The French MAS 45: a.k.a. - The "Ultimate" 22LR Trainer On the Cheap.
I stumbled upon this rifle a friend of mine was selling and became immediately intriqued. It's post-WW2 French MAS 45 (Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne) made 22LR training rifle that has a lot of the features that I've been looking for. Most importantly, it was under $400 which fit my non-existant firearms budget.
To start with, the MAS 45 is a full size rifle measuring 42.5 inches in length and weighing in at a little over eight pounds without scope, rail and ammo. Pick up the MAS 45 and it feels like a real rifle and not some cheaply-made-as-possible plastic piece of crap. Seriously, when you cruise your local gunshop and feel how many 22's out there look and feel like they were made from recycled soda bottles. No, this is a real Mauser rifle with a stout action, a 24 inch barrel, a full length wood stock, a full size bolt handle with oversized bolt knob and it comes with a 5 round magazine. The action is a cock-on-closing type and overall is very robust.
Before I leaped, I checked to make sure getting extra magazines would not be a problem and found them readily available online. MAS 45 22LR Mags link. All of these things have convinced me that this is too good a deal to pass up.
My individual rifle came pre-butchered as some previous owner had removed the rear iron sight normally mounted on the rear of the action.
This was a very good thing as it alleviated any remorse on my part to installing a picatinny rail. One quick trip online to Brownells found the blank rail perfect for my gunsmith to shape as required. Picatinny Rail Blank
At this point I must give a shout out to Kenny at Firearms Machining Services for bumping this project to the head of his work. Kenny cut the rail to match the action and included a 20 MOA cant in the rail. For $40 plus material, this overnight service is fantastic.
Firearms Machining Services
957 Rose Xing Ste 31
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 755-5116
The only spare scope in the house is an old Lyman All-American 4X so by default it was mounted. The good news is that the low power All-American allows for short range focusing which in this case 20 yards. The super cheap Leupold 1 inch Detachable Low Rings (#56524) kept the project on budget as they were under twenty dollars out the door.
(Make sure the safety clears the scope!)
Accuracy has been spot on well under Minute of Angle on the shrunken indoor-outdoor range. Shooting has been an absolute blast (pun intended) as 22LR target ammo is sub-sonic and actually quieter than pounding nails (at least the way I manage to miss when hammering). And most fun is the fact that 22LR ammo can be found at around sixteen dollars per 500 rounds, if not cheaper. The world's top rated best-of-the-best Tenex Eley ammo is less than $20 per box of 50 if you're fanatical about accuracy. What a deal compared to shooting the world best centerfire match ammo!
So if this sounds like fun you'd like to have, there are several French MAS 45 rifles on Gunbroker and they sometimes pop up on GunsAmerica and GunsInternational. Keep in mind that some are awfully proud of their rifles and that selling prices have recently ranged from less than four hundred dollars to over eight hundred.
I stumbled upon this rifle a friend of mine was selling and became immediately intriqued. It's post-WW2 French MAS 45 (Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne) made 22LR training rifle that has a lot of the features that I've been looking for. Most importantly, it was under $400 which fit my non-existant firearms budget.
To start with, the MAS 45 is a full size rifle measuring 42.5 inches in length and weighing in at a little over eight pounds without scope, rail and ammo. Pick up the MAS 45 and it feels like a real rifle and not some cheaply-made-as-possible plastic piece of crap. Seriously, when you cruise your local gunshop and feel how many 22's out there look and feel like they were made from recycled soda bottles. No, this is a real Mauser rifle with a stout action, a 24 inch barrel, a full length wood stock, a full size bolt handle with oversized bolt knob and it comes with a 5 round magazine. The action is a cock-on-closing type and overall is very robust.
Before I leaped, I checked to make sure getting extra magazines would not be a problem and found them readily available online. MAS 45 22LR Mags link. All of these things have convinced me that this is too good a deal to pass up.
My individual rifle came pre-butchered as some previous owner had removed the rear iron sight normally mounted on the rear of the action.
This was a very good thing as it alleviated any remorse on my part to installing a picatinny rail. One quick trip online to Brownells found the blank rail perfect for my gunsmith to shape as required. Picatinny Rail Blank
At this point I must give a shout out to Kenny at Firearms Machining Services for bumping this project to the head of his work. Kenny cut the rail to match the action and included a 20 MOA cant in the rail. For $40 plus material, this overnight service is fantastic.
Firearms Machining Services
957 Rose Xing Ste 31
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 755-5116
The only spare scope in the house is an old Lyman All-American 4X so by default it was mounted. The good news is that the low power All-American allows for short range focusing which in this case 20 yards. The super cheap Leupold 1 inch Detachable Low Rings (#56524) kept the project on budget as they were under twenty dollars out the door.
(Make sure the safety clears the scope!)
Accuracy has been spot on well under Minute of Angle on the shrunken indoor-outdoor range. Shooting has been an absolute blast (pun intended) as 22LR target ammo is sub-sonic and actually quieter than pounding nails (at least the way I manage to miss when hammering). And most fun is the fact that 22LR ammo can be found at around sixteen dollars per 500 rounds, if not cheaper. The world's top rated best-of-the-best Tenex Eley ammo is less than $20 per box of 50 if you're fanatical about accuracy. What a deal compared to shooting the world best centerfire match ammo!
So if this sounds like fun you'd like to have, there are several French MAS 45 rifles on Gunbroker and they sometimes pop up on GunsAmerica and GunsInternational. Keep in mind that some are awfully proud of their rifles and that selling prices have recently ranged from less than four hundred dollars to over eight hundred.
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