Well the title says it all. Does anyone here have any experience firing a chauchat? Is it as much of a pig as reports say?
For those who don't know it was a light machinegun developed for trench fighting by the french in WW1. Great in theory but it was plagued by cheap manufacturing and fatal design flaws. I crecent shapped magazine tended to have problems with the feed. to get around this they left large open vents on the side to allow access to the feed. and of course these were a dirt magnet, just lovely in the trenches. My great grand father's generation muntinied in 1917. considering the quality of the weapons the surprise isn;t that they mutinied in 1917 but that it took that long.
For those who don't know it was a light machinegun developed for trench fighting by the french in WW1. Great in theory but it was plagued by cheap manufacturing and fatal design flaws. I crecent shapped magazine tended to have problems with the feed. to get around this they left large open vents on the side to allow access to the feed. and of course these were a dirt magnet, just lovely in the trenches. My great grand father's generation muntinied in 1917. considering the quality of the weapons the surprise isn;t that they mutinied in 1917 but that it took that long.