Comments by "TheGoldenCaulk" (@thegoldencaulk2742) on "Shooting the RSC-1918 and RSC-1917 French Autoloaders" video.

  1. Even though my RSC has the earlier manually operated bolt hold open, I still get a jam when trying to feed the last round, it's basically identical to the one you get in this video. Hopefully one of these days somebody makes good repros of these clips.
    352
  2. I wonder.... would a 3-round Berthier clip work in the 1918?
    307
  3. The en bloc clip really was the only loading system that ever seriously measured up to the stripper clip. Including what you mentioned, they are also great for logistical purposes, being as all of the soldier's ammo is conveniently pre-packaged and ready for immediate use. The M1 Garand represents the absolute peak of this system. You just grab a clip, stuff the whole thing in the rifle, shoot, and it's deposited upon emptying and the rifle is ready for another. Easy to make, easy to design a rifle around, cheap, and easy to train soldiers on. The stripper clip eventually prevails on account of still being relatively cheap and quick, but also by allowing a partially empty rifle to be more easily topped up.
    119
  4. Try it and lemme know what happens
    79
  5. On the 1917, it's not bad at all. The rifle is quite heavy (almost 12 pounds dry, about 5.3 kg) and balanced towards the muzzle. The weight comes from the complex gas system, long barrel and subsequently long forend, and the gas system also absorbs some of the recoil during operation. I would describe it as gentle yet firm. It is still firing a big round after all, but it won't bruise a shoulder.
    53
  6. Who will win? The audience.
    33
  7. Moldy's got the right idea. The RSC is quite loud, and unless you've got a high-quality mic designed to pick up things like gunshots, it's just gonna come out muffled. This thing scares the shit out of people at the range, so it's pretty loud.
    30
  8. +Daniel Butka The most interesting and rare thing I've got is probably a Mexican Obregon, which is also the second Obregon I've ever owned. Less than 1,000 of those suckers made. Ian has a video where he disassembles and shoots one. Other than that, various milsurps, some M1s, some 1911s, Norwegian-made Colts, and a mint P14 that was part of a contract over-run and thus never sent to the war.
    17
  9. +MegaRazorback The gun may be 100 years old, but the majority of these rifles that survived through the Rif War were either converted to manually operated or they were never used again. It's not 100 years of actual use, more like ~5-6 years of use and 94 of sitting around. While I'm not saying that the age of the rifle won't induce failures (because there are many springs that can wear out on that rifle), I am saying in both Ian's case and mine, the clip is the primary failure point. Also, they're as rare as honest politicians, and it'd be nice to have more than just the one I've got.
    11
  10. I hope you get it working again! They really are amazing rifles.
    9
  11. +AirOne1333 You should check out the video where TB has a sitdown with Ian and they talk about guns in BF1 and TB's experience at a WW1 shoot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwaqY2R4VwE
    7
  12. Well, consider the economic context of the time period. Russia as a country completely collapsed near the end of the war, and Britain and France (despite winning) still fell victim to a horrendous economic downturn that plagued the entirety of Europe. In a time like that, it was seen as unwise to develop and adopt a new rifle when stockpiles of the current pattern numbered into the millions and worked just fine. Basically, they found it far cheaper to stick with what they've got. Only the Soviets and British really bounced back economically, but the thickheaded British doctrine prevailed and they stuck with Enfields, while the Soviets did attempt to supplement their Mosin Nagants with the SVT rifles. France on the other hand still wasn't quite back up to strength, but they did have a rifle sort of worked out in the 40s. But we all now how hard it is to finish development on a rifle when your country gets taken over.... By comparison, look at the US who experienced a relatively less awful economic downturn. They were actively working on self-loading rifles from the 20s on into the Great Depression, and even during said period were they able to actually adopt the M1 Garand. France on the other hand couldn't even refurbish their rifles into the M27 modification, which was objectively better than the previous version. It simply cost too much.
    4
  13. Depends on which cartridge and which barrel length it's being fired from. In the RSC 1917, it was doing ~700 m/s (2,300 fps). This was the Balle D cartridge. By comparison, S Patrone (8mm Mauser) was doing 760 m/s (~2,500 fps). 8mm Lebel wasn't putting down bad numbers at all for the size of the bullet.
    2
  14. +Stephen Koss Lot's of online searching and a bit of luck
    1