Meunier rifle

The Meunier rifle, known as the Meunier A6 or STA No. 8, was a long recoil operated semi-automatic rifle in 7mm that emerged from a French program begun in 1890 to find a semi-automatic infantry rifle to replace the Lebel rifle. Four government research establishments proposed more than twenty prototypes, and the A6 by Meunier, derived in part from the Browning long-recoil system of 1900, was one of only three designs judged to offer industrial potential. It was adopted in 1910, but arguments over the final ammunition between the arsenals at Puteaux and Tulle delayed a settled specification until 1913, and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 halted the project before it could equip the French Army. Only 1,013 rifles were ever manufactured, at the Tulle arsenal, and they were tested in the trenches. The simpler gas-operated Mle 1917 RSC, built in large numbers during 1918, replaced it, and the few survivors now sit mostly in museums.