MAS 49

The MAS 49 is a French semiautomatic rifle. It was designed and developed while France was under the Nazi occupation, by the team of 'Manufacture d'Armes de Saint Etienne' or M.A.S, and they had to do this with great secrecy. The French designer Rossignol developed it, and the system was later used in the Swedish Ljungman AG-42 and Eugene Stoner AR-15 / M16 rifles.

Later after the liberation of France in 1944, it began replacing the aging French bolt-action rifles and captured German rifles. At that time the MAS 44 was used as a prototype, and its production began in 1951. Its development the MAS 49, or "Fusil Automatique MAS Modele 1949", was an improvement on this gun. The MAS 44 was produced in very limited numbers in 1944, it was later improved to accept new, detachable magazines and modified to be able to launch rifle grenades, and then became the MAS-49, or "Fusil Automatique MAS Modele 1949".

MAS-1949 was useful in the French Indo-China and Algeria wars. It uses a direct gas impingement system with no gas piston. Powder gases are fed from the barrel through the gas tube, directly to the front face of the bolt carrier, which operates the tilting bolt. This is cammed down to lock into the slot in the receiver floor. The dual stack, box magazine is detachable while the rifle can be reloaded with replacement magazines. There is also stripper clips guides machined into the front of the bolt carrier. This design helps the magazine get reloaded, without removing from the rifle.

The magazine follower engages the bolt catch as soon as the last round from magazine is fired. It has a gas cutoff device that is needed to fire the rifle grenades from the muzzle.
The special grenade sights are located at the left side of the rifle stock. There are hooded front sight on the front stock band and an aperture rear sight on the receiver. This is adjustable for range from 200 to 1200 meters and for windage.

The side rail at the left side of the receiver allows the telescopic sights to be mounted on every rifle. There is a safety switch which is a cross-bolt push-button, at the right side of the rifle, in front of the triggerguard. On the right side, to the bolt carrier a large plastic charging handle. Quite unusually the magazine catch is on the side of the detachable box magazine, and not mounted on the rifle itself. Also it did not have any space for mounting the bayonet.

Immediately after the World War II the French were involved in the Indochina war, and the gun was used in service there. After these wars in 1957 the MAS 49/56 was introduced.
The MAS-1949/56 has a shorter barrel and handguards, this not only makes it lighter but also adds to maneuverability The grenade launching sights are at the barrel, while the gas cutoff switch is mounted at the front of the handguards above the barrel. This cannot be engaged when the grenade sight is lowered out of use. The barrel has a muzzle brake / grenade launching device. Both the MAS 49 and the MAS 40/56 have scope rails on the left side of the receiver, so it functions well as marksmen rifles up to 600 meters or so.
It uses the standard optical sight was APX L Modele 1953 telescope with 3.85X magnification.

These guns are have now been replaced by the French army with the 5.56mm FAMAS assault rifle. Their conversion to NATO standards has not been successful. However it is respected as a high quality, neatly built, lightweight and accurate weapon.