French MAS Rifles in Syria, The Syrian Civil War

This guest article is brought to us by Bruce Marduel, taking a look at the French MAS series of bolt action and semi-automatic rifles in service throughout Syrian history, and in this case, the current Syrian Civil War.

MAS 36 is the oldest rifle is the MAS family, and even if it entered production before WWII it is still used in an impressive number of countries, including Lebanon and Syria. A MAS 36 was first visible in a 2013 picture of the Syrian Conflict, limited information is available, but it seems that MAS 36 are actually used in combat.

In 2014 a huge stock of MAS 36 is captured by FSA rebels, it is probably the biggest concentration of French weapons seen in Syria, even if it is obsolete. These exemplars can be identified as post-war production, with green-ish finish on the metallic parts, an annular shroud protecting the front sight and a rounded sling attachment.

They also appear as captured material during offensives of the regime forces, in 2018 during the offensive on Daraa governorate (Operation Basalt) two MAS 36 are part of the spoils exhibited by the Syrian Arab Army in a video broadcasted by ANNA News (pro-regime news outlet). The two rifles have slings and one of them seems to be pre-WWII production (no rounded protection for the front sight post).

Even if plenty of MAS 36 are available, the lack of ammo makes the weapon almost useless in the recent conflict, so much so that it’s value on the black market dropped to a few dollars: the rifle below was for sale in Idlib for $15-

 

Also due to the lack of ammo, some experiments were made with MAS 36, several rifles have been modified with a new stock, bipod, rails for scopes, and more importantly a free-floating cannon chambered for .308 Winchester. This type of rifle is quite similar to the custom Mosin-Nagant used by Albanians of Xhemati Alban, as well as the craft-produced anti-material rifles based on 12,7mm and 14,5mm tubes.

MAS 36 for sale in Idlib / Credit : @Armoury Bazaar

Also due to the lack of ammo, some experiments we done with MAS 36 in Idlib, several rifles have been modified with a new stock, bipod, rails for scopes, and more importantly a free-floating cannon chambered for .308 Winchester. This type of rifle is similar to the custom Mosin-Nagant used by Albanians of Xhemati Alban, as well as the craft-produced anti-material rifles based on 12,7mm and 14,5mm tubes.

Credit : @Calibre Obscura

Credit : @armorybazaar

The MAS 36 wasn’t designed as a precision rifle in the beginning, but merely as an infantry rifle, thus it has a simple design, limited number of parts, no safety, and its sights can’t be adjusted by the user. The action is however reliable and precise, it was even used as a basis for the FR-F1 and FR-F2 precision rifles developed in France.

MAS 49

MAS 49 is cosmetically close to the MAS 36, but functions as a semi-automatic rifle, it incorporates features from the pre-WWII MAS 38-40 and MAS 40 prototypes. These prototypes weren’t produced at first due to the defeat and the subsequent occupation of France during WWII. After the liberation of France, MAS 44 were produced in limited numbers with different variants (Type A, B, C) before the full production of the MAS 49 as a standard-issue rifle. The MAS 49 is very similar to MAS 44 Type A.

MAS 49 appeared early in the conflict : as early as march 2012 the Daily Mail and then RT used a picture of weapons captured in Homs. The photo comes from SANA News and AFP. Among the RPG rounds, binoculars and various civilian rifles, there is a MAS 49

Credit : Daily Mail

Credit : RT

A MAS 49 is visible again in a 2014 video by Vice News, the video is shot in Tripoli (Lebanon). Vice News covers the communautarian clashes in Lebanon caused by the neighboring conflict in Syria. We can see the Sunni sheikh Bilal Radwan al-Masri delivering a speech with an AK and a MAS 49 behind him and later shooting the MAS.

On the first shot the weapon doesn’t cycle properly and he has to extract the used casing manually, but the following shots cycle the weapons without any issue, showing that ammunition is available, but of variable quality.

In August 2018 several Russian news agencies published images of a exhibition organized in the Russian city of Kubinka during the Army 2018 show. Captured material from Syria is visible in the exhibition, including eleven MAS 36 and five MAS 49, all post-WWII produced and in good shape.

MAS 49/56

Mas 49/56 is the most recent variant, it is lighter and shorter than the MAS 49, but uses the same internal parts. A Mas 49/56 was spotted during a demonstration in August 2012 in al Qusayr. The rifle is in good shape and is still equipped with its APX SOM 806L factory scope. Interestingly this variant hasn’t been delivered to Syria officially and probably comes from the Lebanese black market.

Credit : Lens Young Homsi

Conclusion

MAS rifles have a long history in the Middle-East, even if conventional armed forces have now replaced MAS with weapons offering more firepower in a more compact format. MAS 49 offer limited customization and accuracy due to the semi-automatic action, they are virtually unused in the Syrian conflict. However MAS 36, with a low cost and broad availability can be used as a base for custom-build precision rifles. MAS 36 make up for a low rate of fire with a decent accuracy thanks to their bolt-action.