First C&R Purchase arrived!!!

[Mad Dog 7.62]

Well, SOG finally got my license entered in their computer. I called Thursday evening and ordered a bunch of stuff. Lo and behold, first thing Monday morning, here it is...well, the guns themselves, the ammo is coming surface. Huge box, I think the poor FedEx lady thought she was delivering a refrigerator!! :D
Anyway, heres the rundown:

1. Frenchie Mas 49/56, looks brand spanking new, no sign of wear or use at all. Tons of accessories, a bayonet, night sight device that attaches to the muzzle, 4 mags, sling, cleaning stuff, even a extra extractor! And it all looks brand new, all nicely packaged up!! :D BTW, Century has extra mags and a scope mount for these (they have a built in rail) cheap. If by any chance anybody has ever seen one of the MSE type buttstocks for these for sale, let me know. I'd like to have one. Cool rifle, a little ungainly at first, but it grows on ya! I did not get hand pick on this, they said there was no need, and they were right.

2. A Yugo 59/66 SKS...this one I did get Handpick. Pretty much all the blue is there, stock has a few dings and is kind of greasy, should clean up nice. Some nice cool factor stuff on this rifle, like the flip up night sights, grenade sights and launcher, and one big toadstabber hanging under the barrel. Looks like a new bayonet has been put on it. Bolt matches reciever, haven't checked everything else. Pretty happy with this one too.

3. A Schmidt-Rubin K31, ordered handpick again. Got a rifle with nearly 100% blueing and all matching numbers, super bore, doesn't look like it was fired more than a few times if at all. The only downside here is the stock, its got some dings and dirt, and is pretty dried out. I'll redo the stock and touch up the few places the blue needs it. Nice!!!! :D :D

4. A Enfield #5 Jungle carbine, again asked for handpick. This rifle is in overall good shape, the stock is really nice wood but has some dings. Blueing is pretty good, there was apparently black stoving paint on the reciever, it is pretty worn, rifle needs tore down and cleaned good. I will probably touch up the paint on the reciever, I think I will clean this one up good, and leave the stock alone....it looks "authentic" and I don't want to spoil the look. BTW, it IS a real #5, with the proper lightening cuts and without the telltale mods of the postwar re-do's by Pakistan (?).

5. A Turk Mauser. Again, handpick. Came with a nice bayonet. Bolt number does not match, neither does anything else it doesn't look like. (Good 'ol Turks) About 80% blue, stock is rough. Still, for the price, refinish the stock and touch up the blue, shouldn't be a bad rifle for the money, and the ammo is cheap.

Overall, very happy with the service and the condition of the guns!! They were out of the M44 Nagants, getting one of them and a couple others from Century. We'll see how thiers are.

[DC]

man, sounds like you did really great. SOG sure seems to have been a lot better than I've heard lately. Now if I only had money to with the new C&R... :(

[Mad Dog 7.62]

DC, I dealt with SOG about 8-10 years ago when I had my type 1 FFL. Always had pretty good luck with them. Not at all unhappy with the condition of these guns. The Turk is a little rough, but what can you expect for $49 (handpicked)? And the #5, considering, is in very good shape. The K-31 will shine when the stock is worked over, the Yugo will be nice, and the Mas is for all intents and purposes brand new. Where else ya gonna get a brand new semi-auto "evil" rifle (with a boatload of accessories) for $229???

[masman]

good job mad dog.my first c&r was a mas 49/56.you'll love it.i dropped into one of my local dealers yesterday and he said he had a suprise for me.he had bought a case of brand new reloadable 7.5 french ammo that sog sells.i only bought one box because thats all the cash i had on me,also most of my budget is going towards my next fal build.

[Mad Dog 7.62]

I ordered 15 boxes (300 rds) of the stuff SOG had, I need to get some dies I guess. That's the only drawback to that and the K-31, the lack of ammo. :( :( At least the 7.5 French is reloadable brass, I'm pretty sure the Swiss is Berdan primed. :( :(

[Red4]

I purchased an MAS 49/56 from SOG nearly a year ago that was in perfect condition. It was a straight shooter with flawless action. A real piece of engineering worth 4 times as much as I - and you - paid for it.
I ended up selling it after deciding to try and limit the types of ammo I had to keep stocked...so the 36 and the 49/56 with it's expensive 7.5 ammo was one of the types that went. If only those damn French could've bumped up to 7.62mm it would have been my favorite milsurp hands down.

[JohnnyMac]

I ordered 15 boxes (300 rds) of the stuff SOG had, I need to get some dies I guess. That's the only drawback to that and the K-31, the lack of ammo. At least the 7.5 French is reloadable brass, I'm pretty sure the Swiss is Berdan primed.

MadDog762,

Don't be surprised if the Indep/FNM 7.5 MAS doesn't perform too well in your MAS 49/56. There have been numerous reports on C&R forums that the FNM ammo is loaded pretty weak (chrono'ing @ 1900 fps vs. 2800 fps for surplus ball). The upside is that the FNM brass is good for reloading, and .308" bullets are fine in the MAS (which technically uses .3075" bullets).

It's easy to make 7.5 MAS cartridges from 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser brass, with the Lee dies. If you already reload, you probably have everything you need to make the ammo, except maybe the case trimming tools which are a couple of bucks. Don't forget to send a copy of your C&R FFL to Brownells and Midway to get dealer pricing. I have a bunch of experimental loads made up for testing, but I'm waiting for access to a chrono and a range at the same time to do my testing.

I don't know about current availability, but FNM also make boxer-primed, reloadable 7.5 Swiss ammo.

Enjoy those "veterans"!

JMc

[BlueDuck]

MadDog,
Not trying to bust your bubble, but I had a bad experience with that FNM (sp?) 170gr 7.5 French ammo. It would not cycle the bolt on my new 49/56. It had me fighting mad! :mad: How could such a neat like new gun not work, especially with all those cool accessories!? Anyway, just reload the brass and you will be good to go. Some IMR 3031 really got my MAS cooking! Hopefully your ammo will be good. If it is let us know so I can order some form SOG. Thanks,
Brandon

[ekunz]

I had a MAS 49/56 chambered for .308. It ws a great shooter. I think all that was done to the orig. gun was the chamber was reamed to fit the .308 case. The 7.5 french round and the 7.62 bullets are very close in size and the barrels weren't changed. Traded this gun for a L1A1 because the mags are cheaper and hold more ammo. :D

[sledgehammer]

Congrats, Maddog. Prepare to be broke all the time from here on out.

[tor]

Originally posted by E-3:
<STRONG>I had a MAS 49/56 chambered for .308. It ws a great shooter. I think all that was done to the orig. gun was the chamber was reamed to fit the .308 case. The 7.5 french round and the 7.62 bullets are very close in size and the barrels weren't changed. Traded this gun for a L1A1 because the mags are cheaper and hold more ammo. :D</STRONG>

Everybody with some technical understanding would NEVER do a conversion in .308 to a MAS 49/56 !

Pressures are WAY higher wich makes it in my opinion way more dangerous to shoot such a "Conversion" then a FAL with a Williams Rec.

Fireing pin is NOT springloaded (High Danger of Slamfire) with certain ammo !!!

Most (or all) of these conversions were done by Century,they shortened the barrel in the chamber area and reamed for .308

I have inspected a couple of these;the case of the .308 wiggles in the chamber (to lose)

I would STRONGLY recomend that NOBODY of you guys EVER shoot such a conversion !!!

Regards,Torsten

[ByronF]

I don't thing the 308 MAS conversions are inherently unsafe, it is just a poorly done conversion. The root of the problem is that the original barrel should have been replaced with a new conversion barrel with a smaller gas hole. The Century conversions:

1. didn't have enough setback to give the chamber reamer 100% fresh metal so the rear of the chambers are loose

2. set the barrel back a bit, moving the gas port nearer to the chamber, increasing gas system operating pressure

3. had the gas port dia suitable for 7.5 French, which is too large for 7.62. Combined with #2, the rifles cycle very robustly, often tearing off case rims (so I've read).

The MAS 49/56 is built like a tank and should handle 7.62 NATO if properly converted (I'm not convinced that it's unsafe when improperly converted, although perhaps unreliable). I used to have a strong itch to convert one using a new barrel but my interest faded as practicality set in. Someday I'll get a big fat raise and I can dismiss practicality in favor of shits-and-grins.

Byron

[OZ]

I have a Century whack job 308 49/56. I am aware of the 40,000 psi chamber pressure the French 7.5 ammo gives out VS 50,000 psi the 762 NATO ammo produces. However, the french themselves did in fact converted a batch of 50 - 200 rifles to 762 NATO for their own testing. But they were close to perfecting the FAMAS (that would bring the French closer to other NATO countries in term of caliber used), so the idea was dropped. I did not know what the French found out or how well their conversion performed. But nothing was ever said about dropping the conversion idea due to safety issue, it was more of an economic consideration.

The excessive gas flow caused by higher chamber pressure in 762 NATO and shorter gas tube as the result of shortening the barrel, is one of the major issues that plagued Century 308 rifles. Other issue was a rough chamber, which if coupled with the first issue will cause numerous FTE (ripped rim, etc).

If the chamber is done correctly, but the excess gas flow is not fixed, then we are talking about riding the rifle "hard" which will accelerate the wear and tear of the rifle.

My 308 49/56 has always been reliable from the day I bought it. I occasionally have FTF problem which is mostly due to magazines (I use original 7.5 magazines which tend to sit the 762 NATO round a bit too low for a reliable pick up by the bolt. A quick Dremel work on the feed lips will remedy this problem. The 308 MAS is very accurate and low in recoil. It extracts and ejects softly (casings thrown about 4-5 feet at 2 o'clock direction, no sign of excess pressure on brass, no bulging, crack, ripped rim etc).

I dont know how Century did the conversion on mine, but whatever they did, they got this one right! Oh, BTW, I bought this locally from an old dealer and he let me shoot 50 rounds of British RG before making my decision.