Chauchat

The French Fusil-mitrailleur Modèle 1915 C.S.R.G. and the American Model 1918 in .30-06, from the French and US manuals of 1916–1918: its origins at Puteaux, mass production at a Paris bicycle factory, the AEF's experience, the foreign users, how the long-recoil open-bolt mechanism works, the half-moon magazine, identifying models and makers, field strip and stoppages, the reputation checked against the record, and the law of owning one.

Firearms

Chauchat · Deep Dive

Chauchat

The French Army's own 1916 manual told gunners to load the twenty-round magazine with eighteen.

The French Fusil-mitrailleur Modèle 1915 C.S.R.G. and the American Model 1918 in .30-06, from the French and US manuals of 1916–1918: its origins at Puteaux, mass production at a Paris bicycle factory, the AEF's experience, the foreign users, how the long-recoil open-bolt mechanism works, the half-moon magazine, identifying models and makers, field strip and stoppages, the reputation checked against the record, and the law of owning one.

Photo: Drills - Infantry - Machine Gun - Chauchat gun practice, Camp Custer, Michigan by C.P.I. (US National Archives NAID 31476241)

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    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 Chauchat, Sutter and the C.S.: Origins to 1915 An artillery officer and an arms inspector at the Puteaux workshop, a long-recoil machine rifle tried at Châlons in January 1913, a handful flown over the front in 1914, and the 1915 order that turned it into the Fusil-Mitrailleur Modèle 1915 C.S.R.G.
    2. Vol 2 Gladiator: Making a Quarter of a Million, and Fighting With Them A bicycle factory at Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, barrels from the state arsenals, tube and stamped steel instead of machined forgings, a second maker at Saint-Chamond, three-man teams that fired from the hip while walking, and a gun that stayed in the French manuals until the 1930s
    3. Vol 3 The Americans: The AEF's Chauchat and the Model 1918 in .30-06 An army that arrived in France without a light automatic weapon, French guns issued to training camps from Michigan to California, the twenty-odd divisions that fought with the 8 mm gun, the 25,000-gun .30-06 order that went wrong, three disagreeing explanations of why, and the Brownings that Pershing held back
    4. Vol 4 Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Poland, Finland and the Others The armies that used the Chauchat during and after the First World War, the national rechamberings to 7.65 mm and 7.92 mm with their new magazines, the Finnish guns that ended up with an American importer, and the honest limits of what is known
    5. Vol 5 How It Works: Long Recoil From an Open Bolt The parts and their three sets of names, the three phases of the cycle as the French Army taught them, the rotating bolt head and its stop, the barrel latch, the recoil intensifier at the muzzle, a trigger that the barrel itself trips, and why the gun fires only about 240 rounds a minute
    6. Vol 6 The Half-Moon Magazine and the 8 mm Lebel Cartridge Why the 8 mm Lebel round forced a semicircular magazine, how the magazine is built with one side open, why the French manual itself said to load eighteen rather than twenty, the spring test with four fingers, the cartridge the gun was regulated for, and the box magazines that later users built
    7. Vol 7 Telling Them Apart: Models, Makers and Markings The pre-war C.S., the French Model 1915 with and without its flash hider, the post-war covers, Gladiator against SIDARME, the American Model 1918, the Belgian, Yugoslav and Polish rechamberings, the Finnish-modified guns, and why an \"A\" after C.S.R.G. does not by itself mean American
    8. Vol 8 Field Strip, Care, Stoppages and Repair The soldier's field strip and the armourer's detail strip from the French and American manuals of 1916–1918, the cleaning and oiling the gun demanded, the stoppage tables phase by phase, the worn and broken parts the armourers expected, and what can be said about keeping one running today
    9. Vol 9 The Reputation and the Record How the Chauchat became \"the worst machine gun ever\", what the French and American documents of 1916–1920 actually say, ten common claims checked one by one, a quotation that is not in the oral history it is attributed to, and an assessment that separates the French gun from the American one
    10. Vol 10 Owning One: Transferables, DEWATs, Display Guns and the Law Why every Chauchat is a machine gun in federal law, the closed register of 1986, the four kinds of Chauchat on the American market, deactivated war trophies and what ATF says about reactivating them, the late-1950s imports, and the Michigan statute that does not mention unserviceable guns