The markings do show that the weapons were owned by Menelik II. The Ge'ez numbers are translated as 3 50 70 9, and the Amharic words transliterate to "Menelik Deneke". I'm not sure what the "Deneke" is for, considering that the literal meaning of the words is "Menelik was amazed".
Nah, "Deneke" is a firm verb, "Dinq" is its adjective counterpart. Adding the Great would have been more like Talaku Menelik, but even "talak" does not seem accurate enough. Ethiopian monarchs would have preferred Ge'ez in their titles, not Amharic.
Hello Nossahm, a friend of mine have a Gras in France and I think he have ethiopian marking on it. I'm desperate to find someone able to traduce it. Could I borrow your help ?
Not uncommon. Buying arms is a part of diplomacy, to gain goodwill with the country that made them. For a country like Ethiopia, without a firm backer or solid alliance, that means buying from everyone. And sometimes the gun is just too cheap to pass, usually because they are being retired and the country is trying to get them off their hands.
They actually were always an importer as I understand it. Then they decided to try shitting out AKs for a quick buck, and you got the legendary shitshow. "We based this off a Polish design!" "Hey, this won't work if there's not a rubber buffer in the recoil assembly. Was that a thing in the Polish rifles?" "Shut up." "Hey my barrel's crooked, my bolt's half disintegrated, and the rivets on the trunnions have worked loose. Can I get a replacement?" "Sure, lifetime warranty*! *Evidently only means lifetime of product production, once we stop making AKs you're fucked"
Does IO have an extremely bad reputation from most gun buyers? On the crate unboxing video last week a bunch of then negative comments (like the guy being the pablo escabar of shitty guns lmao) were deleted
@@RaidsEpicly based on the Carcano I got from them (claimed very good condition) I think the negative comments are warranted as the condition in my opinion was "very sad"
@@RaidsEpicly Yeah, they used to mass-produce AKs in the U.S. and they were uh... not good. They claimed to be made from a Polish blueprint, but they had a lot of problems. For example, there was a rubber buffer in the recoil assembly that is not normally there on an AK. If that buffer was not present, the bolt carrier would just get stuck in the back of the receiver. Curiously IO never answered when anyone asked if this was a problem with the Polish rifles. 🤔IO's AKs were just generally cheaply made garbage to boot. Broken receivers, faulty rivets on the trunnions, barrels so crooked you'd think the rifle was made to shoot around corners... There's a reason IO doesn't make AKs anymore, and it's because they made a fucking awful product.
The top line on the rifle is Ge'ez script for the number 379. The bottom line is Amharic; the word before the semi-colon is "Menelik," the letters after it seem to be an abbreviation that my wife was unfamiliar with.
What a cool story. I like how Ian finds the rifles story and really transports you back in time to a place where local blacksmiths were forging components onto a modern rifle.
He's like Wimpy from Popeye about French rifles - "I will trade you increased traffic through your door and on your website later this week, if you place a Lebel rifle in my luggage today".
I’ve probably watched hundred of these videos, live in Australia, couldn’t even get any of these if I wanted too, don’t really have a clue about how a gun actually works or what half the things do I just like the history
You can legally own either of the rifles in this vid (well not since they're in the US but that pattern). It's not as difficult as you might think, try it if you have any interest! I'm in Vic and always encouraging new people to shoot, we need people joining the sport/hobby.
I'm in n.s.w and have a few French rifles. Lebels and berthiers come up for sale occasionally. Used to pick them up for $300 but they're a bit more pricey now. Don't need to register in Vic.and n.s.w unless you want to shoot them. (Pre 1900 obsolete calibre). Great fun though and you learn a heap about reloading too.
I bought one of the shortened berdans. I like it. I just need to fix the front sight and recrown the barrel. but the barrel cut is pretty straight. They didnt have any unaltered ones from 1877 or earlier so i bought one of the cut down ones. Most of the ones ive seen are from the late 1880s. so they werent even really used.
Ian doesn't even bother to smuggle all the French rifles out of the building before he makes videos now. He just goes to the break room to make them. 🤣🤣🤣
If in its original configuration the magazine tube went all the way to where the front barrel band was originally, yes. But Ian didn’t point out that the magazine tubes had been cut down, and he did point out where you can see the spring poking out on one, so I think they probably cut off exactly as much as they could get away with without altering the magazine tube
@@peterlazzari3950 If you mean the R35 Lebels I don't think they have the same capacity as these shortened Ethiopian Lebels since the Ethiopian guns are not as short as the R35.
TIA...Guns and ammo aren't exactly scarce in a continent that's been the dumping ground for Colonial powers and arms dealers for the last few centuries.
In the late 1800s they worked on a pretty feudal system where every man was responsible for his own ammunition supply. The system worked pretty well at Adowa.
One of the main weapons I've still waiting for you to cover one day is the Ethiopian Mosin Nagants. The guns that beat back the italians in the first Italo Ethiopian war
I love how they break the screws off and rivet some of them in. Its very clear they do not want someone to disassemble it or re-assemble it incorrectly.
Cool to realise what a pre-industrial state, Menelik II's Ethiopia did with imported guns - giving the Italians an absolute hiding and thus being one of the only states outside of Europe to avoid colonisation. These rough modifications are testimony to the lack of industrial capability up until quite recently. But the wisdom of buying modern guns was clear.
I think it is fair to say that the average Ethiopian is rather diminutive in stature so they might have just cut them down for comfort's sake. Also, unfortunately, the reality of the 'child soldier' is still pretty common in Africa.
Wouldn't really say that. They were just poorly shortened rather good guns for their time. Sure their ranged accuracy isn't going to be accurate for the existing sights but i imagine the guys who would be using these would be running away if the enemy was far enough away to need that flip up.
Anyone every thought after learning something from fun Jesus and in your head someone’s asking you about the gun you just learned about and then you answer all the questions, making yourself seem like a pro
Love your work, though a tiny bit jumped out at me: "Ethiopia received military surplus and purchased military arms from virtually every major arms producer in the world for a period of like 80 years, from the 1870s all the way through frankly the 1970s to the 1980s" 1870 + 80 = 1980
I read 'a period of like 80 years' as meaning roughly. The start date is also an approximation, '1870s'. I think you are being overly precise in you maths.
There were years of blockades beginning around the time of walwal incident 1930, to the end of British occupation of Ethiopia (1950). Because Italy mobilized weapons, militants, and started pushing through the ethiopian border, the league of nations - with it's great wisdom - banned arms sales to Ethiopia in the name of peace. Minus a brief year of German WWI machinery delivered in the mid 1930s. That's closer to 80 years I guess.
@@rockinunderscore52 Plenty of European and North American citizens believe stupid things about guns to. So it's not a lack of access to basic education.
@@clothar23 yeah, actually if you look into this story its not even verified... seems to have originated in a 4chan post. i was trying to put the focus on the rhodesian govs denial of basic rights and services to their population rather than the racist assumption that africans simply cant figure basic things out. long defensive post lol, i agree with you.
Time to take those rifles out to a range that can handle 1000m or so, mount some very tall and relatively skinny targets, and build an updated range table!
Hi Ian, I can't help but notice distortion on your lavelier microphone, this was also apparent on your last video too. I am unable to ascertain which model you are using but perhaps you should make some adjustments to your gain structure. Regards, Phil
I kinda said this with the G88 Carbine, but some of these Ethiopian made guns are kinda good. These 5-round Lebels need some polish (and preferably zeroing), but otherwise I honestly like the idea of these better than other Lebel variants. 5 rounds (not counting the +2) is about average for most rifles, and the rifle is lighter without losing too much mass, so it's handier than the full-length Lebel but not as reload-problematic as the 3 round Maginot Lebels. If it was safe to shoot and rezeroed, I'd honestly shoot one of these over a regular Lebel.
I bought one of the shortened berdans. it wasnt too bad. I think the front sight was put on a tad bit off tho. it was a pretty early 1876. coudlve been used in the russo ottoman war.
In some ways I think the Ethiopians made a better short Lebel than the French did. While technically lacking (ie. the sights & the wooden magazine plug) they look like they'll handle well while still having a practical magazine size.
I ended up ordering a variety of items from RTI after one your "...so go check them out..."s at the end of one of your previous collabs with them earlier this year. My experience was not good. First it was like pulling teeth to try and get a tracking number for my items and only received them once I brought up considering just canceling the order. Then after one of the items showed up a week and a half late it was not consistent with the item description and at that point I had been waiting on the other two items for well over a month probably close to a month and a half and at that point the lack of communication as well as the blatant misrepresentation of the item I did receive I contacted them again (for what felt like the hundredth time) to just cancel the remaining items, which a month and a half out hadn't even been shipped. To clarify they claimed that the items I ordered were not in stock so they were having to wait on getting them to ship out; wait...what? Then why in the hell would you list said items very clearly as "in stock"? Ridiculous. However I will say that once I was able to get a hold of someone she was quick to respond to my emails, polite, and quite fast in regards to canceling the charges to my card. But besides that particular female employee my experience with RTI was somewhere between frustrating and just outright bad. Just a little PSA from another Ian who is into firearms.
I am a devotee to your channel but, your love of French rifles is a mystery to me. Have seen them at many gun shows and they always on the lower end of price and to me not very collectable. But as they say "each to his own"
@Hunter Smith Thanks for the reply Hunter, also you left out rifles from the U.K. And as I stated, each to his own, that is what makes the world go around.
I Don't think a lot of people understand the history these rifles have had. Almost every lebel and berthier has seen service in two world wars +colonial use etc. They've often been abused and re-furbed ,repaired and re-issued. I'm glad they're cheap but here in Australia they've gone up in price heaps the last few years.
Id like to know what happened to all the ammo? and i wonder how much they paid for these rifles? it would be a pain to supply ammo for all these diff rifles. I imagine once ak47s started coming around for cheap they put these into storage sometime around the 70s,80s or earlier.
So I'm guessing this has about a 5 or 6 round magazine? Not much lost after being chopped down, then! But there is the rear sight... and the janky front sight ...and the screws gaping hole at the front of the magazine tube possible spider's nest inside But hey, it's light though!
No matter what you do to a Lebel it's still a Lebel. And yes smokeless powder rah rah. Still inherently inferior to basically every rifle that came after it .
I'm 2:00 min into the video and I see an authentic Elbonian issued shortened lebel¡!. Indeed Ethiopia got EVERYTHING!. ("¡" is the Elbonian purchased "!" character).
You know Ian, no offense, but can you save some of the French Stuff for the rest of us? There are those out there (like me for instance) who haven't even started their collection yet lol! Another great video!
I know rifles like those were used in First Italo-Ethiopian War ... It does not appear to be Menelik or Selassie .markings on the rifle you showed .... I will look a little further.
This is really interesting, I always wondered why the French didn't manufacture lebels of varying lengths originally, like the Portuguese did for the Kropatschek, since they're fundamentally very similar guns, the Portuguese did an 8 round long rifle, a 6 round cassador (think jaeger) short rifle, and a 5 round cavalry carbine. The explanation for the berthier was that you "couldn't make a lebel carbine, but since the Lebel was basically a Kropatschek with added locking lugs for smokeless, that reasoning never held up for me
There was a 1950s British comedy called "Too many crooks" (on UA-cam somewhere) that peripherally involved shipments of weapons not unlike these. The survivors among the purchasers were not happy. :-)*
So... they're SMLEs
Short Military Lebels, Ethiopian
Well done.
Yeah! Gunholics anonymous meeting in the breakroom.
Nobody move..!! Did you happen to see where that spring went..?
Imagine having a gunholics anonymous meeting then having Ian walk in
Just remember that the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. So if you don't admit anything they cannot do anything to you!
😁😁😁😁
I can quit any time I want.
I imagine Ian bursting through a wall like the Kool Aid commercial anytime someone says “unique and french” anywhere in the world.
Just tried it, didn't work. Probably for the best given my current situation vis a vis pants and the lack thereof.
With baguette, French beret and ammo in hand?
Good thing you typed it! Whatever you do don't say it three times!
me too, except for me he does it riding on a Char B1
(CRASH) "Mais ouiiiii!"
The markings do show that the weapons were owned by Menelik II. The Ge'ez numbers are translated as 3 50 70 9, and the Amharic words transliterate to "Menelik Deneke". I'm not sure what the "Deneke" is for, considering that the literal meaning of the words is "Menelik was amazed".
Upvote upvote, so that this get's up to the top! :)
Could it translate to "Menelik the Great"?
Nah, "Deneke" is a firm verb, "Dinq" is its adjective counterpart. Adding the Great would have been more like Talaku Menelik, but even "talak" does not seem accurate enough. Ethiopian monarchs would have preferred Ge'ez in their titles, not Amharic.
@@nossahmvssg maybe it's a seal of approval/inspection mark? like this rifle is fit for service in the military of menelik?
Hello Nossahm, a friend of mine have a Gras in France and I think he have ethiopian marking on it. I'm desperate to find someone able to traduce it. Could I borrow your help ?
Ethiopia to the World: "Hey guys, we need guns"
World: "Which ones?"
Ethiopia: "Yes."
Not uncommon. Buying arms is a part of diplomacy, to gain goodwill with the country that made them. For a country like Ethiopia, without a firm backer or solid alliance, that means buying from everyone.
And sometimes the gun is just too cheap to pass, usually because they are being retired and the country is trying to get them off their hands.
“Obviously they’re French rifles, so I’m inclined to think they’re interesting.”
We love it when you embrace your Francophilia.
I wonder what Ian's opinions on French cars, music, literature, cuisine, etc. are.
@@no1DdC French cuisine and Desireless "Voyage, voyage" hit from the '80 are quite ok.
I can already see a random dude walking in wanting a cup of coffee just to find Ian with 2 rifles on the table and feeling extra confused
Or feeling like he had the best workplace EVER!
*Points rifle at guy looking for coffee* So Paul, we're out of creamer? Is it normal to have fifteen cups of coffee paul! WHERE IS THE CREAMER PAUL!
@@Logan-zp8bi WHERE'S THE CREAMER CAFFEINE-HEAAD (i really hope that yours was an adapted quote otherwise my response makes 0 sense lol)
How can anyone working with guns not know the gun jesus? 😁
@@Rico_71 I don't get that reference, I made that comment up on the fly due to rl rage when no one restocks the creamer in our fridge.
IO used to poorly assemble guns with terrible bores, now they import poorly assembled guns with terrible bores. Time is a circle!
The time circle will fully complete the loop when they start importing the terrible AKs Ethiopia produces
They actually were always an importer as I understand it. Then they decided to try shitting out AKs for a quick buck, and you got the legendary shitshow. "We based this off a Polish design!" "Hey, this won't work if there's not a rubber buffer in the recoil assembly. Was that a thing in the Polish rifles?" "Shut up." "Hey my barrel's crooked, my bolt's half disintegrated, and the rivets on the trunnions have worked loose. Can I get a replacement?" "Sure, lifetime warranty*! *Evidently only means lifetime of product production, once we stop making AKs you're fucked"
Does IO have an extremely bad reputation from most gun buyers? On the crate unboxing video last week a bunch of then negative comments (like the guy being the pablo escabar of shitty guns lmao) were deleted
@@RaidsEpicly based on the Carcano I got from them (claimed very good condition) I think the negative comments are warranted as the condition in my opinion was "very sad"
@@RaidsEpicly Yeah, they used to mass-produce AKs in the U.S. and they were uh... not good. They claimed to be made from a Polish blueprint, but they had a lot of problems. For example, there was a rubber buffer in the recoil assembly that is not normally there on an AK. If that buffer was not present, the bolt carrier would just get stuck in the back of the receiver. Curiously IO never answered when anyone asked if this was a problem with the Polish rifles. 🤔IO's AKs were just generally cheaply made garbage to boot. Broken receivers, faulty rivets on the trunnions, barrels so crooked you'd think the rifle was made to shoot around corners... There's a reason IO doesn't make AKs anymore, and it's because they made a fucking awful product.
The Ethiopians got all the cool surplus guns, no wonder the Elbonians had to make do with what was left
THIS ARE KINGS AND EMPERIORS GUNS THER ARE BASICALY HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS!! BUT HERE THEY ARE!! THATS WHY ETHIOPIA IS IN HER CURRENT SITUATIONS!!
Every time I see Ethiopian I mistake it as Elbonia, I guess I’ve been indoctrinated
you and me both lol!
Walla Walla Walla!
Wet and dry versions of the same...
Adorable.
My little Lebel: Friendship is war!
The top line on the rifle is Ge'ez script for the number 379. The bottom line is Amharic; the word before the semi-colon is "Menelik," the letters after it seem to be an abbreviation that my wife was unfamiliar with.
And another to upvote! Up you go to the top, so that more people can see this! :)
What a cool story. I like how Ian finds the rifles story and really transports you back in time to a place where local blacksmiths were forging components onto a modern rifle.
Honey wake up, new Forgotten Weapons video.
All the eleven Lebels are already in Gun Jesus Heavenly French Arms Collection
Gun Jesus is like a hivemind, accumulating everything into his Ranks
He's like Wimpy from Popeye about French rifles -
"I will trade you increased traffic through your door and on your website later this week, if you place a Lebel rifle in my luggage today".
@@bachtomin213 That's probably a pretty good trade actually.
@@bachtomin213 that's hilarious
I’ve probably watched hundred of these videos, live in Australia, couldn’t even get any of these if I wanted too, don’t really have a clue about how a gun actually works or what half the things do I just like the history
You can legally own either of the rifles in this vid (well not since they're in the US but that pattern). It's not as difficult as you might think, try it if you have any interest! I'm in Vic and always encouraging new people to shoot, we need people joining the sport/hobby.
Continue to watch, and you will learn how every firearm of any historical interest works.
I'm in n.s.w and have a few French rifles. Lebels and berthiers come up for sale occasionally. Used to pick them up for $300 but they're a bit more pricey now. Don't need to register in Vic.and n.s.w unless you want to shoot them. (Pre 1900 obsolete calibre). Great fun though and you learn a heap about reloading too.
"Don't quote me on that"
-Ian, Forgotten Weapons 2020
I'll be honest, I misread this a "Elbonian" vs "Ethiopian," and I got way more excited than I should've.
We need more Elbonian arms and armor!
What is all this elbonian stuff? Is it an othias and mae thing.
@@peterlazzari3950 idk did u ever find out? it says elbonia, in the "dilbert universe" is an impoverished eastern european country.
Need a shorter handier rifle when guarding the ark of the covenant from the knights templar
I see I'm not the only nutcase who reads Gram Hancock😎
@@History_Coffee He made a few bucks off of me years ago!
It's not a sporterization mom, it's an etiopian pattern
When I saw all those utensils I thought "Oh God Ian got Covid and he's locked in".
Honestly the Lebel always makes me think of the French Foreign Legion.
Also this was a fun video :-)
ua-cam.com/video/Dr93wAjmzIM/v-deo.html
@@minuteman4199 Haven't seen this movie in years :-)
Also the fact that the clip has Swedish subtitles made me smile
I bought one of the shortened berdans. I like it. I just need to fix the front sight and recrown the barrel. but the barrel cut is pretty straight. They didnt have any unaltered ones from 1877 or earlier so i bought one of the cut down ones. Most of the ones ive seen are from the late 1880s. so they werent even really used.
Oh, how sweet! They're so tiny and cute!😍
I never miss a video from Ian I have watched every single one
Ian doesn't even bother to smuggle all the French rifles out of the building before he makes videos now. He just goes to the break room to make them. 🤣🤣🤣
Last time he was there, he didn’t even wait for them to open the crate.
Only God knows what those rifles has been through.
Probably two world wars, and a few smaller ones. And then stored in conditions that barely count as "out of the weather".
Still better then nightmare stories some Mosins and Kar98's would tell:D
I was expected such a video since the unboxing
I wonder what Ian would think of a Serbu BFG 50 but with a sawed- off barrel, no stock, and necked down to .17 wildcat rounds
I smell a new chapter for the second edition of Chassepot to FAMAS!
Was the magazine capacity reduced on these shortened Lebel rifles or do they still have the 8-round capacity?
when you shorten the barrel the magazine tube is also shortened - so yep....
If in its original configuration the magazine tube went all the way to where the front barrel band was originally, yes. But Ian didn’t point out that the magazine tubes had been cut down, and he did point out where you can see the spring poking out on one, so I think they probably cut off exactly as much as they could get away with without altering the magazine tube
I know the French ones were reduced to 5 rounds. Assume these would be 5 (or possibly6)
My mistake. They were three rounds in the tube. Done in 1935-40.
@@peterlazzari3950 If you mean the R35 Lebels I don't think they have the same capacity as these shortened Ethiopian Lebels since the Ethiopian guns are not as short as the R35.
Continental breakfast usually comes with a danish, Ian's found a hotel with ethiopians😆
God ammo logistics in Ethiopia must’ve been a NIGHTMARE if they have every gun imaginable
TIA...Guns and ammo aren't exactly scarce in a continent that's been the dumping ground for Colonial powers and arms dealers for the last few centuries.
In the late 1800s they worked on a pretty feudal system where every man was responsible for his own ammunition supply. The system worked pretty well at Adowa.
One of the main weapons I've still waiting for you to cover one day is the Ethiopian Mosin Nagants. The guns that beat back the italians in the first Italo Ethiopian war
Just bought mine. Glad to be part of the level family
I love how they break the screws off and rivet some of them in. Its very clear they do not want someone to disassemble it or re-assemble it incorrectly.
I read the title as "Elbonian" and got excited for a second.
Translates to "bubba was here"
I Whole Heartedly Agree!!
"Go to their various new owners and are never reunited again" - are you sure you didn't already buy them all?
Some top level fabricobbling going on there....
Cool to realise what a pre-industrial state, Menelik II's Ethiopia did with imported guns - giving the Italians an absolute hiding and thus being one of the only states outside of Europe to avoid colonisation. These rough modifications are testimony to the lack of industrial capability up until quite recently. But the wisdom of buying modern guns was clear.
I keep seeing the title as "Ethiopian Shortbread Rebels" and now I've got to watch the video so it stops coming up on my feed.
Finally, a meeting worth attending.
Sweet! The history makes it a treasure! If that rifle could talk!
I think it is fair to say that the average Ethiopian is rather diminutive in stature so they might have just cut them down for comfort's sake. Also, unfortunately, the reality of the 'child soldier' is still pretty common in Africa.
love how ian massaged this, these aren't simply terrible guns, they're special terrible guns
Wouldn't really say that. They were just poorly shortened rather good guns for their time. Sure their ranged accuracy isn't going to be accurate for the existing sights but i imagine the guys who would be using these would be running away if the enemy was far enough away to need that flip up.
These are so weird, I had to buy one. Going to work it over, smooth out the rough bits, and confuse the hell out of everyone on the range!
Anyone every thought after learning something from fun Jesus and in your head someone’s asking you about the gun you just learned about and then you answer all the questions, making yourself seem like a pro
Love your work, though a tiny bit jumped out at me: "Ethiopia received military surplus and purchased military arms from virtually every major arms producer in the world for a period of like 80 years, from the 1870s all the way through frankly the 1970s to the 1980s"
1870 + 80 = 1980
I read 'a period of like 80 years' as meaning roughly. The start date is also an approximation, '1870s'. I think you are being overly precise in you maths.
There were years of blockades beginning around the time of walwal incident 1930, to the end of British occupation of Ethiopia (1950). Because Italy mobilized weapons, militants, and started pushing through the ethiopian border, the league of nations - with it's great wisdom - banned arms sales to Ethiopia in the name of peace. Minus a brief year of German WWI machinery delivered in the mid 1930s. That's closer to 80 years I guess.
I want to see an obrez lebel lol I somehow managed to find and acquire an obrez carcano at auction xD need more for the collection
I guess a carcano would make a relatively good obrez, seeing as they have lighter recoil than other rifles of the time
Thank you for sharing Sir,enjoy the auctions and history,great stuff.
The question is, which one are you bringing home?
Yeah... School can wait for now.
I'm guessing we're gonna get ethiopean french rifles till the year ends.
The rest of december is the month of ethiopian surplus. You thought a week of bergmanns was bad? It gets better, because ethiopian guns are cool.
Hopefully.
It's not just that these things are terrifyingly ramshackle, it's that the Italians lost to the Ethiopians when they were running things like this.
Love those stories from the Rhodesia bush war about the guys who thought dialing the sites up all the way made their gun shoot harder.
what lack of access to basic education will do to a mf smh
@@rockinunderscore52 Plenty of European and North American citizens believe stupid things about guns to. So it's not a lack of access to basic education.
@@clothar23 yeah, actually if you look into this story its not even verified... seems to have originated in a 4chan post. i was trying to put the focus on the rhodesian govs denial of basic rights and services to their population rather than the racist assumption that africans simply cant figure basic things out. long defensive post lol, i agree with you.
Time to take those rifles out to a range that can handle 1000m or so, mount some very tall and relatively skinny targets, and build an updated range table!
Good to see that Ian's not in any danger of running out of caffeine any time soon...
it's just seeing all those guns next to a coffee maker
I bet Ian has his own coffee cup back there!
Hi Ian,
I can't help but notice distortion on your lavelier microphone, this was also apparent on your last video too.
I am unable to ascertain which model you are using but perhaps you should make some adjustments to your gain structure.
Regards,
Phil
I kinda said this with the G88 Carbine, but some of these Ethiopian made guns are kinda good. These 5-round Lebels need some polish (and preferably zeroing), but otherwise I honestly like the idea of these better than other Lebel variants. 5 rounds (not counting the +2) is about average for most rifles, and the rifle is lighter without losing too much mass, so it's handier than the full-length Lebel but not as reload-problematic as the 3 round Maginot Lebels.
If it was safe to shoot and rezeroed, I'd honestly shoot one of these over a regular Lebel.
I bought one of the shortened berdans. it wasnt too bad. I think the front sight was put on a tad bit off tho. it was a pretty early 1876. coudlve been used in the russo ottoman war.
In some ways I think the Ethiopians made a better short Lebel than the French did.
While technically lacking (ie. the sights & the wooden magazine plug) they look like they'll handle well while still having a practical magazine size.
Interesting find.
Ian has sold the soul of Bubba to make this video.
You just had to pass a Lebel across Ian’s palm to gain his blessing.
Chop shops shooters - we need this TV show
Was called Sons of Guns lol
Brendan Fraser used one in the opening battle of The Mummy. They were also used in The Mummy Returns by the cult members of Imoptep
A very inviting cup of coffee on the background. 😁
If it wasn't for the history of these things, they'll be worth a dime a dozen...
You asked us to the breakroom for a meeting and don't even offer us a cup of coffee!
2:26-2:29 is it the camera or is that barrel bent down a couple degrees?
this is the predecessor of the Krummlauf so historically very interesting.
The barrel band(nose cap?) is loose and pushed forward due to the magazine spring pushing it forward.
You mentioned most Lebel rifles were updated to M93 versions, would an un-updated version change the value of the rifle at all?
it has alien scriptures on it thats super cool
Combat Coffee Machine at the background
I ended up ordering a variety of items from RTI after one your "...so go check them out..."s at the end of one of your previous collabs with them earlier this year. My experience was not good. First it was like pulling teeth to try and get a tracking number for my items and only received them once I brought up considering just canceling the order. Then after one of the items showed up a week and a half late it was not consistent with the item description and at that point I had been waiting on the other two items for well over a month probably close to a month and a half and at that point the lack of communication as well as the blatant misrepresentation of the item I did receive I contacted them again (for what felt like the hundredth time) to just cancel the remaining items, which a month and a half out hadn't even been shipped. To clarify they claimed that the items I ordered were not in stock so they were having to wait on getting them to ship out; wait...what? Then why in the hell would you list said items very clearly as "in stock"? Ridiculous. However I will say that once I was able to get a hold of someone she was quick to respond to my emails, polite, and quite fast in regards to canceling the charges to my card. But besides that particular female employee my experience with RTI was somewhere between frustrating and just outright bad.
Just a little PSA from another Ian who is into firearms.
I am a devotee to your channel but, your love of French rifles is a mystery to me. Have seen them at many gun shows and they always on the lower end of price and to me not very collectable. But as they say "each to his own"
@Hunter Smith Thanks for the reply Hunter, also you left out rifles from the U.K.
And as I stated, each to his own, that is what makes the world go around.
I Don't think a lot of people understand the history these rifles have had. Almost every lebel and berthier has seen service in two world wars +colonial use etc. They've often been abused and re-furbed ,repaired and re-issued. I'm glad they're cheap but here in Australia they've gone up in price heaps the last few years.
Id like to know what happened to all the ammo? and i wonder how much they paid for these rifles? it would be a pain to supply ammo for all these diff rifles. I imagine once ak47s started coming around for cheap they put these into storage sometime around the 70s,80s or earlier.
These belong in an Ethiopian museum.
So I'm guessing this has about a 5 or 6 round magazine? Not much lost after being chopped down, then!
But there is the rear sight...
and the janky front sight
...and the screws
gaping hole at the front of the magazine tube
possible spider's nest inside
But hey, it's light though!
No matter what you do to a Lebel it's still a Lebel. And yes smokeless powder rah rah. Still inherently inferior to basically every rifle that came after it .
I'm 2:00 min into the video and I see an authentic Elbonian issued shortened lebel¡!. Indeed Ethiopia got EVERYTHING!.
("¡" is the Elbonian purchased "!" character).
How many rounds do the short magazines hold?
You know Ian, no offense, but can you save some of the French Stuff for the rest of us? There are those out there (like me for instance) who haven't even started their collection yet lol!
Another great video!
1:43 5 or 6 inches shorter makes sense. That would mean the tube magazine is two rounds shorter?
I know rifles like those were used in First Italo-Ethiopian War ... It does not appear to be Menelik or Selassie .markings on the rifle you showed .... I will look a little further.
the second examples markings does appear to say Menelik.
This is really interesting, I always wondered why the French didn't manufacture lebels of varying lengths originally, like the Portuguese did for the Kropatschek, since they're fundamentally very similar guns, the Portuguese did an 8 round long rifle, a 6 round cassador (think jaeger) short rifle, and a 5 round cavalry carbine. The explanation for the berthier was that you "couldn't make a lebel carbine, but since the Lebel was basically a Kropatschek with added locking lugs for smokeless, that reasoning never held up for me
They shortened 50,000 between 1935-40. Only 3 rounds in the tube. I think they were making more berthiers before that so kept the lebels as they were.
As he said, there WERE eleven.
Interesting.
Hopefully we'll see all those imported rifles on the website here soon
This is my Favorite channel now lol
nice coffee set up. lol gun jesus turns water into coffee
Turning water into Balistol would be more impressive.
There was a 1950s British comedy called "Too many crooks" (on UA-cam somewhere) that peripherally involved shipments of weapons not unlike these. The survivors among the purchasers were not happy. :-)*
Thank you for that Watching it now on ua-cam.com/video/bv5QfpI3dVs/v-deo.html
Royal tiger mysteriously only has 10 of these for sale
media1.tenor.com/images/0f04377fd5dab138e5c4b68456126da7/tenor.gif?itemid=15476992
Great video
a few left on sale / you might have me interested Ian .
that is a nice breakroom, a coffe maker, comunnal milk pwoder so you don't have to hide yours from Greg, and a few guns.
I cant beleive they removed the rear sights on so many guns. makes no sense lol.
I reckon that moustache doesn't get enough recognition.
Did he mentioned how many rounds it take?
"scribbles notes for Edition 2 of the book."
I see numerous other interesting rifles leaning up by the table. Presumably other 'break room' videos to follow.