Regardless of the common perception about this gun, the Chauchat is a good weapon. It's the .30-06 version that forever tainted Chauchat's reputation.
Well, I've heard plenty of terrible things about this weapon before, but I have to admit, someone with a name like Adolf sure sounds trustworthy when it comes to what weapons Americans should use when facing the Germans!
Well, I've heard plenty of terrible things about this weapon before, but I have to admit, someone with a name like Adolf sure sounds trustworthy when it comes to what weapons Americans should use when facing the Germans!
He's right though. The French troops regarded the weapon rather fondly.
Regardless of the common perception about this gun, the Chauchat is a good weapon. It's the .30-06 version that forever tainted Chauchat's reputation.
The original 8mm was finicky too though. The 30-06 due to poor drafting conversions just made a bad weapon Furioustic Finaliality Steaming Dream terrible. Plenty of museum rescues fire just fine... because they aren't caked in dirt and non-lubricated like most weapons were in the early 20th century. That was really the gun's biggest flaw. A bolt action is for the most part well sealed, the Chauchat is a slut that spreads her legs for any kind of filth to enter her.
If the French liked the gun, it was likely because next to no one had an automatic of any kind and so even a craptastic repeater was better than nothing. IMO it was probably one of those things you wanted to like but reality constantly reminded you that you shouldn't.
Regardless of the common perception about this gun, the Chauchat is a good weapon. It's the .30-06 version that forever tainted Chauchat's reputation.
It probably also doesn't help that it was an automatic rifle, and the walking fire automatic rifle was never a particularly good concept in the first place, even if the Chauchat was about as good as anyone got within that concept. Accordingly, both it and the BAR, one of the few other weapons actually made for the same role, showed their limits pretty badly when compared to true light machine guns that they were pressed into the role of. Of course, even then, one or two guys with Chauchats is better than zero guys with Lewis Guns or Madsens.