It is true it wasn’t a perfect weapon, but more than 100,000 were used in front-line service by the French and the Germans used many captured guns. If it was truly as bad as its detractors ...

In this episode of "I Have This Old Gun," we take a look a the CSRG Chauchat World War I French light machine gun chambered in 8x50 mm Lebel.

The ‘Chauchat’ or "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" was the standard machine rifle or light machine gun of the French Army during World War I.

The gun would punch the shooter in eye or cheek (what French troops called la gifle or “the slap”) if it were held improperly. The awkward, flimsy bipod legs were so long they needlessly ...

An early Franco-Belgian machine gun developed before military commanders truly understood how to use automatic weapons. ... The French had adopted the Reffye Mitrailleuse and considered it a game ...

The French St. Étienne Mle 1907 machine gun, chambered in 8 mm Lebel. The St. Etienne was a mechanically complex design, and not well suited for the rigors of the battlefield.