Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I am Ian McCollum, and I have my MAS 38 submachine gun at long, long last.
I think it's actually running now. So, I made several attempts to fix this myself,
... I think once I got it to run three rounds in a row, and that was the most ever.
Well, after a number of attempts at self gunsmithing (which it turns out I'm not a very good gunsmith),
I sent it off to a professional to be worked on, and I just got it back, and he says it runs great now.
So thanks to Steinel I actually have ammunition for it.
I have a couple of 30 round mags of Steinel, this is 110 grain at, I think, 1,100 feet per second.
It should be ammo that will run beautifully in this gun.
In case you were wondering on a little bit of backstory, I have a whole video on the MAS 38.
But the short version is: this is the submachine gun that the French were intending to develop
basically from the end of World War One forward.
They finally got around to it in the 1930s, and by 1938 they went, "Oh crap, like we need it fast."
And so they adopted it in this form, made a couple thousand of them before the war.
But this is actually one of the guns that was made in substantial quantity during World War Two
... by the Vichy government for use by police and that sort of thing.
This one in fact was manufactured in September of 1942, so.
... Relatively low-powered by submachine gun standards,
this is somewhere right around 9mm Makarov really in power.
Anyway, if it runs it should be very pleasant, so let's see if it does.
Here we go.
Ha-ha-hah! It actually runs!
Not only does it run, it is actually very comfortable.
The recoil impulse is nice and light.
Maybe the weirdest thing about this is trying to figure out where to hold it.
Because this is just a magazine well cover. But there is no front grip.
That barrel's already hotter than I want to hold on to.
So you're kind of in this position where (engage the safety by the way, whoop, there we go)
you can hold it by the magazine which is, like, actually that's kind of your only option.
Hold it, grip the mag. Hold the mag like that, that's kind of your option.
I guess the plus side of this is it's a very compact little gun, the recoil spring comes down into the buttstock.
I guess you could also double pistol grip it like this,
but it feels like that's going to be a little less controlled.
So I'm going to keep it out here, making sure to keep my thumb away from the ejection port.
Oh right, and it's an open bolt gun.
See if I can get singles.
I cannot pull off singles, I can very easily shoot doubles, but not single rounds, so.
The stock - the idea here is the bolt is actually at an angle to the receiver,
so that it can be in a straight line with a recoil spring that comes down into the stock.
And the idea is that drops enough down here that you don't have to set the sights very high.
Well, they designed it for someone with facial geometry that's not the same as mine.
And this is common to a bunch of French firearms that I've got to tinker with.
The Hotchkiss Universal is almost identical [to] this setup, the Chauchat is the same way.
So I have to kind of take on a very square shooting stance
so that I can bring my face way back on the stock.
If you try and do the bladed sort of example, like this,
your eye is way above the rear sight.
So you shoot it kind of square, bring your face back, and then you can get a nice sight picture.
Which I'm going to attempt to use on my longtime nemesis, the freaking spinner.
Karl has brought the spinner out today for me to try. I'm going to top off with a fresh magazine.
There we go! I gave up trying to adjust top and bottom and just shot at the bottom.
And over again!
So I think I just saw a round actually try ... Yeah, see, it's trying to pop out.
I think this magazine's feed lips are a little on the wimpy side.
So, these are all 1940s magazines.
The French didn't use this gun very long, it was replaced by the MAT 49 very shortly after World War Two.
So basically '38 to '49. ... They did see a little more extended service in some theatres, but...
Oh shoot. That's why it was shooting high, I've got the 200 yard sight aperture up.
I've got two different sights here: 200, 100.
- That's why you should use a 6 o'clock hold.
- But I don't need a 6 o'clock hold if I've got a 100 yard sight.
There we go. I only had 2 rounds left anyway.
Wait, wait, wait, do I have more? No. Surely I have more ammunition.
Ahhh, here we go. Alright.
There we go! That's more like it.
And I'm out of ammo, just in time to basically stop it.
So I am extremely happy that I finally have a working MAS 38 submachine gun.
It has been many years since I bought this thing and set about trying to get it running.
I think it will definitely be making an appearance in future videos once
- well this was filmed during the pandemic apocalypse - so once the world opens back up
and we can start having shooting competitions again,
this guy will come out and get to play.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]