Original Item: Only One Available. Just purchased from a private collection, this is an incredible Inert WWI Chauchat Display Machine Gun, built from all original parts on an original BATF approved display receiver. It has properly had a portion replaced entirely with solid steel bar stock, and the original barrel deactivated. Many of the internal components were also demilitarized long ago, and placed inside of the receiver.

This is a fantastic original serial number 3812 Chauchat Display Light Machine, Gun de-activated and totally inert to BATF specifications making this a totally legal non-firing Chauchat WWI LMG. Included with this excellent example is a functional original magazine, which can be deactivated where required.

Even better, this example is one of the Chauchats delivered to the U.S. A.E.F. in late 1918 chambered for .30-06. The corrugated magazine sides are distinctive to the versions made in .30-06. The trigger group on this example is marked with

It is also marked on the receiver end cup with C.S.R.G. A / 3812, so this was probably originally a matching number gun. The "A" after the model designation most likely indicates "American". These were all made by the "Gladiator" plant in France, and after the war these machine guns became known as "Gladiators" for this reason. We have never had one of the U.S. versions of this machine gun previously.

Condition is excellent, and the wooden stocks are in very good used condition, with expected wear from service. It comes complete with an original bipod. which is in very good condition, and folds up on the right side of the gun as intended.

We've only ever had a handful of these exceptionally rare LMGs, so this is an wonderful seldom seen opportunity to add to your Great War Collection. This is probably the best example that we have ever had, and definitely the only example in .30-06!

The Chauchat, named after its main contributor Colonel Louis Chauchat, was the standard machine rifle or light machine gun of the French Army during World War I (1914-18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" (in English: "Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). It was mass manufactured during World War I by two reconverted civilian plants: "Gladiator" and "Sidarme". Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry where the troops called it the FM Chauchat. The Chauchat machine rifle in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917-1918 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F) where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". The armies of eight other nations, notably: Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia and Serbia, also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.

A total of 262,000 Chauchat machine rifles were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely-manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. Besides the 8mm Lebel version, the Chauchat machine rifle was also manufactured in U.S. .30-06 Springfield and in 7.65×53mm Argentine Mauser caliber to arm the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) and the Belgian Army respectively. The Belgian military did not experience difficulties with their Chauchats in 7.65mm Mauser and kept them in service into the early 1930s,. Conversely the Chauchat version in U.S. .30-06 made by "Gladiator" for the A.E.F., the Model 1918, proved to be fundamentally defective and had to be withdrawn from service.

The Chauchat machine rifle was one of the first light, automatic rifle caliber weapons designed to be carried and fired by a single operator and an assistant, without a heavy tripod or a team of gunners. It set a precedent for several subsequent 20th century firearm projects, being a portable yet full power automatic weapon built inexpensively and in very large numbers. The Chauchat combined a pistol grip, an in-line stock, a detachable magazine, and a selective fire capability in a compact package of manageable weight (20 pounds) for a single soldier. Furthermore, it could be routinely fired from the hip and while walking (marching fire).

The muddy trenches of northern France exposed a number of weaknesses in the Chauchat's design. Construction had been simplified to facilitate mass production, resulting in low quality of many metal parts. The magazines in particular were the cause of about 75% of the stoppages or cessations of fire. They were made of thin metal and open on one side, allowing for ingress of mud and dust. The weapon also ceased to function when overheated, the barrel sleeve remaining in the retracted position until the gun had cooled off. The stock setup also left much to be desired, with the butt stock wood being prone to cracking at the front due to the design. Even the weight of the gun itself would slowly cause the thin front end to tear away. Consequently in September 1918, barely two months before the Armistice of November 11, the A.E.F. in France had already initiated the process of replacing the Chauchat with the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. Shortly after World War I, the French army hastened to replace the Chauchat with the new gas-operated Mle 1924 light machine gun.

The Chauchat is the only full automatic weapon actuated by long recoil, a Browning designed system already applied in 1906 to the Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle: extraction and ejection of the empties takes place when the barrel returns forward, while the bolt is retained in the rear position. Over time, the Chauchat machine rifle's just passable performance in its dominant version (the Mle 1915 in 8mm Lebel) and the failure of its limited version in U.S. 30-06 (the Mle 1918), have led some modern experts to assess it as the "worst machine gun" ever fielded in the history of warfare.

Chauchat in American service

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) arrived in France without automatic weapons or field artillery. Consequently, it turned to its French ally to purchase ordnance. General Pershing chose the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun and the Chauchat machine rifle (designated as "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)" by the AEF and nicknamed the "Sho-Sho" by the troops) to equip U.S. infantry. Between August 1917 and the November 11, 1918 Armistice with Germany, the Gladiator factory delivered to the AEF 16,000 Chauchats in 8 mm Lebel and, late in 1918, 19,000 Chauchats in .30-06.

While the performance of the M1915 Chauchat in 8 mm Lebel was combat-effective, judging by the numbers of decorated U.S. Chauchat gunners found in the U.S. Divisional Histories, the performance of the M1918 Chauchat in .30-06 was soon recognized as abysmal (and in large part the reason for the gun's bad reputation). The most common problem was a failure to extract after the gun had fired only a few rounds and became slightly hot. A modern-day test firing of the M1918 .30-06 Chauchat was performed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in July 1973, but no particular problem was described in the official report, which is accessible on open file. Conversely, an exhaustive firing test of the M1918 Chauchat in .30-06 was also carried out in 1994 near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by R. Keller and W. Garofalo. Their testing, which is reported in "The Chauchat Machine Rifle" volume, did expose severe extraction problems caused by incorrect chamber measurements and other substandard manufacturing. During World War I, in 1918, the preserved U.S. archival record also documents that American inspectors at the Gladiator factory had rejected about 40% of the .30-06 Chauchat production, while the remaining 60% proved problematic when they reached the front lines. Supplies of the newly manufactured and superior M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) were allocated sparingly and only very late, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which began in late September 1918. Therefore, about 75% of the U.S. Divisions were still equipped with the Chauchat – in its original French M1915 version in 8 mm Lebel – at the time of the Armistice of November 11, 1918. It is also well documented that General Pershing had been holding back on the BAR until victory was certain, for fear it would be copied by Germany. However, it is also known that the very first BARs delivered had improperly tempered recoil springs, and had these guns been prematurely introduced during the summer of 1918, their employment may also have been problematic. One of the most significant accounts of the Chauchat's poor performance was from then-lieutenant Lemuel Shepherd, who was quoted saying:

I spent the last few weeks [of World War I] back in the hospital, but I'll tell you one thing the boys later told me: The day after the Armistice they got the word to turn in their Chauchats and draw Browning Automatic Rifles. That BAR was so much better than that damned Chauchat. If we'd only had the BAR six months before, it would have saved so many lives.

As documented by World War I veteran Laurence Stallings (in The Doughboys, 1963) and by U.S. Divisional Histories, the Medal of Honor was awarded to three American Chauchat gunners in 1918:

- Private Nels Wold (35th Division, 138th Infantry, KIA, posthumous)
- Private Frank Bart (2nd Division, 9th Infantry)
- Private Thomas C. Neibaur (42nd Division, 107th Infantry)

Caliber: 8x50R (also .30-06, 6.5x54, 7.92x57, 7.65x53)
Weight: 9.5 kg
Length: 1170 mm
Barrel length: 450 mm
Feed: curved box magazine, 20 rounds (16 rounds for .30-06)
Rate of fire: 240 rounds per minute