Lebel Model 1886 rifle

The Lebel Model 1886 rifle (French: Fusil Modèle 1886 dit "Fusil Lebel") is also known as the "Fusil Mle 1886 M93", after a bolt modification was added in 1893. It is an 8mm bolt action infantry rifle which entered service in the French Army in April 1887. It is a repeating rifle that can hold eight rounds in its forestock tube magazine plus one round in the transporter. The Lebel rifle had the distinction of being the first military firearm to use smokeless powder ammunition. The new gunpowder, "Poudre B", was nitrocellulose-based and had been invented in 1884 by French chemist Paul Vieille. . Lt. Colonel Nicolas Lebel contributed the flat nosed 8mm full metal jacket bullet ("Balle M", or "Balle Lebel"). The first practical full metal jacket rifle bullets had just been developed in 1881 by a Lt. Colonel (then Captain) Eduard Rubin (Swiss Army). Somewhat later, in 1898, a ballistically superior pointed (spitzer) and boat-tail bullet was adopted for the Lebel rifle. It was made of solid brass and called "Balle D". Each case was protected against accidental percussion inside the tube magazine by a thick primer cover and by a circular groove around the primer cup which caught the tip of the following pointed bullet. Featuring an oversized bolt with front locking lugs and a massive receiver, the Lebel rifle was a durable design capable of effective long range performance. In spite of some early obsolete features, such as its tube magazine and the sharply tapered case of 8mm Lebel ammunition, the Lebel rifle remained the basic weapon of French infantry during World War I (1914–18). Altogether two million eight hundred and eighty thousand (2,880,000) Lebel rifles were produced by the three French State manufactures.

Operation, Features, and Accessories
In operation, the bolt is turned up to the vertical position until the two front locking lugs are released from the receiver. At the end of the bolt's opening phase, a ramp on the receiver bridge forces the bolt to the rear thus providing leveraged extraction of the fired case. The rifle is fitted with a two-piece wood stock, and features a spring-loaded tubular magazine in the forend. Taking aim at intermediate distances is done with a ramp sight graduated between 400 and 800 meters. The ladder rear sight is adjustable from 850 to 2,400 meters. Flipping forward that ladder sight reveals the commonly used fixed combat sight up to 400 meters. No rifle safety existed on the Lebel. The Mle 1886 rifle had a 10-round capacity (eight in the forend tube magazine, one in the transporter, and one in the chamber). The Lebel rifle features a magazine cutoff on the right side of the receiver. When activated it prevents feeding cartridges from the magazine.

The Mle 1886 rifle was first developed at MAC (Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault) and also mass manufactured at the State MAS and MAT facilities. The number of Lebel rifles manufactured adds up to two million eight hundred and eighty thousand (2,880,000). The Mle 1886 Lebel was a sturdy and accurate weapon that served as the basic French infantry rifle during WW-1 (1914–1918). The Lebel rifle remained in partial service until 1940 although its outsized length, its tube magazine and its rimmed ammunition had long become obsolete features.

The Mle 1886 Lebel rifle was issued with a long needle-like quadrangular épée bayonet, the Épée-Baïonnette Modèle 1886, with a length of 52 cm. (20 in.). With its X-shaped cross section, the épée bayonet was optimized for thrusting, designed to readily penetrate thick clothing and leather. The bayonet was dubbed Rosalie by French soldiers who were issued it during World War I. An effective stabbing/thrusting weapon, the Mle 1886 bayonet was frequently cut down by individual soldiers and ordnance sections into a stiletto-type thrusting knife (Poignard de tranchée) for use in trench warfare.

Origins and Development
The Lebel rifle was developed as a result of the first successful smokeless gunpowder, invented by French chemist Paul Vieille (1854–1934) in 1884. His nitrocellulose-based Poudre B (Powder B) was three times more powerful than black powder for the same weight and left very little combustion residues after firing. At about the same time, a major Eduard Rubin (1846–1920) with the Swiss Army had invented in 1883 a copper jacketed lead cored and small bore (7.5mm and 8mm) bullet that could be fired at very high velocities without melting inside a rifle's barrel.

Shortly thereafter, in January 1886, the French War Minister, General Boulanger, requested the urgent application of these two technological breakthroughs to the design of a new infantry rifle. He appointed General Tramond in charge of the project which had to be completed within one year. Firstly, it was decided to redesign the Gras cartridge case into an 8mm case, a transformation Captain Desaleux carried out. The repeating mechanism was designed by Gras and implemented by Controllers Albert Close and Louis Verdin at the Châtellerault arsenal. The bolt with its two front locking lugs, a novelty at the time, was designed by colonel Bonnet. The The 8mm full metal jacket projectile ("Balle M") was designed by Lt. Colonel Nicolas Lebel after whom the rifle (and the calibre) are named. However Lt-colonel Lebel did not lead the team responsible for creating the new rifle. Lt-colonel Lebel amicably protested during his lifetime that general Tramond and colonel Gras were the two superior officers who jointly deserved that credit. Nevertheless his name, which only designated the "Balle M" bullet as the "Balle Lebel" informally stuck to the entire weapon.

The Lebel followed the bolt action 11mm Mle 1874 Gras and the Mle 1878 French Naval Kropatschek rifle designed by an Austrian, Alfred von Kropatschek, and shared the latter's tubular magazine in the fore-end. Two transitional repeating infantry bolt action rifles, still chambered for the 11mm Gras black-powder cartridge, followed the Mle 1878 rifle: the Mle 1884 and the Mle 1885 rifles. The latter had a two-piece stock and a massive steel receiver and closely resembles the Mle 1886 Lebel. Over 20,000 Mle 1884 rifles had already been issued when the decision to adopt the Mle 1886 Lebel rifle was taken.

In 1893, an improved version of the M1886 Lebel was designated Fusil Mle 1886 M (modifié) 93. Primarily, the rifle's bolt head was modified for better venting of gases that could accidentally escape from a ruptured cartridge head. At that same time, the rifle's firing pin and its rear knob were not modified since this had already been performed in 1888. The stacking rod which already existed on the earlier Mlle 1886 rifles remained unchanged. However, the fixation of the rear sight onto the barrel was substantially improved during the 1893 modifications. (See: Claude Lombard, 1987)

The Lebel rifle was manufactured by three government arsenals: Châtellerault, St-Etienne and Tulle, and featured a two-piece stock and a massive receiver to withstand the higher pressures developed by the new smokeless powder-based cartridges. Tulle continued to carry out re-barrelings and other repairs on the Lebel rifle until the late 1930s. Between 1935 and 1940, a carbine-length (17.7 inch barrel) version of the Lebel was issued mounted colonial troops in North Africa. This short carbine version of the Lebel, called the Mle 1886 M93-R35, was assembled in large numbers (about 50,000) at Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle (MAT), beginning in 1935. It used all of the Lebel's parts except for a newly manufactured shorter barrel of carbine length. Since the new carbine's tube magazine had to be shortened as well, its magazine capacity was only three rounds.

The total number of Lebel rifles produced between 1887 and 1920 exceeds 2.8 million units. The Châtellerault arsenal alone produced 906,760 Lebel rifles. The machinery used for the production of Lebel barrels was purchased from the British firm of Greenwood and Batley. Specialized machinery was also procured in the USA in 1886 to accelerate and standardize mass production. All Lebel parts are fully interchangeable regardless of place and time of manufacture. All the key parts on the Lebel, including the wooden stock and forend, bear the same serial number except for the many Lebel rifles that underwent arsenal repairs or rebuildings during WW-1 and into the 1930s. For example, many of the Lebel rifles which were modified to "N" size chambers after 1932. Receiver serial numbers beginning by the letters R, S, T, RS, RT, ST and TS are indicative of Lebel rifles manufactured before and including 1898, and fall into the "antiques" category defined by the ATF. The year found on the upper right side of the barrel, very close to the receiver, can be misleading since hundreds of thousands of Lebel rifles were re-barreled during and after WW-1 (1914–18) and as late as the 1930s.

Competitors and successors
Upon its introduction, the Lebel rifle proved to be vastly superior to the Mauser M-71/84, the German army's repeater replacement of the single-shot Dreyse needle gun. France finished its rearmament program with the Lebel in 1889, just 18 months after the Second Reich had completed its rifle replacement program with 780,000 M-71/84s. The new French rifle alarmed Bismarck. Tests at Spandau in the winter of 1887-1888 found that the Lebel could fire 43 rounds of smokeless powder ammunition per minute compared to just 26 of black-powder ammunition for the M-71/84. The inferiority of the Mauser M71/84 and its 11mm black-powder ammunition was one reason why Bismarck opposed going to war with France that winter, despite being pressed by the War Minister Waldersee (another reason was that the new French De Bange field artillery, now equipped with breech loaders after the lessons of the 1870 war, both outnumbered and outperformed the Krupp C64 (field gun)s in their rate of fire).

The Mle 1886 rifle proved to be a sturdy and serviceable weapon, but one which became rapidly outdated by advances in military rifle and ammunition designs. As early as 1888, the German Army’s Rifle Testing Commission had introduced in response a completely new turnbolt magazine rifle with a spring-loaded box magazine: the Gewehr 88 "Commission" rifle. Above all else, it had been designed around the first ever rimless military cartridge using the new smokeless powder ammunition: the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge. The early Gewehr 88 was followed 10 years later by the highly successful Gewehr 98 Mauser rifle which still fired the same cartridge but with ballistic improvements.

In response to being left behind by Germany's Mauser rifle, the French military decided in 1909 to replace the Lebel and its rimmed cartridge by more advanced designs. Consequently, while the bolt action Berthier rifle was first issued in 1907 as a stop-gap to arm colonial troops, the French defense ministry was planning to leapfrog other military forces with an advanced semi-automatic infantry rifle. This new weapon was the Meunier rifle, also known as the Fusil A6, which chambered a powerful 7×59mm rimless cartridge. It was adopted in 1912 after an extensive competitive process. However its manufacture, which was to begin in 1913, was suspended because of the imminent risk of war with Germany. Instead, and during World War I, the French Army chose the easier and less expensive solution of adopting a gas-operated semi-automatic rifle which incorporated some Lebel parts: the Fusil Mle 1917 RSC, once again in 8mm Lebel caliber. It was manufactured in large numbers (85,000) during 1918 and issued to select soldiers in line infantry regiments. However, the Mle 1917 RSC was criticized by infantrymen as being too heavy, too long, and too difficult to maintain in the trenches. Furthermore, it also needed a special five-round clip to operate. In the end, the aged M1886 Lebel and variants of the Berthier rifle remained in service until the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

The 8mm Lebel Cartridge
When it first appeared, the Lebel's 8×50R smokeless ammunition allied to its longer range and flatter trajectory brought a revolution in infantry armament. A soldier equipped with a Lebel could outrange troops carrying rifles chambered for black-powder, large-caliber lead-bullet ammunition. Using smokeless powder, he could remain virtually invisible to an enemy at longer ranges, yet locate an enemy at any range by the smoke from their rifles. He could also carry more cartridges for the same overall weight. In the M1886 Lebel rifle, the early 231 gr (15 g) jacketed flat-nosed, lead-cored Balle M flat-nose bullet had an extreme range of 3,500 yards and a muzzle velocity of 2000 ft/s, with an effective range of approximately 438 yd.

A new 197 gr (12.8 g) solid brass pointed (spitzer) and boat-tail bullet ("Balle D") was adopted for the Lebel rifle in 1898 and placed in generalized service after 1901 - the very first boat-tailed plus spitzer design bullet adopted by any army. Desaleux's "Balle D" provided a flatter trajectory and increased the extreme range of the Mle 1886 rifle to about 4,000 yards and its maximum effective wounding distance (when fired indirectly at massed area targets) to 1,800 yards. More importantly, the realistic effective range of the 8mm Lebel was increased (due to the bullet's flatter trajectory) to approximately 457 yd using open sights. The altered ballistic trajectory of the new cartridge necessitated a replacement of the Lebel's rear sights.

Firstly, in order to avoid accidental percussion of sharply pointed Balle D ammunition inside the Lebel's tubular magazine, a circular groove was formed on each case head, around the primer pocket, in order to receive the pointed bullet tip of the cartridge that followed. Secondly, the Berdan primer itself on each French military Balle D round was protected against accidental percussion by a thick, convex primer cover that was also crimped in after 1912 (Balle D "a.m.", for amorcage modifie (modified primer)). This disposition provides in effect a double primer cup. Because of this double thickness primer protection and the circular groove around the primer cup, the risk of accidental percussion inside a Lebel's magazine was eliminated. However currently made 8mm Lebel commercial ammunition has pointed bullets like "Balle D", yet it shows no groove around the primer cup and holds regular primers only. In other words, modern 8mm Lebel commercial ammunition does not provide the two safety features that exist on the old French-made military "Balle M", "Balle D" and "Balle N" ammunitions.

The last type of Lebel military issue ammunition to be introduced was the Cartouche Mle 1932N, using a cupro-nickel, silver-colored, jacketed spitzer boat-tailed lead-cored bullet which was only suitable for Lebel and Berthier rifles marked "N" on top of the receiver and barrel. This 8mm Lebel heavier Balle "N" ammunition had originally been designed to increase the range of the Hotchkiss machine gun. Its manufacturing ceased in France during the late 1960s.

8mm Lebel ammunition was powerful for its time. It ranked slightly higher in muzzle energy than .303 British and slightly lower than the German 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge. The chief negative characteristic of 8mm Lebel ammunition was the geometry of its rimmed bottlenecked case. This adversely affected the magazine capacity and functioning of firearms, particularly in automatic weapons such as the Chauchat machine rifle. The Lebel cartridge's heavily-tapered case shape and substantial rim forced weapon designers to resort to magazines with extreme curvatures as for the Chauchat machine rifle. In contrast, rimless straight-wall cartridges such as the .30-06 Springfield and the 8x57mm Mauser could easily be loaded in straight vertical magazines.

The M1886 in Service
Following the adoption of the Lebel rifle by the French Army, most other nations switched to small-bore infantry rifles using smokeless ammunition. Germany and Austria adopted new 8mm infantry rifles in 1888; Italy and Russia in 1891; and the U.S. in 1892 with the Krag rifle. The British upgraded their .303 Lee-Metford with smokeless cartridges in 1895, resulting in the .303 Lee-Enfield.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Lebel rifle was sold in the French overseas colonies for the protection of civilians and/or for hunting purposes. Brand new military-issue 1886 and 1886–93 Lebels could be purchased by authorized civilians and were featured on catalogs of the French mail-order firm Manufrance printed until 1939. A sporting version of the Lebel called the "Lebel-Africain" was also offered for sale by Manufrance during the pre-World War II years. It featured a shorter barrel, a turned-down bolt handle and a slimmer, better finished stock. However, it was not competitive as a hunting weapon, when compared to the bolt action Mauser and Mannlicher-Schoenauer hunting rifles that became widely available for sporting purposes, beginning in the early 1900s.

World War I Usage
The Lebel rifle was an accurate, hard-hitting and sturdy service weapon displaying a high degree of finish. The slow-to-reload tube magazine was, by far, the Lebel's worst handicap when compared to other military rifles of that period. The Lebel's sights were also too small, too thin and poorly protected against shocks. The lack of a wooden hand guard on top of the barrel led to burned hands after prolonged firings. Nevertheless the Lebel rifle was preferred by French infantrymen over the M1907-15 Berthier rifle with its limited 3 rounds magazine capacity. The difference was the Lebel's larger magazine capacity in an emergency ( 8 rounds plus an extra round in the transporter ). In the words of David Fortier (in "Standard Catalog of Military Rifles", 2003) : "''The rifle shoulders nicely and is comfortable with a 13.5" length of pull. Align the hard to see sights and squeeze. When the hammer drops the Lebel slaps hard on both ends. The bolt handle is a bit out of reach due to its forward placement, but the action is fairly smooth and easy to run from the shoulder. You just have to give it a bit of a tug at the end to snap the shell carrier up...With quality ammunition and a good bore these rifles are capable of fine accuracy.... A rugged and reliable design,the Lebel soldiered on far longer than it should have''."

During World War I ( 1914-1918 ), the Lebel remained the standard rifle of French infantry whereas the Berthier rifle - a lengthened version of the Berthier carbine - featuring a Mannlicher-style 3-round magazine was issued to colonial troops, to allied contingents in the French army and to the French Foreign Legion. Regarding the latter however, it demanded and obtained in 1920 to be re-equipped with the Lebel rifle. The Lebel rifle could also be used with a removable VB (Viven-Bessieres) rifle grenade launcher. While the Lebel rifle was quite effective at up to 400 meters with the standard Balle D boat-tail bullet ammunition, accuracy at longer distances was impaired by the existing open sights. Consequently, adjustable telescopic sights ( the APX Mle 1916 and APX Mle 1917 models ) were issued in numbers during WW-1 for the Lebel rifle, beginning in late 1916.

Post-World War I Use
Because of various factors during the late 1920s and 1930s -- including the depressed economy, reduced war budgets under the Popular Front government and neglect at high army levels, notably so by then War Minister Marshall Philippe Pétain -- the French Army remained slow to modernize its infantry weapons. For instance the bolt-action 7.5×54 French MAS-36 rifle was placed into production much too late although its modern rimless 7.5X54mm  ammunition already existed in 1929. As a result, between 1936 and the outbreak of the war in September 1939, insufficient quantities of the MAS-36 rifle had been produced to equip all French infantry. Lastly, a French semi-automatic infantry rifle (the MAS 1938/39) had already passed successful tests and was ready for mass production just before World War II. However it took another 10 years before it reappeared in slightly modified form as the MAS 49. Yet another result of those delays and failures to modernize, is that outdated Lebel rifles - many of which had since been shortened into a carbine-length version, the "Mle 1886 M93R35" - were still in the hands of second line troops at the outbreak of World War II. Near the end of WW-2 in 1944, the German Wehrmacht had issued some captured M1886 rifles -- renamed as the Gewehr 301(f) -- to some of their occupation troops in France and in very limited numbers. Some 10 years later, Lebel rifles were still issued in quantities by the French Army to the local civilian populations in Algeria, for the purpose of self-defense, during the Algerian War. Lebel rifles that are still quite functional have been brought back in recent years from the mountains of Afghanistan.

Military Users

 * 🇧🇪 belgium
 * 🇫🇷 France
 * Kingdom of Greece
 * 🇲🇨 monaco: Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince
 * 🇵🇱 Second Polish Republic
 * undefined
 * 🇪🇸 Second Spanish Republic