berthier mle 1982

[jroach1018]

so i received an old rusty berthier mle 1892 carbine... i cleaned it up and reblued the barrel... i used evapo rust for the inside of the barrel and to my surprise there is no pitting and the rifling looks 100% the chamber looks clean and the bolt seems smooth and sturdy... i was able to locate a 5rd clip and some 8mm lebel ammo... question is how can i determine if this carbine is safe to shoot

[Think_Again]

Pictures. We want pictures. :-) I don't know anything about that rifle, pictures would help, and feed my imagination as to what this is.

[Rich]

Sand bags and a string.


Point the gun down range and support it with sand bags. Use a string to pull the trigger on a few rounds. If nothing bad happens you are good to go!

[wolfspotter]

Check to see what type of ammo you have and if your rifle is marked with an N. I had four metal strips, each holding around 24 8mm Lebel cartridges for the Hotchkiss machine gun. I pulled the bullets to reload in my 8mm FN-49 but glad I didn't. The bullet was larger in diameter behind the crimping groove and would have been unsafe to use.
Many Berthier bolt actions were later opened up in the neck / throat area of the chamber to allow the brass to expand enough while firing and avoid dangerous spikes do to the larger bullet base.

Love to see pics and range report.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8mm_Lebel

Balle N ammo should never be fired from any Lebel or Berthier rifle unless it has had the chamber reamed to accept the larger neck of the N cartridge. Such weapons are stamped N on top of the barrel, just in front of the receiver and behind the rear sight. "Balle N " ammo is identifiable by the fact that the bullet, while pointed like the solid brass "Balle D", is lead cored and jacketed with soft steel .
While ammunition is scarce for the US recreational shooter, reloadable cartridge cases can be easily produced by reforming .348" Winchester brass. Furthermore, Prvi Partizan has also brought onto the market recently both fully loaded Lebel cartridges and reloadable Lebel brass. While they are of excellent quality, the brass lacks the circular groove around the primer cup so the reloader must be careful to use only round-nosed or flat-nosed bullets when producing handloads for tube-magazine Lebel rifles. Spitzer bullets will of course be perfectly safe in the box-magazine of the Berthier rifle .

[jroach1018]

2011-10-19_14-05-08_843.jpg2011-10-24_19-38-20_435.jpg

[jroach1018]

best i could do with my cell phone... i have no N stamp on the gun but i did purchase prvi ammo from midwayusa... is that safe to shoot out of this rifle?

[wolfspotter]

Awesome rifle! I'm sure the prvi would be fine. Always a good idea to have older firearms checked over by a gunsmith first.

[jroach1018]

thank you... i like rich's string test idea better but unfortunately i live on LI and i have no place to do that.... im just curious how a gunsmith can determine if its safe or not, does he just visually inspect it or is there something more a gunsmith would do

[Think_Again]

Thanks for the pics. I don't think I've seen one of those. (I'd add advise but as always these guys have given the advise I would. )

As for a gunsmith I'd think they'd just do a detailed visual inspection. A good one will look for cracks and signes of pressure fatigue. (Or fatigue due to pressure).

[wolfspotter]

A gunsmith would visually inspect it. It would be ideal if he could check the head space but wouldn't imagine most gunsmiths have a set of 8mm Lebel gauges lying around. Not sure how important that would be since the cartridge headspaces on the rim anyway. Hate to give you advice that could be dangerous.
If the rifle was mine, I'd go for the Rich's recommendation and inspect the fired brass for anything abnormal.