| 9.3x57 |
| (.450 member) |
| 01/08/23 11:09 PM |
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Re: french connection
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Quote:
I have never met a hunter armed with a MAS Fournier rifle on hunts in east France for the past 60 years.
The former German-speaking areas of eastern France are certainly exceptions, since 8x57IS caliber weapons were often used without hesitation. My father also used in the fifties and sixties a MS Stutzen caliber 8x56 MS, a cartridge in "1° Categorie" back then.
I don't know what it was at that time in the other regions of France and in the colonies.
I only remember that when I was young there were a few weapons for hunting in the colonies in the catalogues from Manufrance, including MAS Fournier, Rival and modified Mauser K98 , also in caliber 10,75x68, with pictures of hunters with various DG from Africa or Indochina.
I'm curious as to how these rifles such as your Father's Stutzen were obtained after the war or remained in civilian hands during the war. It seems that many appear after the war and of course exist now as lancaster shows us in various posts. My assumption would be that they were owned by individuals who simply ignored confiscation laws and hid them during the war. Is this correct or were there some that having been confiscated by the occupation governments were later released (sold?) in some numbers by the post-war French (or German) governments?
A friend of mine in Norway tells me that there were many caches of weapons the "fell from the sky" (dropped to resistance units) and certainly arms were hidden there, too, but of these many sporterized and or original weapons such as your Father's Stutzen in Germany or France (or other occupied mainland European countries), I do not know much.
I imagine in this topic there are quite a number of very interesting stories!