Understanding Your Rifle
Mechanism
On this page you will find an explanation on how the Lebel 1886 M93 works mechanically
Bolt
Despite its Kropatschek and Gras heritage, the Lebel bolt differs from both of them in order to accommodate the increased pressure generated by the smokeless Poudre B. The main difference represents itself in the addition of two symmetrical locking lugs at the front instead of locking at the bolt handle root as was common and sufficient before.
Mechanically, the bolt is what would now be considered a traditional turn bolt design with a handle that, upon turning it upwards 90° moves the two camming surfaces on the bolt body and cocking piece against one another to cock the action. In the same motion, the bolt head, which is separate and can not be removed without tools in alignment with French doctrine at the time, also rotates 90° either allowing the movement of the bolt backwards, or locking the system by rotating the locking lugs into the horizontal recesses in the receiver. While the cocking piece often times still bears a second notch in front of the sear catch as a "half-cock" safe position, this feature was dropped later and often removed during arsenal repairs or refurbishment.
The Lebel was not the first rifle to feature a symmetrical locking lug setup. Other famous designs such as the Swiss Vetterli or the Remington-Lee rifles had the same setup, albeit in the back of the bolt in order to avoid excessive fouling from the then standard black powder cartridges. Some designs like the Lee-Enfield series never made the move to front-locking lugs.
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Magazine
Considered to be the Lebel's biggest flaw, its magazine was both standard technology at the time as can be seen with the German Gewehr 71/84 or the Portuguese Kropatschek, as well as dead on arrival with the dawn of new quick-loading systems such as Mannlicher's en-bloc clip.
The Lebel's tube magazine is fundamentally the same as the earlier Kropatschek style. Eight rounds can be loaded into the magazine tube, being held back by the cartridge stop at the entrance of the tube.
To operate the magazine, the bolt plays a vital role - as it travels backwards the down facing lug strikes an element of the cartridge elevator assembly causing it to tilt upwards. As this happens, the elevator releases the cartridge stop and allows the follower to push a new round onto the elevator.
As the bolt is closed after chambering a round, a second lever is moved by the bolt handle, tipping the elevator back down with the next cartridge being pushed onto the elevator.
This setup also allows for more cartridges to be held than the magazine can theoretically house, with one sitting on the lifter with a fully loaded magazine in reserve. French doctrine did not entail having a cartridge ready to fire in the chamber due to the lack of a proper safety system.
With the adoption of a conical projectile, the tube magazine had the French worried about potential chain detonations with a projectile tip setting off the primer of the cartridge before it. To alleviate this, Balle D (centre) was modified to have a groove (right) in which the tip of the following cartridge rests within the magazine. This way, the tip would not come into contact with the primer.
