Meunier Rifle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Meunier Rifle evolved as a part of the program initiated in 1909 by the French military to develop a semi-automatic infantry rifle that would eventually replace the Mle 1886-93 Lebel rifle. Four government research establishments (STA, ENT, Puteaux and CTV) proposed over 20 prototypes. About half of them were based on recoil (both short recoil and long recoil) and the others were gas operated. This secret program was placed under the direction of General Naquet-Laroque who headed the Puteaux (APX) government arsenal, while private armament firms were not invited to participate. Out of the various semi-automatic prototypes being tested only three emerged as offering industrial potential:

The 7mm ENT B5 Rifle by Rossignol which inaugurated direct gas impingement into the bolt.
The 7mm APX C7 Rifle by Chauchat, Sutter and Naquet-Laroque which was based on the Browning long-recoil system of 1900.
The 7mm long-recoil operated STA A6 Rifle by Meunier.

The Meunier Rifle was adopted in 1910 to replace the Lebel rifle. It gave excellent performance during the final trials: "The 7mm Meunier Rifle fired 3,000 shots without serious incidents". The rimless 7 X 59 mm Meunier round was substantially more powerful than 8mm Lebel ammunition. Eventually over 1000 Meunier Rifles were manufactured during WW-1 at Tulle arsenal (MAT) and tested in the trenches. The Meunier Rifle eventually lost out to the gas-operated Mle 1917 RSC semi-automatic rifle, which was built in large numbers (80,000) during 1918. The Mle 1917 RSC was adopted because it was less expensive to manufacture, while being also chambered for standard 8mm Lebel ammunition.