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MAS FR-F1 and FR-F2 · Volume 8

Getting One: Imports, Prices and the Law

Every FR-F2 known in the United States came through one importer; no FR-F1 import was found; what they have sold for, with dates and sources; the curio-or-relic arithmetic and an import question no source answers; the French classification; and a buyer's checklist

Figure 1 — French Foreign Legion marksmen training with FR-F2s on a 600 m range in August 2017, a few years before the rifles were retired and sold. Photograph by Kees Jan Meerman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia…
Figure 1 — French Foreign Legion marksmen training with FR-F2s on a 600 m range in August 2017, a few years before the rifles were retired and sold. Photograph by Kees Jan Meerman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

8.1 One importer, one model

Two facts frame the American market. Every FR-F2 known to be in the United States came through Navy Arms. And no FR-F1 import of any kind was found: not a batch, not a single rifle with an import mark, not an auction lot. A counter-search for FR-F1 sales in the United States turned up only commentary that plainly referred to the FR-F2s. The rifles a buyer can find in America are FR-F2s; an FR-F1 would be a rarity whose history needs explaining.

8.2 The Navy Arms imports, 2022–2026

The first batch arrived in 2022. The Firearm Blog reported on 24 June 2022 that the rifles had “recently been imported into the United States by Navy Arms” and were being sold through EuroOptic and Old Western Scrounger, “Navy Arms’ affiliate”.1 The rifles were decommissioned French Army rifles that “have seen some use”; EuroOptic said they “may show some signs of wear but are 100% fully functional”, each with a Picatinny scope mount and two ten-round magazines. The Picatinny mount is an importer’s addition, not French issue.1

American Rifleman had reported in September 2021 that “Navy Arms has contracted to purchase and import the FR F2s being decommissioned by the French government” and was “listing each FR F2 individually to account for the variations in condition and value of each gun”.2 Its “I Have This Old Gun” column of March 2024 credited Val Forgett of Navy Arms with having “been able to import a number of them into this country”, and judged them “strong, tight actions and sharply rifled barrels”; “these guns haven’t seen a lot of service”.3 No quantity has been published.

At the 2026 SHOT Show, The Firearm Blog reported that the FR-F2 was “not new to Navy’s lineup” but that Navy Arms had “never sold refurbished versions before”, and was now offering reconditioned rifles with a scope mount, bipod, magazines, a carrying bag and the original French field manual, asking “$8,995” for the lot.4

A claim that Navy Arms bought the entire stock of decommissioned FR-F2s and is the only importer appears in a search summary attributed to the vendors’ copy; the EuroOptic page refused automated reading, so the claim is unconfirmed.5 A Gun Mag Warehouse blog headline called the rifles “replicas”; every other source describes genuine decommissioned French rifles with French markings and an import mark, and the headline is treated as an error.

8.3 Auction results

Table 1 — Auction results

DateHouseResultNotesSource
Sale closed 10 May 2024Morphy, Firearms & Militaria, lot 1184$7,200 including buyer’s premium, against an estimate of $10,000–15,000; five bidsNavy Arms import; SCROME J8 F1 scope and mount with case; sealed kit of two magazines with carrier, stock extensions, cheek pieces, sling, cleaning kit, manual; listed as a “Modern” firearm for transfer6
Catalogue 4092 (date not shown on the page)Rock Island Auction, lot 543Estimate $9,000–14,000; result not shown”F.R. F2 - 7,62.N” on the receiver; an import mark behind the magazine well; “So far, only a small number have entered the U.S. market thanks to the efforts of Navy Arms Co.”7
Date not confirmedLSB Auctions$7,025, per a search summary onlyThe page refused automated reading8

The serial numbers in the Morphy and Rock Island catalogues differ by a single digit, which suggests either the same rifle passing through both houses or a transcription slip in one of them. Serials are not reproduced here.

8.4 What a buyer should pay

Table 2 — What a buyer should pay

DateSellerPriceSource
June 2022EuroOptic$7,995, fixedThe Firearm Blog1
June 2022Old Western Scrounger$4,095 to $9,795 by condition; a consecutive-serial pair $17,500The Firearm Blog1
May 2024Morphy, at auction$7,200 with premium, complete with J8 scope and kitMorphy6
January 2026Navy Arms, refurbished$8,995 with mount, bipod, magazines, bag and manualThe Firearm Blog4

From 2022 to 2026 a complete FR-F2 sold for roughly $7,000 to $9,000, with the cheapest Old Western Scrounger rifles below that and a matched pair well above. The Firearm Blog warned in 2022 that the lower-priced rifles might lack the Picatinny mount.1 A rifle with an original SCROME J8 is worth more than one without: McCollum reported in 2022 that the J8 was built only to order and is “very hard to find”, and SCROME was making a fresh run for the surplus rifles, price not published (Vol 7).9 No dated listing of loose FR-F2 parts was found.

8.5 The FR-F1 in the United States

No FR-F1 import was found. That has a legal side as well as a market one, set out below: an FR-F1 made fifty or more years ago and still in its original configuration would be a curio or relic by age, and curios and relics can be imported by licensed importers. That none appears to have been imported is a fact about supply, not about law.

8.6 Curio or relic: the arithmetic

The federal definition is in 27 CFR 478.11. A curio or relic includes, in its first category, “Firearms which were manufactured at least 50 years prior to the current date, but not including replicas thereof”.10 ATF’s published curio and relic list, in its January 1972 to April 2025 edition, has no entry for the FR-F1, FR-F2 or MAS 36; it lists the MAS 49, the MAS 49/56 and a “French Military Rifle Model 1949/56, in cal. 7.62 x 51mm (NATO)”.11 ATF does not list rifles that qualify by age alone, so the absence of the MAS 36 means nothing; every MAS 36 is old enough.

The arithmetic for the precision rifles, on 18 October 2026:

Table 3 — The arithmetic for the precision rifles, on 18 October 2026

RifleMadeFifty years old by age?
MAS 361936 to the late 1950sYes, all of them
FR-F11966 to 1973 or 1980, by source (Vol 2)Those made by October 1976, if in original configuration; the rest from 2027 to 2030
FR-F2From 1984, in service from 1986 (Vol 3)No; from the mid-2030s at the earliest

The FR-F2 adds a complication no source addresses. Most FR-F2s are FR-F1 receivers made in the 1960s or 1970s and re-machined in the 1980s (Vol 3). Whether such a rifle’s age runs from its receiver’s original manufacture or from its conversion, and whether the conversion takes it out of “original configuration”, are questions for ATF, not answers this volume can give. Morphy’s catalogue treated its FR-F2 as a modern firearm, and that is the safe working assumption until ATF says otherwise.6

8.7 An import question no source answers

The statute on importation contains a puzzle. Under 18 U.S.C. 925(d)(3), ATF may authorise importation of a firearm that is “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, excluding surplus military firearms”; under 925(e)(1), licensed importers may import “all rifles and shotguns listed as curios or relics”.12 A surplus military bolt-action rifle that is not a curio or relic therefore looks, on the face of the statute, not importable. Yet non-curio FR-F2s were imported in 2022, with import marks.

No source read explains how. Possibilities include a transfer out of military control before export, so that the rifles were not treated as surplus military firearms, or some determination by ATF not found here. None is asserted. A search summary paraphrased ATF as defining surplus military firearms as any firearm “ever possessed by a regular or irregular military force”, but the ATF pages refused automated reading and that wording is unconfirmed. For a buyer the question is academic, because the rifles are lawfully in the country and lawfully transferable as modern firearms through a dealer. For anyone hoping to import more, it is the first question to put to ATF or an import specialist.

8.8 Federal law for an owner

An FR-F2 is a bolt-action rifle with a 600 mm (23.6 in) barrel and a length well over 26 in. It raises no National Firearms Act question; the NFA reaches rifles only with barrels under 16 in or overall lengths under 26 in.13 The hub’s suppressor law dive covers the rules if anyone fits a can to one, including Public Law 119-21’s $0 tax on suppressors (Suppressor Law).

Section 922(r) does not apply. It makes it unlawful “to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle” (or shotgun) identical to one barred from importation; a bolt-action rifle is outside it on its face.14 The hub’s AK-47 and Steyr AUG dives cover 922(r) for the semi-automatic rifles it does govern (AK-47, Vol 17; Steyr AUG, Vol 6).

A modern FR-F2 transfers like any modern rifle, through a licensed dealer. A curio-or-relic licence does not help with an FR-F2. It does help with a MAS 36 bought as a collector’s rifle or a donor (below).

8.9 Michigan

Michigan’s pistol machinery, the licence to purchase and the pistol sales record under MCL 28.422 and 28.422a, applies to pistols, not to rifles. The hub’s Remington Nylon 66 dive states the long-gun position and links the statutes (Remington Nylon 66, Vol 7), and the Remington XP-100 dive quotes them in full for the pistol case (Remington XP-100, Vol 5). Michigan’s short-barrelled rifle section, MCL 750.224b, is set out in the hub’s MP 40 dive (MP 40, Vol 6); a full-length bolt-action rifle is outside it. Nothing in Michigan law specific to a bolt-action rifle of this kind was identified. Hunting use is governed by the Department of Natural Resources’ annual regulations, which were not checked for this volume.

8.10 France

A French civilian who wants an FR-F1 or FR-F2 faces a different system. The Code de la sécurité intérieure, article R311-2, as amended in March 2024, puts in category C, subject to declaration rather than authorisation, “Armes à feu d’épaule … à répétition manuelle dont le projectile a un diamètre inférieur à 20 mm équipées de systèmes d’alimentation permettant le tir de 11 munitions au plus, sans qu’intervienne le réapprovisionnement” (“manually operated repeating shoulder arms firing a projectile under 20 mm in diameter, with feed systems allowing at most 11 rounds to be fired without reloading”).15 On that text, a bolt-action FR-F1 or FR-F2 with its ten-round magazine falls in category C. No French dealer listing or official ruling naming the FR-F1 or FR-F2 was found to confirm it, and the category A and B text was not read in full, so the classification of the specific models is text-derived and unconfirmed. No dated French or European prices for either rifle were found.

8.11 The MAS 36 as a collector’s rifle and a donor

The MAS 36 is easy to find in the United States. Century Arms International imported surplus rifles, and two auction listings name it as importer.16

Table 4 — The MAS 36 as a collector's rifle and a donor

DateSellerItemPriceSource
February 2022CT Firearms Auction, lot 269MAS 36, 7.5×54, 23 in barrel, refinished; imported by C.A.I.$517.50 realised16
June 2024CT Firearms AuctionMAS 36 with spike bayonet, matching numbers; C.A.I. import mark$544.50 realised16
Listed 23 April 2024Legacy CollectiblesMAS 36 of the 1950s, import-marked, mismatched bolt$895, sold17

Both auction listings said the rifle “Must ship to a C&R or FFL holder”: the MAS 36 is a curio or relic by age. A buyer planning an FR-F2-pattern build should buy a complete rifle, not a loose receiver; a search summary of ATF Ruling 85-10 says loose surplus military receivers not themselves classified as curios are not importable, which would limit loose MAS 36 receivers to ones separated from rifles already in the country. The ruling was not read. Vol 9 covers the build.

8.12 A buyer’s checklist

  1. Confirm the model. An FR-F2 has the sleeve, the yoke-mounted bipod and the “F.R. F2 - 7,62.N” marking (Vol 4). An F2-pattern rifle on an infantry MAS 36 receiver is an FR-G2 or a lookalike.
  2. Find the import mark. Every FR-F2 known in the United States came through Navy Arms. A rifle without a mark needs an explanation.
  3. Check what comes with it. Original SCROME J8 or APX L806-04 and its mount; magazines; bipod; stock extensions and cheek pieces; the manual. The importer’s Picatinny mount is not French issue.
  4. Inspect it. Headspace with 7.62 NATO gauges, lug seats, extractor, free float, bipod yoke, muzzle device (Vol 6).
  5. Compare the price with the 2022–2026 band above, and allow for the scope.
  6. Transfer it as a modern firearm through a licensed dealer unless ATF has said otherwise.

8.13 Open questions

Table 5 — Open questions

QuestionStatus
How many FR-F2s Navy Arms imported, and whether it bought them allNot published; “entire stock” claim unconfirmed
How non-curio surplus military rifles were importedNot explained by any source read
Whether a re-machined FR-F1 receiver dates from its first manufacture or its conversion for curio purposesA question for ATF
Whether any FR-F1 has been importedNone found
French classification of the FR-F1 and FR-F2 by nameText-derived only
French and European market pricesNot found

References

Footnotes

  1. Doug E, “Newly Imported French FR F2 Sniper Rifles Available In The U.S.”, The Firearm Blog, 24 June 2022, https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2022/06/24/french-fr-f2-sniper-rifles/ , read 2026-10-18. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Martin K. A. Morgan, “The French FR F2 Sniper Rifle”, American Rifleman, 18 September 2021, https://americanrifleman.org/content/the-french-fr-f2-sniper-rifle , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  3. “I Have This Old Gun: French FRF2 Sniper Rifle”, American Rifleman, 13 March 2024, https://americanrifleman.org/content/i-have-this-old-gun-french-frf2-sniper-rifle , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  4. Zac K, “[SHOT 2026] Navy Arms Raids France’s MilSurp Supply”, The Firearm Blog, 22 January 2026, https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/shot-2026-navy-arms-raids-france-s-milsurp-supply-44825590 , read 2026-10-18. ↩ ↩2

  5. EuroOptic, “Navy Arms Imported FRF2 .308 Win”, https://eurooptic.com/Navy-Arms-Imported-FRF2-308-Win-24-Bbl-10rd-Mag-135-LOP-45-OAL-Wood-Stock-Sniper.aspx ; refused automated reading (HTTP 429) on 2026-10-18. ↩

  6. Morphy Auctions, Firearms and Militaria, 8–10 May 2024, lot 1184, https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/_M__VERY_NICE_MAS_FR_F2_BOLT_ACTION_SNIPER_RIFLE_W-LOT598829.aspx , read 2026-10-18. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Rock Island Auction Company, catalogue for sale 4092, lot 543, https://cdn.rockislandauction.com/flipbooks/4092/BK1/files/basic-html/page472.html , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  8. LSB Auctions, “France FRF2 Sniper Rifle FR-F2 7.62 Bolt Action Mags & Accessories”, https://lsbauctions.com/france-frf2-sniper-rifle-fr-f2-7-62-bolt-action-mags-accessories/ ; refused automated reading (HTTP 403) on 2026-10-18. ↩

  9. Ian McCollum, “Scrome J8: A Proper Scope for the FR-F2 Sniper”, Forgotten Weapons, 21 May 2022, read 2026-10-18. ↩

  10. 27 CFR 478.11, definition of “Curios or relics”, Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/478.11 , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  11. ATF, Firearms Curios or Relics List, January 1972 through April 2025 (ATF P 5300.11), read from the Internet Archive capture of 26 April 2026 on 2026-10-18; copy in 02-inputs/sources/. ↩

  12. 18 U.S.C. 925(d)(3) and (e)(1), Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/925 , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  13. 26 U.S.C. 5845(a)(3)–(4), as summarised in the hub’s existing law volumes; the statute text was not re-read on 2026-10-18. ↩

  14. 18 U.S.C. 922(r), Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922 , read 2026-10-18. ↩

  15. Code de la sécurité intérieure, art. R311-2 III 1° b, as modified by décret n° 2024-221 of 12 March 2024, read in the Union française des amateurs d’armes’ consolidated mark-up of décret 2024-615, https://armes-ufa.com/IMG/pdf/ufa_nouveau_decret_influences_sur_csi_et_code_du_sport_28062024_v2.pdf , on 2026-10-18 (Légifrance refused automated reading). ↩

  16. CT Firearms Auction, lot pages for a MAS 36 sold in February 2022, https://ctfirearmsauction.com/auction_item/french-mas-36-7-5x54mm-bolt-action-rifle-2/ , and in June 2024, https://ctfirearmsauction.com/auction_item/french-mas-36-7-5x54-french-bolt-action-rifle/ , read 2026-10-18. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. Legacy Collectibles, “Excellent French MAS-36, 1950s manufacture”, https://legacy-collectibles.com/excellent-french-mas-36-1950s-mfg , read 2026-10-18. ↩

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