The Last Big Bore Game Rifle

Well, certainly it is not in fact the last big game rifle, but rather a little-known offshoot of what was the last military bolt-action rifle adopted as a standard infantry weapon by its home country, the relatively well-known MAS 36. The pictures below show the MAS sporting rifle variant in 10.75x68mm, complete with added safety, barrel-mounted sights, and sporter stock with MAS buttplate. This last feature proves the MAS sporter was not an after-the-fact modification but an actual factory gun offered by St. Étienne. Indeed, there even exists a prototype of a MAS “Hunting Carbine”, a semi-automatic rifle based on the MAS 40 series action chambered in 7x57mm Mauser and having a longer action than the standard MAS semiautomatic rifle.

Notable big game hunter Tony Sanchez-Arino used the MAS sporter and is captured below using the rifle in Africa, in an image taken from a Gunboards thread. In that thread are also many other images of MAS sporters owned by various posters there. Read More – http://www.thefirearmblog.com