Thats a beautiful piece there. Despite its reputation, the simplicity and design of it had potential and. It did have success believe it or not. Make it tactical :p
The above book is from Collector's grade publications, but youtube won't let me post the address.
Might also want to read the "Other sixteen" website, about alvin york and the other, forgotten unsung soldiers who were besides him in his 'single-handed' capture of a german MG nest, as the bulk of the group's firepower was... the 'crappy' CSRG 1915.
@SupraNirvana it's un healthy to beieve everything that's shown on TV without crosschecking its value with other or better personnal experience, so much is just unverified copy and past (history channel being a good example of it.
Much maligned today, the CSRG (Chauchat) machine rifle was in fact the most manufactured automatic weapon of WWI, outnumbering every other machinegun made, by the Allies and the Central Powers. It was the world's first successful squad automatic-the ancestor of the modern assault rifle.
In the Chauchat one can recognise for the first time together all the classic attributes: the pistol grip, the in-line stock, the large capacity magazine, the fire selector, and the bipod. French and AEF CSRG Gunners formed the nucleus of the world's first Infantry machinegun-killer teams during World War I, using the CSRG to such telling effect that many were awarded the highest decorations their countries could bestow. A well-reasoned, historical classic.
@SupraNirvana Only the version we got was crappy. The weapon it's self is actually pretty good. It's just the open magazines make it super prone to jamming. If you had an original in 8mm with the closed ones you could probably use it on a battlefield today!
And History channel rarely ever gets their facts on firearms right. American ones, sure, they have all the info they need here in the states. As soon as it comes to historical weapons from other nations... it's laughable.
@SupraNirvana And half of the weapon's problems came from it being rechambered in such a massive round, something it was originally never made to handle.
Accuracy wouldn't matter when you're firing from the hit like that. You'd be keeping the heads of the Germans down so they wouldn't pick off you and your buddies while out in the open. There is no other weapon that could've provided the firepower the troops needed while still being so easyily manufactured. Browning guns took time and money to make, the Chauchat was cheap and quick.
The Chauchat is the triumph of reality over idealism. Sure, it wasn't a very good gun, but over a hundred thousand were produced, and they provided a great boost in firepower to the soldiers on the front.
Compare it to the MP-28, of which only a couple thousand were produced and which only reached the front in 1917... far too late and too few to make a difference.
The Chauchat made an impact, whereas the MP-28 did not.
@MrBillcale , few have survived, mostly in museums, there are quite a few in working condition in the hands of US collectors, they are very appreciated by their owner, just as they were appreciated by the soldiers in WWI, for the direct, on the move fire support they provided.
The CSRG 1915 is one of the few tools that helped win WWI.
@menhir06 I don't know where you got your info from, but the Chauchet LMG was plagued with problems including feeding and firing issues cause from debris entering the holes in the magazine and jamming it. It was made from poorly stamped metal, parts from other Chauchets were non compatible with all others and when they finally converted to 30' 06, most of them blew up because they could not handle the load. Too bad as it had great concepts and that round it fired really packed a punch.
My informations on the CSRG 1915 are "hands on", there is no substitute to personnal experience.
The US collectors who own and fire CSRG, know their efficiency and that parts are unterchangeable, one learns by experience better than by reading poorly documented material.
The CSRG 1918 was not a converted 1915, a new rifle was designed around the30.06, a longer receiver to accept a longer bolt travel, stronger and longer recoil springs, a different barrel.....
@menhir06 acually he was right before and in the trenches these guns often jammed and for this reason they were hated by the soldiers, it was unreliable and to a soldier that is what is most important. Later better support weapons were made like the m-18 and the BAR but were only introduced during the last months of the war
I seem to recall a History Channel special about the worst firearms of all time. The Chauchat placed in the top 3. As for your friends with "hands on experience", if they were actual WWI vets then they might have a say about it. However it's far more likely you won't find anyone with actual WWI experience because those who used them probably died as a result.
Collectors fire their weapons in only the most perfect conditions. Even the Chauchat will work in perfect conditions.
@Antlion1001 Well "History Channel"... LOL :D the history part is missing in that channel ^^
More seriously, Chauchats weren't nearly as bad as some people like to think. The conditions of trenches warfare weren't too friendly for automatic weapons, but the CSRG remained nonetheless a very useful weapon at that time. I've read somewhere that americans CSRG had much more problems because they used a different cartridge, but without any modification to the chamber.
The reason why the CSRG Chauchat had a so bad reputation among American soldiers in 1918 ? Merely because they used models built for the 30-06 cartridge with approximative conversions from the metric system, the result of which were jams on jams...
This LMG was not as bad than one said... It's difficult to get information from users for this gun has become very seldom, but ALL people who tried it and I asked related that there were no jams (@ cudaman82 : naturally, if you shoot blanks withouth a blank firing device on the barrel...).
On the other hand, this gun was technically, for mass production, in advance for its time.
It's a long barrel recoil system firing from an open bolt designed and tested in 1898/1902 by MM Rybeyrolle and Sutter, the barrel is in a sleeve held forward by its recoil spring. The bolt is unlocked from the barrel at the end of the rearward move and is released by the trigger sear only when the barrel is relocated forward by its own recoil spring, the bolt released will chamber a round, lock in the barrel and strike the primer.
I just attended a WW2 reenactment where one of the guys portraying a French 1940 soldier had one of these. Even with blanks it has one hell of a kick and one hell of a report! Definately one badass gun to fire!
The Chauchat was not a machine gun, but an automatic rifle, later copied in its tactical use by most LMG.
The Chauchat was well liked by its operators, and badmouthed by wouldbe gun writers who wrote about it without hands on experience, and copy/pasted each others, today Chauchat owners like and appreciate these guns just as much as the original owners.
The chauchat was a war expediment, fabricated in large quantity, using sheet metal and stampings instead of machining, a world first.
They were available in large quantity to the french infantry, two to four per squad, a huge advantage on both the offensive and defensive.
The Chauchat were maligned by ignorant "gunwriters" mostly for their look rather than how they worked since said writers judged on appearances and not by experience.
@menhir06, I noticed that the ones that had the real problem was the 30-06 variant, they were re-chambered wrong and that gives all the guns bad reputation.
The Model 1918 built for the AEF at General Pershing request in 30.06 was tailor made, it was an enlarged version of the CSRG 1915 with a straight 16 round magazine, early production guns had the chamber cut too tight for the war production cartridges whose tolerances were loose leading to jams, a few twist of a max tolerance reamer solved the problem.
Gunwriters with no war expertise judged the Chauchat poorly on its cheap look, not on its merits.
This is the only chauchat video, I love it and found a magizine for it at a local gun show, but still dont have the gun. ill get it when I have the money.
Kagetora2010, many things have been written about the chauchat by authors who never laid hands on it, and copy/pasted each others, not bothering with the truth.
There was no quality control problem with the Chauchat, as civilian owners have found out, today parts are still interchangeable. The US Chauchat model 1918 was designed around the 30.06 cartridge and not a rechambering job (the original caliber 8x5OR could not adapt to the cartridge length and bullet diameter.
Wow! I had no idea any functioning examples of this pioneering weapon were still in firing condition! Really cool to watch in action a weapon I had only read about previously! More ergonomic design flaws than a stray dog has fleas, yet a quantum leap forward in terms of tactical firepower over 1914. The Chauchat's major problems were the result of poor production quality control, and later when in the hands of the US Army the weapon was rechambered for the US .30-06 which overpowered the gun.
I'm happy to say my family owns one of these machine guns. It was left to us by my great grandfather who licensed the gun back in 1935. Right before they made it impossible to license them. Right now we have it in our posession but we're missing the bolt. We're having a very good gunsmith try to find a bolt and machine one for our gun, and then hopefully we'll have our own video to post.
The successor was the Chatellerault Model 1924/29, caliber 7.5 Mas and it was an very good light machine gun, reliable and accurate. Still on duty until the end of the sixties...
It shows that your dad did bother learning how to whistand the long recoil thrust of the Chauchat, if the body absorbs too much of the recoil there is not enough left for the full cycle to be completed, and it's a jam due to shooter ignorance.
@menhir06, true, but the gun should not rely on the shooter, it should be made so that any guy that gets ahold of it that knows how to aim can shoot it, thus its a poor design.
how is this a good machine gun? it was dubbed one of the worst machine guns made and had a fire rate of 250 rpm had only a 20 round magazine and had many other problems.
@SteveSpicerPortsmuth yeah but remember the average Chauchat jammed every few rounds... the Lewis gun was probably the best of the WW1 LMGs, unless you count the M1918 BAR, which as far as I'm aware was hardly used. The Lewis gun was heavier than the Chauchat but far more reliable.
If you ever read the US divisional histories about the Chauchat, even then it gets an okay rating. Main complaint is the magazine, but it proved an adequate weapon, and obviously it was better than having no squad automatic weapon.
In short, more effective than having the gunner using a bolt action, but ideally could have been more reliable.
wow! amazing rifle! But not appreciated at all by ww1 soldiers. It's a so fragile gun who doesn't worn well because his magazine are open to all dusts or mud. And mud are everywhere on ww1 battlefield......
Pershing prefer equipped his troops with the French Chauchat while Browning produced the excellent BAR.....
While the Chauchat was not a terribly good light machine gun, it was available in 1916, and lighter than the Lewis gun. I don't blame Pershing for not waiting until the BAR could be series produced, and then soldiers could be trained in it.
it was the most produced machine gun of the war, and equipped the French Chausseur units as well as the US. Atritted French Chausseur units were used to train US soldiers in tactics, rather like an early version of Special Forces.
Mechanically it is interesting...Long Recoil, with the barrel recoiling with the bolt, then rebounding leaving the bolt behind. When the barrel reaches full forward position, it hits a latch, releasing the bolt to come forward, strip off a cartridge. It was produced in the 8mm Lebel and .30/06 US (7.62x63). Only the Lebel version had the very long single stack magazine with holes in the side to check ammo (and let mud in).
Very underrated. Most of the troops didn't like it as of course it had his fair share of problems.But indeed the idea was good: giving a good number of automatic rifles to a not so rich nation to beef up riflemen fire, to flank machineguns, to break the impenetrable lines of ww1.
To get it as economic as it could be they did introduce very innovative techniques of manufacturing, but it was too early for reliable mass produced guns. Troops then used it as an mg... and shit hit the fan...
A reasonable proportion of the French troops didn't mind it too much it seems, it was the magazine they really had issues with. Most compalints came from the US troops when they adopted it.
Well, the movie is nice, the gun is powerfull, and the caliber is also quite nice. But in theorie, the Chauchat was a terrible weapon, especially for use in the trenches, because of the mud, dust and water. The RPM is very low, but still quite high for a WW1 weapon. It was better to use when it was clean, so it's a bad trench weapon. Sometimes it jammed, because of the sand. But it was a hell of a gun when it was clean. So actually not that terrible. It's quite nice to see it's in a good state.
It wasn't used in man to man combat to my knowledge, merely an infantry support weapon.
Although the italians had a submachine gun first, the german Bergmann MP18 was ideal for cleaning trenches. However it too had a nasty habit of jamming, especially with its snail magazine.
The french Chausseur units figured out how to use it: maneuver to where you could shoot into german firing positions, and suppress the german machine guns. The survivors taught these hard won tactics to the Americans.
@SteveSpicerPortsmuth The reason for the jamming of the snail magazine was because of the round-nosed bullet in the 9mm Parabellum rounds. When the bullet was changed to one with a pointed nose, the jamming problems disappeared.
that looked like it worked fairly well for such a bad weapon. Me and the rest of my 8th grade class mates went to Cantigny here in Illinois, and in the Big Red One museum there they had one.
One thing you get a glimpse at here is its intense recoil. I have an Illustrated Directory of guns which says it was virtually impossible to keep it on target. It also says the gun was made out of materials that aren't made to stand up to the stresses involved in shooting. Seems like it could have been a good gun if the French had some time to think it through properly.
Chairborn warrior talk, the chauchat gunners were proud of their weapon, the bad mouthing of the Chauchat surfaced much later in books written by men who had no war experieince and it was never sustained by WWI soldier's talk. No semi or full auto rifle would have been reliable in such conditions as in WWI trenches.
Most of the Chauchat stoppages incured with damaged magazines, to solve this problem, mags were deemed consummable in 1918.
@menhir06 US doughboys and Marines who used the Chauchat complained of its poor workmanship -parts were not interchangeable from one weapon to another- and propensity for dirt to get into the mechanism via the open sided magazine. The Chauchat was designed by a committee none of whose members had prior firearms design experience (Gladiator was a bicycle maker before the war). The parts were stamped metal as much as possible, the recoil overlong, the mechanism overly complex.
Chauchat and Renault FT17 tanks won WWI. The CSRG 1915 was the very first assault rifle in use, not perfect, far from it but good enough for its purpose.
it's in 8x50R, the Chauchat Model 1918 in 30.06 had a 15 shots (almost) traight magazine, while the original Model 1915 had the half moon 20 shots magazine.
I truely can't belive that the US and French Military said that this piece of shit was better than even the Lewis gun. If I had to choose between the Lewis or the Chauchat I would take the Lewis any day of the week. Would I prefer the B.A.R? Yes I would. Well my statment about the French Military, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Heres a question: Did the French use any of these guns or did they just dump them on US troops?
Your statement and query show how little you know about WWI!
The Lewis LMG was prone to jamming, widely used by the French figther planes at the begining of the war, most action reports ended up by "Lewis gun jammed, had to return to base" there was no mud in the sky!
The French Infantry used 200.000 Chauchat LMG,10 per company and it made a big difference in many occasions to have that many automatic weapons on the move in direct support of the assaulting troops.
This is the first time I've seen footage of a Chauchat in action. I had no idea that they fired so slowly!
My grandfather spoke to my father of his WW1days with the 33rd Div. He made reference to the Chauchat (they simply called it the "mitrailleuse") and said it had a lot of problems, but it was all that was available to them. I don't believe he ever saw a BAR in action.
Dude menhir06 when you die you can tell that statement there to all the people who died because their Chauchats had either failed, jammed, or fucked up on them. This thing is one of the worst machine guns or better yet one of the worst firearms ever fielded in the military. This gun eventually gave John Browning a starting block for his B.A.R. which used the lessons learned from the CSRG 15 and ended up making a very successful gun.
Read Josh Becker book, "Devil Dogs the battle of Belleau woods", there are several accounts of CSRG 15 in action with the Marines and working without a hitch.
This gun was actually features in History Channel's 'Modern Marvels' as an engineering disaster, apparently it gave you a 'slap' when aiming down the sights.
Whoever said that didn't fire and/or handle a CCSRG 15,like most of its detractors was unable to see beyond its crude looks that it was a great assault gun.
The Chauchat was a clever engineering achievment with few parts machined,most parts made of sheet metal riveted/welded, the ancestor of the Sten and the sturmgewehr.
I believe the reason for that was that it was based on "long recoil" operation, which meant that the bolt AND barrel were recoiling together during firing.
Thats a beautiful piece there. Despite its reputation, the simplicity and design of it had potential and. It did have success believe it or not. Make it tactical :p
dave3897 4 weeks ago
How do you load it?
T55Storm 1 month ago
we need a ww1 first person shooter
jmantime 2 months ago 4
I saw a guy who posed in a magazine with this once in 72!
americancitizeen 4 months ago
lovely sound.
Bozar91 5 months ago
This may be the only Chauchat firing video on YouTube.
Thanks for uploading!
fox579 5 months ago
Does it work like common assault rifles?
Nice piece of history you've got there (:
nzigen31 6 months ago
@nzigen31 The CSRG 1915 is the very first assault rifle used in large quantities.
menhir06 5 months ago
@menhir06 i think its not an assault rifle.. its a light machine gun
zorbaknecromancer 2 months ago
@WASPfreak
Why don't you try to educate yourself by reading the comments?
menhir06 6 months ago
@menhir06
The above book is from Collector's grade publications, but youtube won't let me post the address.
Might also want to read the "Other sixteen" website, about alvin york and the other, forgotten unsung soldiers who were besides him in his 'single-handed' capture of a german MG nest, as the bulk of the group's firepower was... the 'crappy' CSRG 1915.
joekubert 6 months ago
Awesome sound!!!
XProductions92 7 months ago
to be fair, if ww1 was fought with m16s, they would suffer similar problems, muddy, dirty, and moist environments never work well with guns.
just weld some metal onto the magazine to keep it clean
vamisk 8 months ago 4
@vamisk
The left side window was compulsory to help loading the conical cartridges into the half moon magazine.
The open bottom of the lewis gun suffered the same fate if muddy, and the ammo belt on the LMG 08/15 also.
menhir06 8 months ago
@vamisk ww1 was not fought with m16 you dummy the m16 wasnt even in ww2 it was way later in the cold war
ermaslv44 6 months ago
@ermaslv44 wow no shit, what tipped you off smartass?
vamisk 6 months ago
@vamisk lol sorry i read your comment wrong, i thought you said to be fair ww1 was fought with m16's lol my bad
ermaslv44 6 months ago
talk about a crappy rifle its on failed inventions on history channel
SupraNirvana 8 months ago
@SupraNirvana it's un healthy to beieve everything that's shown on TV without crosschecking its value with other or better personnal experience, so much is just unverified copy and past (history channel being a good example of it.
menhir06 8 months ago 13
@menhir06 thats very true btw how was the gun did it jam on you alot that day?
SupraNirvana 8 months ago
@menhir06 how much did it cost to get one of these
jmantime 8 months ago
@menhir06
Honour Bound - The Chauchat Machine Rifle $39.95 by Gerard Demaison and Yves Buffetaut Deluxe First Edition,1995 227 pages, 244 illustrations
joekubert 6 months ago
@menhir06
Much maligned today, the CSRG (Chauchat) machine rifle was in fact the most manufactured automatic weapon of WWI, outnumbering every other machinegun made, by the Allies and the Central Powers. It was the world's first successful squad automatic-the ancestor of the modern assault rifle.
joekubert 6 months ago
@menhir06
In the Chauchat one can recognise for the first time together all the classic attributes: the pistol grip, the in-line stock, the large capacity magazine, the fire selector, and the bipod. French and AEF CSRG Gunners formed the nucleus of the world's first Infantry machinegun-killer teams during World War I, using the CSRG to such telling effect that many were awarded the highest decorations their countries could bestow. A well-reasoned, historical classic.
joekubert 6 months ago
@SupraNirvana Only the version we got was crappy. The weapon it's self is actually pretty good. It's just the open magazines make it super prone to jamming. If you had an original in 8mm with the closed ones you could probably use it on a battlefield today!
And History channel rarely ever gets their facts on firearms right. American ones, sure, they have all the info they need here in the states. As soon as it comes to historical weapons from other nations... it's laughable.
peepeevagi 8 months ago
@SupraNirvana And half of the weapon's problems came from it being rechambered in such a massive round, something it was originally never made to handle.
It's crappy because of our requirements.
peepeevagi 8 months ago
@peepeevagi i see well nice vid tho
SupraNirvana 8 months ago
I want to shoot one.
bastiaan0741 8 months ago
Et alors! Il fonctionne bien! Certes il n'est pas parfait, mais c'est le premier!
A mon avis, il ne devait pas être bon de porter un casque à boulons en face d'une sulfateuse pareille...
DeCrac 10 months ago
how much would one of those go in an auction?
MrPennyworth007 10 months ago
That is such a gnarly looking gun.
Accuracy wouldn't matter when you're firing from the hit like that. You'd be keeping the heads of the Germans down so they wouldn't pick off you and your buddies while out in the open. There is no other weapon that could've provided the firepower the troops needed while still being so easyily manufactured. Browning guns took time and money to make, the Chauchat was cheap and quick.
Trefellin 10 months ago
That sound :D
sk1llblack 10 months ago
For an LMG it sure has a slow rate of fire....
Axz92 11 months ago
@Axz92 No shit, maybe that's because its not such a big deal when you're fighting soldiers with bolt-action rifles
Keinlicht 11 months ago
@tomoviking89 google seige of yorktown and then kiss by big fat alsatian ass..
MrBillcale 1 year ago
what kind of shells was he shooting was it shot gun shells???????
yellowniggabart123 1 year ago
@yellowniggabart123
The CSRG 1915 shown in the clip is firing the 8x50R "Lebel cartridge", the 20 shot magazine is loaded with 17 rounds.
menhir06 1 year ago
this would be one of my favorite guns in a ww1 call of duty
jmantime 1 year ago
Brainfart... I meant mp18 of course, not mp 28
ComradeMorshu 1 year ago
The Chauchat is the triumph of reality over idealism. Sure, it wasn't a very good gun, but over a hundred thousand were produced, and they provided a great boost in firepower to the soldiers on the front.
Compare it to the MP-28, of which only a couple thousand were produced and which only reached the front in 1917... far too late and too few to make a difference.
The Chauchat made an impact, whereas the MP-28 did not.
ComradeMorshu 1 year ago
@tomoviking89 s'il vous plaît tais-toi! vous embarrasser non américains retardés
MrBillcale 1 year ago
@tomoviking89 pompous is one thing stupid as a rock is another
do you have any idea how much military aid we got from france during the revolutionary war?
we would not exist without their help
the continental army was trained by the french and the american militias did run like scared little
school girls before lafayette trained our rag tag forces to behave like a real army
ask any credible historian who we owe our independence to
simple the french
s'il vous plaît tais-toi!
MrBillcale 1 year ago
omfg! is that a real Chauchat? did any of those french contraptions survive??
MrBillcale 1 year ago
@MrBillcale , few have survived, mostly in museums, there are quite a few in working condition in the hands of US collectors, they are very appreciated by their owner, just as they were appreciated by the soldiers in WWI, for the direct, on the move fire support they provided.
The CSRG 1915 is one of the few tools that helped win WWI.
menhir06 1 year ago 9
@menhir06 it has such a bad reputation all they do is make fun of it here
Les Américains peuvent être très agaçant parfois, ils ne sont pas trop intelligents et sont toujours pompeux
MrBillcale 1 year ago
@menhir06 all they do in america is make fun of this gun
i was told it was the worst machine gun ever made
Les Américains peuvent être très agaçant parfois, ils ne sont pas trop intelligents et sont toujours pompeux
MrBillcale 1 year ago
@menhir06 I don't know where you got your info from, but the Chauchet LMG was plagued with problems including feeding and firing issues cause from debris entering the holes in the magazine and jamming it. It was made from poorly stamped metal, parts from other Chauchets were non compatible with all others and when they finally converted to 30' 06, most of them blew up because they could not handle the load. Too bad as it had great concepts and that round it fired really packed a punch.
BakaHULK 1 year ago 4
@BakaHULK
My informations on the CSRG 1915 are "hands on", there is no substitute to personnal experience.
The US collectors who own and fire CSRG, know their efficiency and that parts are unterchangeable, one learns by experience better than by reading poorly documented material.
The CSRG 1918 was not a converted 1915, a new rifle was designed around the30.06, a longer receiver to accept a longer bolt travel, stronger and longer recoil springs, a different barrel.....
menhir06 1 year ago
@menhir06 acually he was right before and in the trenches these guns often jammed and for this reason they were hated by the soldiers, it was unreliable and to a soldier that is what is most important. Later better support weapons were made like the m-18 and the BAR but were only introduced during the last months of the war
walkingfunk 10 months ago
@menhir06 "Personal Experience?" So you were in the trenches where the magazine would fill up with mud?
southparkfan2717 9 months ago
@menhir06
I seem to recall a History Channel special about the worst firearms of all time. The Chauchat placed in the top 3. As for your friends with "hands on experience", if they were actual WWI vets then they might have a say about it. However it's far more likely you won't find anyone with actual WWI experience because those who used them probably died as a result.
Collectors fire their weapons in only the most perfect conditions. Even the Chauchat will work in perfect conditions.
Antlion1001 9 months ago
@Antlion1001 Well "History Channel"... LOL :D the history part is missing in that channel ^^
More seriously, Chauchats weren't nearly as bad as some people like to think. The conditions of trenches warfare weren't too friendly for automatic weapons, but the CSRG remained nonetheless a very useful weapon at that time. I've read somewhere that americans CSRG had much more problems because they used a different cartridge, but without any modification to the chamber.
bidon3332000 8 months ago
Damn, a slow rate of fire
Lufttygger306 1 year ago
The reason why the CSRG Chauchat had a so bad reputation among American soldiers in 1918 ? Merely because they used models built for the 30-06 cartridge with approximative conversions from the metric system, the result of which were jams on jams...
1916douaumont 1 year ago
This LMG was not as bad than one said... It's difficult to get information from users for this gun has become very seldom, but ALL people who tried it and I asked related that there were no jams (@ cudaman82 : naturally, if you shoot blanks withouth a blank firing device on the barrel...).
On the other hand, this gun was technically, for mass production, in advance for its time.
1916douaumont 1 year ago
I'm curious if the target actually was hit? Obviously he was shooting it at the hip, and the dust seemed to be kicking up high around that target.
Obviously not that it ACTUALLY matters, since the point was to show off the gun shooting.
GryphonAM 1 year ago
how does the gun work? ive heard it has something called long recoil.
MrPennyworth007 1 year ago
@MrPennyworth007
It's a long barrel recoil system firing from an open bolt designed and tested in 1898/1902 by MM Rybeyrolle and Sutter, the barrel is in a sleeve held forward by its recoil spring. The bolt is unlocked from the barrel at the end of the rearward move and is released by the trigger sear only when the barrel is relocated forward by its own recoil spring, the bolt released will chamber a round, lock in the barrel and strike the primer.
menhir06 1 year ago
@menhir06 8mm Lebel??
MrBillcale 1 year ago
I just attended a WW2 reenactment where one of the guys portraying a French 1940 soldier had one of these. Even with blanks it has one hell of a kick and one hell of a report! Definately one badass gun to fire!
cudaman82 1 year ago
Underslung open sided magazine in the trenches - Ach mein gott ! A child could have designed it better.
Twirlyhead 1 year ago
worst weapon ever made for some historians
curseofa5r5a 1 year ago
Crikey ! It worked ! I wonder how many takes that took.
Twirlyhead 1 year ago
Very slow firing, but... On the battlefields of WWI...
SgtZaqq 1 year ago
Thanks for posting this, it's facinating to see one of these historic automatic rifles in action!
314299 1 year ago
very cool machine rifle, they served the French and the Americans well, i would love to see one in 30-06, a very historic firearm indeed
izzy1948 1 year ago
Holy shit it actually fired
TestECull 1 year ago
Worst machine gun ever, they were cool looking though, and were effective...when they fired.
NathansBackwoods 1 year ago
@NathansBackwoods
The Chauchat was not a machine gun, but an automatic rifle, later copied in its tactical use by most LMG.
The Chauchat was well liked by its operators, and badmouthed by wouldbe gun writers who wrote about it without hands on experience, and copy/pasted each others, today Chauchat owners like and appreciate these guns just as much as the original owners.
menhir06 1 year ago
@menhir06, I think they are a cool gun, I would not mind having one, but they still were not the best design.
NathansBackwoods 1 year ago
@NathansBackwoods
The chauchat was a war expediment, fabricated in large quantity, using sheet metal and stampings instead of machining, a world first.
They were available in large quantity to the french infantry, two to four per squad, a huge advantage on both the offensive and defensive.
The Chauchat were maligned by ignorant "gunwriters" mostly for their look rather than how they worked since said writers judged on appearances and not by experience.
.
menhir06 1 year ago
@menhir06, I noticed that the ones that had the real problem was the 30-06 variant, they were re-chambered wrong and that gives all the guns bad reputation.
NathansBackwoods 1 year ago
@NathansBackwoods
The Model 1918 built for the AEF at General Pershing request in 30.06 was tailor made, it was an enlarged version of the CSRG 1915 with a straight 16 round magazine, early production guns had the chamber cut too tight for the war production cartridges whose tolerances were loose leading to jams, a few twist of a max tolerance reamer solved the problem.
Gunwriters with no war expertise judged the Chauchat poorly on its cheap look, not on its merits.
menhir06 1 year ago
This is the only chauchat video, I love it and found a magizine for it at a local gun show, but still dont have the gun. ill get it when I have the money.
Mauser2012 1 year ago
that sounds like a very powerful weapon what caliber does it shoot and your lucky to have one of the first machine gun ever made
greenlampproductions 1 year ago
Kagetora2010, many things have been written about the chauchat by authors who never laid hands on it, and copy/pasted each others, not bothering with the truth.
There was no quality control problem with the Chauchat, as civilian owners have found out, today parts are still interchangeable. The US Chauchat model 1918 was designed around the 30.06 cartridge and not a rechambering job (the original caliber 8x5OR could not adapt to the cartridge length and bullet diameter.
menhir06 1 year ago
Wow! I had no idea any functioning examples of this pioneering weapon were still in firing condition! Really cool to watch in action a weapon I had only read about previously! More ergonomic design flaws than a stray dog has fleas, yet a quantum leap forward in terms of tactical firepower over 1914. The Chauchat's major problems were the result of poor production quality control, and later when in the hands of the US Army the weapon was rechambered for the US .30-06 which overpowered the gun.
Kagetora2010 1 year ago
Reminds me of the BAR
gamerkid1177 1 year ago
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morderca95 1 year ago
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morderca95 1 year ago
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morderca95 1 year ago
Trere are 4 different versions of this Chauchat light machine:
1) The french version caliber 8mm Lebel with an half-moon magazine;
2) The US version caliber 30/06 with semi-banana magazine;
3) The belgian model caliber 7,65mm Mauser, with semi-banana magazine;
4)The greek version, caliber unknown.
fm192429 1 year ago
oh shit.awesome gun. sounds like a barrett m82
kjsh987 1 year ago
Seems kinda slow.
Has a funny mag too, never seen that on another gun
felnaris 2 years ago
"Has a funny mag too, never seen that on another gun"
And for good reason. The cutouts on the mag allows foreign matter to enter the weapon's innards, risking a stoppage.
This was a problem for those that fought in WWI with this rifle.
The purpose of the cutouts were to allow for a quick visual assessment of remaining ammo in the mag.
Good idea, but bad execution.
Today, we have plastic "see-thru" mags that allow the same thing, but no cutouts so foreign matter is kept out of the weapon.
Watcher3223 2 years ago
I see. At any rate, it's a poor weapon. Belgium and French designs are pretty unique.
felnaris 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@felnaris
"Belgium and French designs are pretty unique."
A good example would be the French FAMAS.
Watcher3223 2 years ago
it's 90 years olds
the banana mag is because he use the 8 mn lebel cartrige
it's a heavy assaut rifle not a machhine gun
druisteen1 1 year ago
Like I said, "machine gun" is a generic term used by laymen to refer to any weapon capable of full automatic or burst fire action.
It's not a specific term whereas terms such as "submachine gun" and "assault rifle" refer to specific classes of weapons.
Watcher3223 1 year ago
but in fact chauchat or ( the BAR )
are not light machhine gun and not assault rifle it's that france call fusil mitrailleur
a automatic rifle
druisteen1 1 year ago
I regret I was in error. The bad Machinegun I meant was the French medium machinegun developed in the interwar period.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
In fact, it was the first assault rifle. Light weight, semi or full auto, powerful in the hands of a GOOD soldier.
fm192429 2 years ago
it's right the first fusil mitrailleur
the fm 24/29 was a the first light machine gun of france
druisteen1 1 year ago
kinda sounds like the BAR or louder
TheBlitzgundam 2 years ago
magnifique le fm chauchat merci pour cette vidéo
JEROME465 2 years ago
its loud
lewisguner1 2 years ago
never imagined it would be that loud really
acanthopleura 2 years ago
unreliable yes, but it was the first of it's kind.
Sanny987 2 years ago
I'm happy to say my family owns one of these machine guns. It was left to us by my great grandfather who licensed the gun back in 1935. Right before they made it impossible to license them. Right now we have it in our posession but we're missing the bolt. We're having a very good gunsmith try to find a bolt and machine one for our gun, and then hopefully we'll have our own video to post.
But man were the 8mm Lebel cartridges expensive.
5 Starred for an unreliable yet badass gun
milenkoman 2 years ago
5 for demonstrating that this gun is actually operable.
Markworth 2 years ago 20
@Markworth carefoul it
is as 90 years old gun and it's one off the last who survive at this century
druisteen1 2 years ago
The worst machine gun of all time apparently.
politirel 2 years ago
thats true, the recoil was awful , and it jammed most of the
Nick3889 2 years ago 2
The successor to it in the French Army was worse.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
The successor was the Chatellerault Model 1924/29, caliber 7.5 Mas and it was an very good light machine gun, reliable and accurate. Still on duty until the end of the sixties...
fm192429 2 years ago
I met my first 1924/29 in the Maginot Line.
it is better, if anything than the BAR, because of the top mounted magazine permitted a larger magazine.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
Awesome bit of history. First time I've seen one fired. Thanks for posting.
kiwitedferny 2 years ago 23
@kiwitedferny awesome bit of history yes but i bet the men ww1 probley thought different.the opened mag was a bad idea
chevroletman90 1 year ago
damn........ that things got some kick. but shit... do i gotta get me one of these!!!
5/5.
litteboxer 2 years ago
Lol, my dad tries to shoot that thing and it jammed after 3 shots
ele90 2 years ago
It shows that your dad did bother learning how to whistand the long recoil thrust of the Chauchat, if the body absorbs too much of the recoil there is not enough left for the full cycle to be completed, and it's a jam due to shooter ignorance.
menhir06 2 years ago
@menhir06, true, but the gun should not rely on the shooter, it should be made so that any guy that gets ahold of it that knows how to aim can shoot it, thus its a poor design.
NathansBackwoods 1 year ago
wouuuuuh impressionant O.O
AndytheFrench 2 years ago
how is this a good machine gun? it was dubbed one of the worst machine guns made and had a fire rate of 250 rpm had only a 20 round magazine and had many other problems.
mikey41297 2 years ago
those equipped to american troops very poorly made, otherwise it was hardly any worse than any other light machine gun of WWI
not to mention the french made more Chauchat than any other automatic weapon made by any other nation throughout the war
The Vickers machine gun was hardly portable...
SteveSpicerPortsmuth 2 years ago
@SteveSpicerPortsmuth yeah but remember the average Chauchat jammed every few rounds... the Lewis gun was probably the best of the WW1 LMGs, unless you count the M1918 BAR, which as far as I'm aware was hardly used. The Lewis gun was heavier than the Chauchat but far more reliable.
DRAC250 2 years ago
One was better off with a Chauchat than without a Lewis gun. The US Army chief of ordinance had a vendetta with Lewis, and wouldn't buy his products.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
If you ever read the US divisional histories about the Chauchat, even then it gets an okay rating. Main complaint is the magazine, but it proved an adequate weapon, and obviously it was better than having no squad automatic weapon.
In short, more effective than having the gunner using a bolt action, but ideally could have been more reliable.
Mcplkelly 2 years ago 2
wow! amazing rifle! But not appreciated at all by ww1 soldiers. It's a so fragile gun who doesn't worn well because his magazine are open to all dusts or mud. And mud are everywhere on ww1 battlefield......
Pershing prefer equipped his troops with the French Chauchat while Browning produced the excellent BAR.....
catone67 2 years ago 2
While the Chauchat was not a terribly good light machine gun, it was available in 1916, and lighter than the Lewis gun. I don't blame Pershing for not waiting until the BAR could be series produced, and then soldiers could be trained in it.
DonMeaker 2 years ago 2
Sure! it's probably better than have nothing machine gun :)
catone67 2 years ago 3
it was the most produced machine gun of the war, and equipped the French Chausseur units as well as the US. Atritted French Chausseur units were used to train US soldiers in tactics, rather like an early version of Special Forces.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
Yes! It's possible ! :)
And it's Chasseurs (à pied or alpins) in correct French ;-)
catone67 2 years ago
Mechanically it is interesting...Long Recoil, with the barrel recoiling with the bolt, then rebounding leaving the bolt behind. When the barrel reaches full forward position, it hits a latch, releasing the bolt to come forward, strip off a cartridge. It was produced in the 8mm Lebel and .30/06 US (7.62x63). Only the Lebel version had the very long single stack magazine with holes in the side to check ammo (and let mud in).
DonMeaker 2 years ago
Sir
Read my post better, then write.
Maxim guns while produced in numbers were not intended to be mass produced guns. Have you ever stripped one?
ALL machined components.
I was talking about introducing new manufacturing tecniques, and yes 1915 was very early for stamped parts period.
You still compared an auto rifle to an heavy machiengun.
Also, France didn't have a "global empire", just colonies.
Capital invested in military stuff during years France was again just average.
Take care
TheBelva85 2 years ago
That thing looks like it really kicks hard!
themanfromwyoming 2 years ago
Interesting video. I've never seen one of these used before. Thanks for posting!
Toyotomi 2 years ago 3
you are made
this gun as 90 years old
they has less 100 csrg 1915 in the world now
druisteen 2 years ago
About 70 I think
vaudevilleUK 2 years ago
ok
many in france i hope
druisteen 2 years ago
Very underrated. Most of the troops didn't like it as of course it had his fair share of problems.But indeed the idea was good: giving a good number of automatic rifles to a not so rich nation to beef up riflemen fire, to flank machineguns, to break the impenetrable lines of ww1.
To get it as economic as it could be they did introduce very innovative techniques of manufacturing, but it was too early for reliable mass produced guns. Troops then used it as an mg... and shit hit the fan...
TheBelva85 2 years ago
A reasonable proportion of the French troops didn't mind it too much it seems, it was the magazine they really had issues with. Most compalints came from the US troops when they adopted it.
vaudevilleUK 2 years ago 2
i jerked off to this vid
buffalosoldier90 2 years ago 2
Well, the movie is nice, the gun is powerfull, and the caliber is also quite nice. But in theorie, the Chauchat was a terrible weapon, especially for use in the trenches, because of the mud, dust and water. The RPM is very low, but still quite high for a WW1 weapon. It was better to use when it was clean, so it's a bad trench weapon. Sometimes it jammed, because of the sand. But it was a hell of a gun when it was clean. So actually not that terrible. It's quite nice to see it's in a good state.
Tommygunfreak 2 years ago
It wasn't used in man to man combat to my knowledge, merely an infantry support weapon.
Although the italians had a submachine gun first, the german Bergmann MP18 was ideal for cleaning trenches. However it too had a nasty habit of jamming, especially with its snail magazine.
SteveSpicerPortsmuth 2 years ago
The french Chausseur units figured out how to use it: maneuver to where you could shoot into german firing positions, and suppress the german machine guns. The survivors taught these hard won tactics to the Americans.
DonMeaker 2 years ago
@SteveSpicerPortsmuth The reason for the jamming of the snail magazine was because of the round-nosed bullet in the 9mm Parabellum rounds. When the bullet was changed to one with a pointed nose, the jamming problems disappeared.
alexaantonopoulos 6 months ago
that looked like it worked fairly well for such a bad weapon. Me and the rest of my 8th grade class mates went to Cantigny here in Illinois, and in the Big Red One museum there they had one.
ramberghini 2 years ago
One thing you get a glimpse at here is its intense recoil. I have an Illustrated Directory of guns which says it was virtually impossible to keep it on target. It also says the gun was made out of materials that aren't made to stand up to the stresses involved in shooting. Seems like it could have been a good gun if the French had some time to think it through properly.
honkifyoudonk 2 years ago
It might not have caught the imagination of the public like other weapons of its time, but its one of the most interesting looking weapons anyways.
Is that the original rate of fire by the way?
FredDude27 2 years ago
Something like 250 rpm.
Trefellin 2 years ago
good idea, bad result
fortunateson14 2 years ago 2
i think the chauchat was a good idea, just there could have been more modifacations to help it work better.
wowpapa 2 years ago
God awefull in the trenches.
Scary as hell when clean.
peepeevagi 2 years ago 11
chachaut is very unreitable weapon.
Gangster88232 3 years ago
Chairborn warrior talk, the chauchat gunners were proud of their weapon, the bad mouthing of the Chauchat surfaced much later in books written by men who had no war experieince and it was never sustained by WWI soldier's talk. No semi or full auto rifle would have been reliable in such conditions as in WWI trenches.
Most of the Chauchat stoppages incured with damaged magazines, to solve this problem, mags were deemed consummable in 1918.
menhir06 2 years ago
@menhir06 US doughboys and Marines who used the Chauchat complained of its poor workmanship -parts were not interchangeable from one weapon to another- and propensity for dirt to get into the mechanism via the open sided magazine. The Chauchat was designed by a committee none of whose members had prior firearms design experience (Gladiator was a bicycle maker before the war). The parts were stamped metal as much as possible, the recoil overlong, the mechanism overly complex.
Kagetora2010 1 year ago
IT WORKS!
TheBelva85 3 years ago 2
chau chat are horrible guns
da german MP5 ien uber grete
mellifont96 3 years ago
Chauchat and Renault FT17 tanks won WWI. The CSRG 1915 was the very first assault rifle in use, not perfect, far from it but good enough for its purpose.
menhir06 2 years ago
Thats cool. I didn't know you could still find those. I wonder if there are any semi auto versions I could get.
sharpie443 3 years ago
genial!arme qui souffrait de défauts,en particulier la cartouche de 8X54 lebel bourrelet qui n'etait pas du tout adapter pour le tir automatique
lolipol111 3 years ago
Le bipied ballotte un peu
adolfwilhelm 3 years ago
I Wouldn't like that firing at me. By the way my great grandfather used one of those on the somme. he was french.
lenfield 3 years ago
is that in 8mm lebel? or 30-06?
inspectahdeck323 3 years ago
it's in 8x50R, the Chauchat Model 1918 in 30.06 had a 15 shots (almost) traight magazine, while the original Model 1915 had the half moon 20 shots magazine.
menhir06 3 years ago
I truely can't belive that the US and French Military said that this piece of shit was better than even the Lewis gun. If I had to choose between the Lewis or the Chauchat I would take the Lewis any day of the week. Would I prefer the B.A.R? Yes I would. Well my statment about the French Military, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Heres a question: Did the French use any of these guns or did they just dump them on US troops?
nbenicewicz 3 years ago
Your statement and query show how little you know about WWI!
The Lewis LMG was prone to jamming, widely used by the French figther planes at the begining of the war, most action reports ended up by "Lewis gun jammed, had to return to base" there was no mud in the sky!
The French Infantry used 200.000 Chauchat LMG,10 per company and it made a big difference in many occasions to have that many automatic weapons on the move in direct support of the assaulting troops.
menhir06 3 years ago
Only if someone like this guy doesn't know the history of the gun. Then they become legends in his own mind.
jrpeters5 3 years ago 3
This is the first time I've seen footage of a Chauchat in action. I had no idea that they fired so slowly!
My grandfather spoke to my father of his WW1days with the 33rd Div. He made reference to the Chauchat (they simply called it the "mitrailleuse") and said it had a lot of problems, but it was all that was available to them. I don't believe he ever saw a BAR in action.
M1903A1 3 years ago 2
Dude menhir06 when you die you can tell that statement there to all the people who died because their Chauchats had either failed, jammed, or fucked up on them. This thing is one of the worst machine guns or better yet one of the worst firearms ever fielded in the military. This gun eventually gave John Browning a starting block for his B.A.R. which used the lessons learned from the CSRG 15 and ended up making a very successful gun.
jrpeters5 3 years ago
Read Josh Becker book, "Devil Dogs the battle of Belleau woods", there are several accounts of CSRG 15 in action with the Marines and working without a hitch.
menhir06 3 years ago
This gun was actually features in History Channel's 'Modern Marvels' as an engineering disaster, apparently it gave you a 'slap' when aiming down the sights.
newhenpal123 3 years ago
Whoever said that didn't fire and/or handle a CCSRG 15,like most of its detractors was unable to see beyond its crude looks that it was a great assault gun.
The Chauchat was a clever engineering achievment with few parts machined,most parts made of sheet metal riveted/welded, the ancestor of the Sten and the sturmgewehr.
menhir06 3 years ago
Did you use the original version or the one issued to US troops?
newhenpal123 3 years ago
This is the original version used by the French in 8x50R, and also issued to US units.
The US version in 30.06 had a straight 15 shots magazine.
menhir06 3 years ago
I believe the reason for that was that it was based on "long recoil" operation, which meant that the bolt AND barrel were recoiling together during firing.
M1903A1 2 years ago
8x50R, c'est le 8 mm lebel ?
vous avez reussi a refabriquer des cartouches ?
stg45 3 years ago
oui, les etuis refabriqués par PRVI Partizan se trouvent facilement aux USA.
menhir06 3 years ago