I am selling my French Berthier that was converted by Turkey for their Forestry Commission. The rifle is chambered for the French 8mm Lebel cartridge. I will include one 3 round clip with the rifle.
My work takes me all around the Atlanta area, if interested, I may be coming to an area near you for work so I can make it easy on the meet up. Just let me know.
May be interested in trade, let me know what you have.. interested in Military Surplus.
The below was copied from another source….
Turkey is a widely forested country as almost 30% of the country is covered by woodlands, nearly all of it owned directly by the Turkish government. One of the most valuable trees in the forests, and a source of considerable income for the government, is Circassia Walnut. Poachers of these trees were becoming increasingly bold, and were a threat to the 5,000 the Turkish Forestry Rangers tasked with protecting these forests, so it was decided in the late 1940's, most likely 1948, to arm these men with firearms to both protect themselves and this valuable resource. The Turkish Ministry of Forest and Water Management (Orman ve Su İşleri Bakanlığı) looked for a simple firearm to arm these rangers with and came up with a unique solution, a rebuilt Berthier. At the time, the Turkish government had tens of thousands of these firearms on hand which came from many different sources such as ones they had captured during The Great War (WWI), the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), had intercepted during WWII from Vichy forces in Syria and Lebanon either from trains passing through their territory on route to Iraq or interned Vichy French Forces fleeing the British and their Allies during Operation Exporter in 1941 or in some cases were received as gifts from the Germans over the years and literally millions of rounds of ammunition. The reason to utilize these had several distinct advantages for usage by the Forestry Service. These were very rugged, as these men were and still remain a group that mostly operates on horseback and could be easily slung over the back while on patrol. These were not able to challenge the real military if they fell into any revolutionary rebel hands and the 8x50R nm cartridge that it fired was rare in civilian hands and not commonly available on the black market. With no ready source of ammunition even if the rifle fell into the wrong hands it was unlikely it would be very useful. A final factor was that the rifle was very distinctive in profile and a stolen Berthier would cause attention to the authorities the way other weapons would not have.
As they mostly had alot of rifles on hand, mostly Fusil de Infanterie Modèle 1907-1915 and Modèle 1907-1915 Modifié 1916's and wanted the rangers to carry a carbine so they had to heavily modify these rifles to a carbine type configuration.
They started out by shortening the barrel about 228.60 mm (9 inches) which gave it a length of 533 mm (21 inches) long and re-crowned the muzzle; installed a Mauser front sight and front sight base; cut the front portion of stock to the new length of the barrel; removed the rear sight base and component's, re-graduated the steps on the rear sight base, added graduation markings on the top of the rear sight leaf and cut in notches in the slider so that the numbers on the top of the rear sight leaf could be read easily; installed a upper hand guard retainer sleeve or also refered to as a barrel shroud right up against where the barrel meets the receiver; replaced the rear sight about 12.7 mm (1/2 inch) from the front of the barrel shroud; had to machine out new grooves for rear sight base and the barrel shroud in the stock; re-worked the front of the stock so that a Mauser Model 1905 Carbine Nose Cap and band retainer spring could be utilized; re-shaped the middle of stock for use of Mauser Model 1905 barrel band and band retainer spring; made a new hand guard; changed out the magazine system if they were of the 5 shot variety so that they were of the 3 shot type; Turn down the bolt handle by about 45 degrees and finally re-bluing and sometimes refinishing the stock as needed.
It is believed that approximately 5,000 of these firearms were modified by the Turkish Military Factories Administration which was called Askari Fabrikalar Ankara (ASFA), which was based in the capital city of Ankara. These are marked on the top of the receiver with T.C. for Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish Republic), Orman for Turkish word Forest and 1948 for the year that this was done. As they had made these carbines out of many different firearms, parts were not matched to one another but a serial number unique to these was placed on the left side of the receiver and bolt.
My work takes me all around the Atlanta area, if interested, I may be coming to an area near you for work so I can make it easy on the meet up. Just let me know.
May be interested in trade, let me know what you have.. interested in Military Surplus.
The below was copied from another source….
Turkey is a widely forested country as almost 30% of the country is covered by woodlands, nearly all of it owned directly by the Turkish government. One of the most valuable trees in the forests, and a source of considerable income for the government, is Circassia Walnut. Poachers of these trees were becoming increasingly bold, and were a threat to the 5,000 the Turkish Forestry Rangers tasked with protecting these forests, so it was decided in the late 1940's, most likely 1948, to arm these men with firearms to both protect themselves and this valuable resource. The Turkish Ministry of Forest and Water Management (Orman ve Su İşleri Bakanlığı) looked for a simple firearm to arm these rangers with and came up with a unique solution, a rebuilt Berthier. At the time, the Turkish government had tens of thousands of these firearms on hand which came from many different sources such as ones they had captured during The Great War (WWI), the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), had intercepted during WWII from Vichy forces in Syria and Lebanon either from trains passing through their territory on route to Iraq or interned Vichy French Forces fleeing the British and their Allies during Operation Exporter in 1941 or in some cases were received as gifts from the Germans over the years and literally millions of rounds of ammunition. The reason to utilize these had several distinct advantages for usage by the Forestry Service. These were very rugged, as these men were and still remain a group that mostly operates on horseback and could be easily slung over the back while on patrol. These were not able to challenge the real military if they fell into any revolutionary rebel hands and the 8x50R nm cartridge that it fired was rare in civilian hands and not commonly available on the black market. With no ready source of ammunition even if the rifle fell into the wrong hands it was unlikely it would be very useful. A final factor was that the rifle was very distinctive in profile and a stolen Berthier would cause attention to the authorities the way other weapons would not have.
As they mostly had alot of rifles on hand, mostly Fusil de Infanterie Modèle 1907-1915 and Modèle 1907-1915 Modifié 1916's and wanted the rangers to carry a carbine so they had to heavily modify these rifles to a carbine type configuration.
They started out by shortening the barrel about 228.60 mm (9 inches) which gave it a length of 533 mm (21 inches) long and re-crowned the muzzle; installed a Mauser front sight and front sight base; cut the front portion of stock to the new length of the barrel; removed the rear sight base and component's, re-graduated the steps on the rear sight base, added graduation markings on the top of the rear sight leaf and cut in notches in the slider so that the numbers on the top of the rear sight leaf could be read easily; installed a upper hand guard retainer sleeve or also refered to as a barrel shroud right up against where the barrel meets the receiver; replaced the rear sight about 12.7 mm (1/2 inch) from the front of the barrel shroud; had to machine out new grooves for rear sight base and the barrel shroud in the stock; re-worked the front of the stock so that a Mauser Model 1905 Carbine Nose Cap and band retainer spring could be utilized; re-shaped the middle of stock for use of Mauser Model 1905 barrel band and band retainer spring; made a new hand guard; changed out the magazine system if they were of the 5 shot variety so that they were of the 3 shot type; Turn down the bolt handle by about 45 degrees and finally re-bluing and sometimes refinishing the stock as needed.
It is believed that approximately 5,000 of these firearms were modified by the Turkish Military Factories Administration which was called Askari Fabrikalar Ankara (ASFA), which was based in the capital city of Ankara. These are marked on the top of the receiver with T.C. for Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish Republic), Orman for Turkish word Forest and 1948 for the year that this was done. As they had made these carbines out of many different firearms, parts were not matched to one another but a serial number unique to these was placed on the left side of the receiver and bolt.
