MAS-36 rifle Country France Type Rifle Manufacturer MAS Introduction 1936 Specifications Weight 3.7 kg (Empty) Length 1,020 mm Barrel length 575 mm (22.6 in.) Cartridge 7.5 x 54 mm Action Bolt-action Effective range est. 350-400 yards w/open sights Feed system 5 round internal box magazine, clip fed

The MAS Modèle 36 is a bolt-action rifle. It was adopted in 1936 by France, and was intended to replace the Berthier and Lebel series of service rifles. It was manufactured at the French government arms factory, the Manufacture d\'Armes de Saint-Etienne (MAS).

The MAS-36 is a short, carbine-style rifle with a two-piece stock and slab-sided receiver. It is chambered for the modern, rimless 7.5x54 French cartridge, a shortened version of the 7.5 x 57 mm MAS mod. 1924 cartridge that had been introduced in 1924 (then modified in 1929), for France\'s FM-24/29 light machine gun.

The MAS-36 carries a spike bayonet, reversed, in a tube below the barrel. To use the bayonet, it is pulled out, turned around, and plugged back into its receptacle. The MAS-36 has a relatively short barrel and is fitted with large aperture (rear) and post (front) sights designed for typical combat ranges. It has a five-round, Mauser-style double-column magazine with a removable floorplate. The rifle is somewhat unusual in that the locking lugs are found at the rear of the bolt rather than the front, resulting in a distinctive-looking forward cant of the bolt handle. Typical for French rifles of the period, the MAS-36 has no safety. It was normally carried with a loaded magazine and empty chamber until the soldier was engaged in combat, though the rifle\'s firing mechanism could be blocked by raising the bolt handle.

Though intended to replace the Lebel and Berthier rifles, budget constraints limited MAS-36 production, and it served along with the former rifles in many French army and colonial units. In World War II, the MAS-36 was often reserved to front-line infantry units, with other troops and reservists often receiving elderly Berthier and Lebel-type rifles. The Germans took over a number of MAS36s with the designation Gewehr 242(f) for service with their own garison units based in occupied France.

After the end of the Second World War, the MAS-36 was extensively used by French Army and colonial defense forces during France\'s postwar counterinsurgency operations in the First Indochina War and the Algerian War of Independence, as well as in the Suez Crisis.