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LOT 608
Rare French MAS St. Etienne “MAS 223” FAMAS Semi-Automatic Bullpup Rifle with Accessories - Serial no. SA00039B, 223 cal., 20 inch round bbl., parkerized finish, black plastic stock. This is a extremely rare commercial copy of the French FAMAS semi-automatic Bullpup rifle. This rifle was the French equivalent of the American M16A1 rifle and still in limited use by France today. These rifles were designed and manufactured in the French MAS arsenal at St. Etienne. The most unique thing obviously is that these rifles are of a Bullpup design. This concept was intended to provide a full size rifle barrel and action in a very short and compact rifle by shortening or eliminating the stock and moving the action to the rear next to the shooter’s face, thereby considerably reducing the overall length; this rifle is only 30 inches long overall. The right side of the receiver is marked “MAS.223” over the serial number and the left side of the receiver is marked “MANUFACTURE NATIONALE D’ ARMES/DE SAINT ETIENNE/ MADE IN FRANCE/CENTURY ARMS/ST. ALBANS. VT”. It has a unique set of military style sights. The rear sight has single large battle sight with a large aperture with two different size flip up peep sights, one in front and one behind the large aperture, that have different size eye pieces. The front sight has a standard blade front that is also adjustable for windage and also has a push up battle or quick point night sight in front of the front sight post, all housed inside the long carrying handle that almost acts like a sighting tube. The charging handle is also located directly below the carrying handle with a fold-down
bipod mounted on the sides of the receiver along
with the factory flash-hider. The rifle is designed to be
adaptable to either a left or right handed shooter by
just reversing the ejection port cover and ejector. It also
has an ambidextrous safety to accommodate either
style shooter. It comes with five extra original twenty
round magazines,
an original bayonet
and scabbard, three
French Famas nylon
clip pouches, web belt,
sling, and cleaning kit. It
is estimated that less than 200 of these rifles in total were
imported into the U.S. before the 1994 Assault weapon ban stopped their importation.
Consequently this is a very rare and collectable rifle today.
CONDITION: Excellent overall with 99% of the original dark black finish overall on the
metal and plastic components with just minor handling marks, some wear on the
barrel, and ejected cartridge dings on the buttstock. Mechanically excellent. As noted
this is among the most scarce of the semi-automatic rifles on the American market
today. It would certainly be the centerpiece of any modern sporting rifle collection.
Estimate: 30,000 - 55,000