MAS 36 in .308 Any comments?

[jlwilliams]

  I like the French MAS bolt action rifles.  French politics aside, it's a neat rifle.  I have seen some that are converted to .308 and I'm wondering how good the conversions are.  I know that there are some guns out there (don't know which off the top of my head) that were converted by reaming existing barrels resulting in bad chambers.  Chambers had the original shoulder as a 'lump' on the new chamber.  Other rifles were converted well, either rebarreled or the new chamber completely recut the old one leaving a proper chamber.  I know where there is a .308 MAS for reasonable money ($200 plus tax) and I'd kind of like to have it but I'll pass if the conversions were done badly.

  Any of you have experience or even heard much about these guns in .308?

[coyotejoe]

Converting the 7.5X54 MAS to .308 would require setting the barrel back at least one thread since the 7.5 is a longer cartridge and being about .012" larger at the base the .308 reamer may or may not clean up the old chamber but even if there is a trace of the old chamber it will likely not be a serious problem.
 I've always thought the M-36 MAS was an interesting action, very short overall and with a short bolt travel. The biggest issue for a sporting rifle is the lack of any sort of safety. One could probably incorporate a crossbolt safety into the trigger guard. Mounting a scope would be another issue since I don't know of any mounts made for it. Probably the best use for a MAS would be as a beater "truck gun"  in its original military form. By the way, the buttstock is quite short, about a 12 1/2" length of pull, so a recoil pad may help even though not needed for recoil reduction.

[AH-1]

IMHO anything the century "wizards" converted I would pass.I had a friend buy one of the  semi auto mas 308's but all it would do is go FULL auto.I bought one of their fnfals and the sights were so far off I couldn't get on paper @ 25 meters.if you want one get it in the orginal cal.privi is making ammo and its boxer primed.
pete

[rio grande]

A friend had wonderful results with his in .308.... but he had one problem I know of, when he let the bolt close he had a slamfire, the firing pin jumped forward and set off the round - I don't recall but I suspect it was a commercial or reloaded round.
He is a master machinist and made a new pin of titanium (lighter), end of problem.
BTW, I saw one in a pawnshop yesterday, don't know if .308, didn't look. When they told me they wanted over $500 for it I lost interest!

[R.W.Dale]

  I like the French MAS bolt action rifles.  French politics aside, it's a neat rifle.  I have seen some that are converted to .308 and I'm wondering how good the conversions are.  I know that there are some guns out there (don't know which off the top of my head) that were converted by reaming existing barrels resulting in bad chambers.  Chambers had the original shoulder as a 'lump' on the new chamber.  Other rifles were converted well, either rebarreled or the new chamber completely recut the old one leaving a proper chamber.  I know where there is a .308 MAS for reasonable money ($200 plus tax) and I'd kind of like to have it but I'll pass if the conversions were done badly.

  Any of you have experience or even heard much about these guns in .308?

I had one and they're utter junk. The goons at century they shortened the bbl 1/2" at the chamber to provide for a 308 reamer to clean up the old chamber. Well then the front sight is now in the wrong spot to fit the handguard. So what toes century do, They bandsaw 1/2" off the rear of the forearm assy, and in the process cut off the attaching point and hardware.

They also had the front sight canted so the rifle shot 3' tot he left at 100yds on a rifle with no windage adjustment

[Reverend Recoil]

I don't a cross-bolt safety will work.  The MAS-36 uses the trigger sear as the bolt stop.  The trigger must be drawn to the rear to remove the bolt from the receiver.  A cross-bolt safety would block this movement.

[Gerry N.]

The Mle 36 approached mediocrity as a battle rifle and makes a horribly poor sporting rifle.  Converting it to shoot .308 only makes it marginally better as ammo is easier to come by.  If memory serves, Century added a safety of sorts to some by copying the safety of the SKS.  It doesn't work all that well on the Mle 36, but complies with some State's hunting regs.

There are hundreds of thousands of Mausers available in Pawn and Gun shops and in Classifieds across the country as well as carloads of Enfields and Springfields, any one of which is quantum leaps ahead of the Mle 36.  (As arms designers go, the French would make wonderful florists.)

What you might try to do is find a "semi-sporter" Mauser or Enfield which has had the barrel and stock modified.  If the bore's good, and the stock not too badly mutilated, a set of decent sights and some elbow grease will yield a decent utility rifle.  My preference is to leave the bolt and  action alone and stay with modernizing the sights, usually opting for a reciever sight and new front sights.   Not too costly, and it usually makes a nice looking, accurate all-around rifle or an excellent first centerfire for a youngster.  I've salvaged a dozen or so that way, usually Mausers.  I've either sold 'em cheap or given 'em to kids to get 'em into the sport.   I've never had more than $175 in any one rifle.  All you need to do is look around for a while.

Gerry N.

[Victor3]

 Gerry N,

 I couldn't have said it better.

 My friend got one of the Century guns as some kind of a 'bonus' with a C&R deal with them. It was useless.

 Just about any reasonable condition Mauser or Enfield is going to be light years ahead of the frog 36.

 My Dad would have agreed with you on both the choice of rifle and the sights; This is a pic of me in 1968 with one of the Mausers he sporterized (note the Lyman receiver sight)...



 I don't have this particular rifle, but I do still have most of his others. Still shooting them four decades later

[1911crazy]

I purchased a century  arms "ufixem's" MAS36 in 308.   The barrel appears to be brand new but it won't headspace.  The gun is decent looking but i can't fire it.  Now i have heard the 308 win and the 308 nato headspace is different but i'm not sure about it.  All i know is it fails badly with the 308 win hs field gage.  Someday i'll pull the barrel and fix it.  I wanted a cheap 308 for foul weather hunting.

[jlwilliams]

  It doesn't sound like the MAS in 308 is for me.  I like them because they look unique and I like a new toy every so often.  Sounds like I would not be so happy with a Froggy in 308.

  I think for a cheap foul weather hunting rifle, it's hard to beat the NEF.  If you like a bolt action, Mossberg has one for short money.  You can pick up a  low dollar sporting gun that is new and made by an American manufacturer who is still in business for less than the cost of buying and sporterising an old military rifle.  If you like doing that for the satisfaction that's one thing, but to save a buck it's often not worth it.  I 'sporterised' a Mosin Nagant type '38 a couple of years ago.  Starting with a $100 rifle (that's a good one as MNs go), had the bolt bent to clear a scope.  Drilled and tapped the receiver, bought a mount, refinished the stock, so on.  By the time I was done it cost me within a few bucks of a new Mossberg ATR or I could have just flat out bought another Handi rifle.  The Mosin still shot like a 70 year old war horse.  Not terrible, but not great.  I was a little disapointed because I had wanted it as a low dollar hunting rifle and I ended up with an over weight beater that didn't shoot well and wasn't as low dollar as I had planned.

  This year I got a well used but not abused Marlin 30-30 for $200, which is less than I spent on the Mosin Nagant.  I'm much happier with my Marlin. 

  Point is, while it used to be that sporterising a Mauser or Enfield was a cost effective way of getting a hunting rifle, that is less true as the value of the moldy oldies goes up and the availability of used and entry level new guns is (for now) pretty good.

[1911crazy]

A few years back I built two mauser sporters for around $150 each.  I built an german 8mm 98k mauser and a 93 chilean 7mm mauer.  Both with 3 post military style scopes and mounts.  The german 98k cost me $20 with a sewer pipe barrel.  The like new/excellent condition 8mm barrel was $37 from numrich.  The military stock was refinished to its orginal glory.  The rifle looks awesome all done.  I purchased the 7mm barreled action for $89.  I built all my sporters from parts i didn't take excellent c&r guns to make sporters.   I gave the old war horses a new life.

[gunner69]

I have a MAS 36 in .308, which is equipped with an SKS style safety.  I don't know who did the conversion, but is one hell of a rifle.  Great trigger, and shoots great.  Took a doe at about 80 yards last year.  The twist on the French 36 and 49-56 rifles were for a 140gr bullet.  Search as I have I cannot find a softpoint in 140gr.  My 150gr Nosler reloads don't seem to care.  Like the man said the stock is short, maybe for Viet-Namese?  I have an origional French rubber slip over pad installed.  Without the pad my wife and daughters like it as is.  For $200.00 bucks I would probably take a chance.  Let a gunsmith look at it before you buy if possible.