…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.
oga_ogbeni on
Least idiotic French engineering choice
ByzantineBasileus on
French Politician: ‘Since we are joining ze NATO, should we make ze rifle magazines, how would you say, compatible with ze others?’
French Designers: ‘HON HON HON HON!’
Urinledaren_ on
It’s also WILD that they went with a 10 round capacity. What in god’s green earth could motivate this?
Paul_reislaufer on
See originally it was supposed to be a 5 round internal mag, but after ww2 they thought a detachable mag would be better. So instead of redesigning the entire rifle, they were like “add a cloths pin too the mag.” And it worked good enough.
5 Comments
[I got to shoot one of these earlier this month](https://www.reddit.com/r/ForgottenWeapons/comments/1to675u/once_again_dont_meet_your_heroes_i_shot_my/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). 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.
Least idiotic French engineering choice
French Politician: ‘Since we are joining ze NATO, should we make ze rifle magazines, how would you say, compatible with ze others?’
French Designers: ‘HON HON HON HON!’
It’s also WILD that they went with a 10 round capacity. What in god’s green earth could motivate this?
See originally it was supposed to be a 5 round internal mag, but after ww2 they thought a detachable mag would be better. So instead of redesigning the entire rifle, they were like “add a cloths pin too the mag.” And it worked good enough.