I recall marcinko using issuing the 686 AND ruger mini 14 at 6 because they were STAINLESS and therefore better suited to marine environments. The french were perhaps copying this notion??
On two trips to paris in 97 I saw the military police at the airports carried (unlaoded) Fn_MAS rifles like the one pictured, while street cops carried MAB automatics on steel reincfoced shock cords on their belts. One lady cop i saw on guard duty outside place d'Italie was carrying a beretta machine pistol (not sure of the designation but it has two vertical grips and the stick magazine slants back into the action in front of the triggerguard) at port arms and was wearing a BP vest.. far more menacing than the gendarme who reminded my that there was no smoking on the metro.
Of course it could have been a french "refinement" of an italian gun.. you know the french are VERY keen on developing and using their own technology. So it may indeed have been a manhurin 686 french seals carried while waging war on Greenpeace.
Dr.Rob
On two trips to paris in 97 I saw the military police at the airports carried (unlaoded) Fn_MAS rifles like the one pictured, while street cops carried MAB automatics on steel reincfoced shock cords on their belts. One lady cop i saw on guard duty outside place d'Italie was carrying a beretta machine pistol (not sure of the designation but it has two vertical grips and the stick magazine slants back into the action in front of the triggerguard) at port arms and was wearing a BP vest.. far more menacing than the gendarme who reminded my that there was no smoking on the metro.
Of course it could have been a french "refinement" of an italian gun.. you know the french are VERY keen on developing and using their own technology. So it may indeed have been a manhurin 686 french seals carried while waging war on Greenpeace.
Dr.Rob