough of them.

[@jeromenesa1787]

@@thibaudduhamel2581 Connard. Regarde autour s il y a bcp mieux.

[@wraithwyvern528]

@@jeromenesa1787 Says the guy whose government has gone through several empires and five different republics since the US and UK have had the one.

[@CountSpartula]

"And you'd go 'Oh, that looks like a Bren. That looks like a Nambu'" No that looks like a ZB-26. *gets to the part where he says it came out before the ZB* Oh. Oh. Well shitbiscuits.

[@garyhowlings7474]

Count Spartula I

[@MrBioniclefan1]

Count Spartula lol

[@WhataGunnR]

I've only ever seen this gun in a video game. Ugh I love this channel

[@LordStarbeard]

"until you hit your tripod stand" XD that's why we love you Ian XD

[@lptomtom]

Finally, a decent video about a great French LMG!

[@MerihemXx]

Ian, mate, you have got to put a bid down that! That'd be awsome!!

[@marcamant7258]

Interesting, accurate documentation, good appreciation of military history. You are overwhelming your subject. Good french pronunciation also.

[@pelao824]

The disassembly reminded me of the Maroszek rifle you reviewed a while ago

[@ramjb]

wow, only 5 comments yet?. Must've gotten here early. Nice video on a weapon I knew very little about, Ian. Keep it up :D

[@TheRogueWolf]

It seems to me that there might have still been a mindset of "weapons should be disassembled by the armorer, not the shooter" in the design of this weapon. Still, for the mid '20s, this was a pretty forward-looking design.

[@denzilvenske6315]

Hi Ian. A number of these were found in the armouries in Zimbabwe, apparently they were donated by Gaddafi to the liberation movements in Rhodesia during the bush war. They are all rough but complete, all missing the rear sight and magazine. Apparently they were never used as the liberation movements had no ammo for them. They are packed in heavy axle grease. Interestingly, under the flip up butt plate, there is a spring metal sliding trap door that contains a spare set of the two loose-able parts, the take down pin and ejector.

[@patrickvedder2623]

This show is the only decent thing on the whole f-ing internet. There is soooo much garbage, and this gem. Thanks Ian. Great job.

[@rubbermannsssskitten2866]

I dig in Your lyriks a lot , have a good day , ur speakin / vids the very besto , thankU

[@MrKoVeD]

Great video ! Speak about the manurhin mr73 it's very interesting french revolver

[@philippejacquescujodefortu2434]

It is, indeed !

[@happyhaunter_5546]

Awesome takedown and reassembly design

[@Edax_Royeaux]

Interesting looking weapon. For some reason, I love the look of machine guns that have top mounted magazines.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Cute pfp

[@GARDENER42]

That's one of the most interesting LMGs I've seen so far & as you say, very advanced for its time. Does anyone have information regarding its reliability in the field?

[@coreytrevorson606]

I believe I once read that it was really good in that regard. Nothing in this video has me questioning that either, as it seems relatively simple compared to other machine guns that were still also highly reliable.

[@sniperdude42]

Ian is the freaking best. While I might not remember all the history he has to offer on each weapon, if I ever get timeslipped back into either of the world wars, I’ll be a fucking pro with my rifle 😂

[@asphaltmemories4597]

Thank you for finally touching on this wonky and Rare light machine gun, still holding out on a live fire video.

[@fredericbouquin1815]

Merci pour la vidéo. Très belle arme encore aujourd’hui. Fallait de sacrés bras pour la tenir en main à mise à feu!😅

[@JakeAnthony98]

Can you do a video on the Zb26 and the German production and use of them during the war?

[@AllenLinnenJr]

Nice Video.

[@evann1136]

I love that thing! That is truly a remarkable piece of machinery and I hope one day maybe I can scrounge the funds to afford such a wonder. Everything I know about firearm disassembly made me smile when you too that apart, that was in my opinion, a wonderful design, and for the time as you said. I didn't however catch if it was open or closed bolt? That sear mechanism suggests to me that it is open bolt.....?

[@user-yj8vj3sq6j]

Ian, being a french guns lover, how do you rate french machineguns in general?

[@jcorbett9620]

A pretty good LMG, rareish in the US and of French manufacture and usage...surely a shoe-in for Ian's collection :-)

[@bowmen08]

The ejector rod looks almost like something you could make a field replacement for if you have a thin screwdriver and a few files and pliers handy.

[@bowmen08]

A pretty long nail IMO.

[@randywatson8347]

Looks like a beast

[@Yorgar]

80 years of service. Not perfect but gets the job done, I really liked what they did with the rear sight, cover, and mag release

[@hawks1ish]

how did the great depression affect this French small arms development? It seems all these guns were made in the 20's then not much happened in the 30's

[@Rebumai]

Well the Great Depression start when the stock market crashed in 1929 and ended in 1939

[@hawks1ish]

Yeah that's why I said it seemed not much happened in the 30's I was wondering if stuff did happen

[@MrBandholm]

Well the French political situation was not helped by the great depression... But there were a number of problems in the era for stability, and not all of it had to do with economics

[@Rebumai]

I just re-read you question and took it as you asking what happened in the 30's and im like "the great depressions my dude. lol

[@yetanother9127]

Well, the French _did_ end up grabbing a bunch of neato new small arms during the 1930s, like the MAS-36 bolt-action rifle. They _almost_ got their own semiauto rifle, the MAS-40, which would later end up being redesigned into the more famous MAS-49 rifle.

[@RonPaulBot1234]

You know you want this for your collection! Buy it Ian!

[@ricardodavidson3813]

Great video, and a very interesting weapon, just a couple of little notes. The Bren gun does have a very effective forward grip, it is the bipod legs folded back, the feet have a notch that engages a ridge either side of the receiver providing a very firm grip that you can get your fingers round, so it's good even with wet muddy hands. Alternatively you can use the barrel handle locked out perpendicular to the barrel. The FN MAG does not do this. Screwed in pins are not easy to make captive, the end of the pin cannot be made bigger because the pin body must fit its hole snugly, and you cannot have a groove to ride a retainer because the pin has to turn to come off. The solution is to move the thread (and lever) to a collar turning on the pin, which can then have a groove and a retainer. That and the extractor apart it seems to be a well-designed weapon, the links business is not actually that bad as long as they are strong enough, it is very difficult for dirt to work its way into the axles and cause wear, the links and axles should be case-hardened or just the axles and a spare set of links provided in the spares box. Certainly less prone to wear than sliding surfaces as in the Bren, BAR or FN-FAL which must be assembled dry (or graphited) in dusty conditions. The FN-MAG also uses toggle links to move the locking surfaces in and out of battery, it seems to work fine.

[@thibaudw4496]

Can you make a video about the french mg AA-52 (if possible)?

[@fed10gi2]

Hey, is there any chance you can show/review the KS-23 shotgun?

[@CygnusGalactic]

ANOTHER COD 2: BRO GUN! Ian, I love this weapon so much. All praise Gun Jesus!

[@maciejpociecha6357]

colt and their BAR technical package... given that they still didn't have one years later during the Polish procurement fiasco, it must have been just a bunch of notes on someone's beer mat.

[@st0rmforce]

I wonder how far back the idea of tool-less disassembly goes. I don't know why but it seems like a more modern idea, of being able to completely field strip a LMG without any tools.

[@wingracer1614]

Requiring tools to disassemble an infantry auto loading weapon is pretty much instant rejection from procurement. The ones you see that do require tools were built for vehicle or ship or aircraft mounted use but got re-purposed or they were just desperate for anything they could get their hands on. There are a few exceptions of course.

[@Zbyhonj]

Damn, this thing looks like it has been made by a game designer... So many bits and bobs and details :D

[@fiasco7P]

If possible can you do the modification of the madsen through time.

[@itistreasonthen]

There is a smiley face on the firing pin.

[@HeatwaveHeavycruiser]

Hey Ian, on the french wikipedia page for this gun there's a picture of it with the dust cover folded up against the magazine. Is that supposed to do something ?

[@John1911]

Pretty tight machine gun. I like the suggested price at RIA as well. Thinking.....

[@Jurflip2]

If one looks when he reassembles the gun, there seems to be a sear protruding from the front of the stock, at the bottom. That, I think, is a delay sear to reduce the rate of fire. The bolt strikes the protruding pin above the sear, knocking a weight backwards in the stock against its own return spring. When that comes forward, it strikes the delay sear, causing it to release the bolt.

[@Sedan57Chevy]

Many many years ago when I was young (and stupid), I could've cared less about most French guns, but even then I loved the Chatellerault.

[@ETKninja]

do you have to do much research before each video?... or do you just know all of this info? because i wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. good video btw

[@anton2maa]

This popped into my feed just in time for the Post Scriptum french update

[@donaldmeaker3627]

One variant of this added a bit of plumbing to spray in a teaspoon or so of water between each round for cooling. This was used in the Maginot Line as firing port weapons, and although the steam might obscure the view of the firer, it could fire indefinitely without overheating or needing a barrel change.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Huh

[@bobbyhood101]

A fancy bar with a top feed mag and double triggers ,yet no quick change barrel and the mags center line so it is more than a little bit of a pain!

[@hk_4014]

Iconic to anyone who played Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One

[@antoinegeais726]

This vidéo us beautiful I live in Châtellerault ans i love the story of my town

[@KVW22]

This is beyond interesting

[@DonMeaker]

The fortress version had a water injection system, boiling off about a teaspoon of water between shots.

[@kissisagod]

That bolt honestly made me think of the m240 bolt more than anything

[@animedude667]

i can definitely see the BAR in the charging handle

[@freddymacke347]

merci pour la presentation de cet tte arme ,mon grand pére avait ca en 1940 prés de lille dans l armée francaise ,il fut capturer quelques jours avant dynamo ,merci a votre nation de l avoir liberé de son camps et de nous avoir aidé,il me disait que cette arme s enrailler facilement et que la cadence de tir etait trop lente par rapport a la mg 34,par contre j ai une affection particuliére car mes grands parents m ont élevé ,j adore ce fm 24_29 malgré ces defaut ,merci pour cette video

[@JACKSONLEWISOFCANADA]

the french develop amazing stuff when they plan it out.

[@RowdyFisk]

Wonder if the 7.5 x 54 barrel could be replaced with 7.62x51 barrel and the magazines still work with modern 308 ammo - What do you think Ian is it doable?

[@sjeeke4671]

Does the "fleur de Lis or Fleur de lys" in the stock have a function or is it just a decoration?

[@ForgottenWeapons]

It's a latch for a removable rear monopod.

[@markprior7971]

The hole in the bottom of the foregrip is made to fit the M.A.S.36 rifle's muzzle as a temporary monopod/rest. I have seen one or two pictures of this from the Indo-china war. I don't know of anyone else doing something similar, do you?.

[@larskunoandersen282]

Ian make a review on the Danish Madsen machine gun please

[@ForgottenWeapons]

I have a couple videos on Madsens already...

[@thomasnewton9602]

That gun is just beautiful 🫠

[@andrewince8824]

Really interesting how most LMGs of the interwar years took on very similar form factors. Obviously the MAC-24 but also the ZB-26, ZB-30 (basis for the BREN), the Type 97. Even the Lewis, admittedly a WW1 system, got some interwar love and despite the pan mag largely follows the same form factor, likewise the DP-28 also follows this general shape. It speaks volumes for the thinking of these nations during that period and suggests something about the top feed, long stroke gas piston, rifle-esque concept was for the time the best way to go or perceived as such.

[@kwc0435]

This was one of my favorite guns in cod big red one

[@chobitshideki1]

i hope your next video, will raise the volume.

[@andynixon2820]

You can see one of these being used in the film day of the jackal . Near the start at the attempted assassination of Charles de gaule

[@lostinspace013]

Pretty cool LMG. Definitely not some crap.

[@gunner678]

Excellent gun, used by the french for years right up to 80s in some roles!

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Didn't know Chatroulette got their start in firearms.