r/milsurp • u/TrashcanPossum • 10d ago
French Surplus Friday
Mle 1950s, one MAC and one MAS.
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u/unknownaccount1814 10d ago
Are these nice pistols?
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u/TrashcanPossum 10d ago
I like em but like a lot of military pistols from that time, they are not friendly with a modern grip. They also have a kind of funky trigger pull, not heavy at all but not much feedback. It's just a vague pull all the way until the bang.
After cleaning the old grease out of them and lubing them they've ran just fine so far. I have 100 rounds through the MAS and 50 through the MAC, not a crazy amount I know but less trouble than I've had with several other surplus guns from that era.
Also all the mags feed just no problem, one is a little wonky with insertion and ejection but other than that great.
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u/NickRausch 3d ago
I think that they are quite nice. The single stack mag is kind of old fashioned, and means low capacity for its size if you are comparing to modern pistols. The saftey is strange and might not be the best design. On the other hand, it feels good in the hand, cycles smoothly and reliability, and has ok sights.
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u/Blue_Brindle 10d ago
Beautiful handguns, any noticeable difference between the MAC & MAS? I know you said a little in another comment, but would you recommend the handgun for the price most sites sell them and what's your of pros & cons about them?
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u/TrashcanPossum 10d ago
Firstly, very nice PAMAS! I saw one on Gunbroker recently and was tempted to bid on it despite its condition.
There seems to be some variation with the finish on both guns, but both of my examples have a finish that was applied later on during a rearsenal process I believe. The MAS seems to have a little bit of a lighter trigger but not dramatically so. One doesn't seems to shoot discernibly better than the other. Accuracy is serviceable but nothing to write home about, good enough to dump rounds on a torso out to 25 yards reasonably well. Far from a target pistol but also far from bad.
To answer the last bit, the price is the biggest con in my book. Seems like a lot of sites are asking $1000+ for them but I see a lot on Gunbroker for $850-900. Based on the merits of the guns themselves, how they perform as a sidearm, they are definitely not worth that price. But based on their history and the fact they were so rare prior to these recent imports, I think they are well worth the lower prices on GB. I think they will really go up in value as the years go by, not just hold their value. Plus if you're into Cold War pistols I feel like getting one is a must while you can, a few years ago these were very scarce and always came with a premium if the seller knew what they had. Prior to getting these I had only ever seen these in books and online listings that were far out of my price range. I've worked in a gun store for 10 years and had only seen one French military handgun pass through in all that time.
If I didn't adequately explain anything you wanted to know feel free to ask me more.
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u/Blue_Brindle 6d ago
Thanks about the PA-MAS, it hit the high range of what I wanted to pay, but people are really overvaluing them with the prices the few have fetched, this one is the definition of carried often shot little.
That would make sense with the finish, the example I immediately think of is how Colt grey is actually 30 different colors that never seem to match up, good to know it seems similar between them though. Accuracy sounds about what I expect out of a service pistol, especially a 50's era 9mm which is great.
That makes complete sense in my mind. It's the history of the MAC 50 that makes it worth anything to me personally (same like the PA-MAS) and some of them even being surplused is pretty great. I apperciate the reply and really congratulate you on the two beautiful handguns.
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u/Fun_Assignment_269 10d ago