Tir Reduit French Vichy 22 trainer

Just wondering if anyone here has one? I have one that I'll try to dig out and show for those interested.

I have seen two French trainers over the years. Copy of the long lebel I think ? Im not up on French stuff.

I would like to see it, I am a fan of trainers in general.

Here's mine. The black paint looks to have been refinished, I guess to make it purty.

I only have the one cartridge that takes the 22 round. I don't know if this is original, probably not.

Are any other trainers done this way? 22 barrel with original sized rounds modified to hold 22 cartridges?

The Hoffer-Thompson rifle was a modification of the Model of 1903 (if memory serves correctly) that the United States used for gallery practice. Only one I can think of. Have only seen one or two of these for sale in several years. Would love to have one. Nice! dj

I want one myself. Ian beat me to one recently with I believe 10 cartridges IIRC. All matching. Price was $1,100. Cartridges alone made it worth it.


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22 rifle

I sold my Hoffer Thompson rifle for $5000.00 Banjomike

I am not surprised. They are pricey! A recently came across a .22 Krag. Would have loved to have it, it was in super condition, but again - very expensive.

When I first became aware of these I was somewhat surprised that the French would employ such a outdated, complicated, and unsuccessful servo cartridge design. At any rate, I eventually acquired an example together with five of the very uncommon servo cartridges, identical to those Country Boy posted, as show below.





As I noted above, these servo cartridges are rather complicated and were reproduced by some French machinist many years ago, AND, no, I don't know who he was, or how to obtain any more of these critters. Sorry. Such is life.

That's a really nice looking rifle that deserves more photos posted! These were manufactured under German occupation by the Vichy government is the way I understand it. Is that correct?

Country Boy quote: These were manufactured under German occupation by the Vichy government is the way I understand it. Is that correct?

That's my understanding as well. I guess allowing the Vichy to manufacture these .22RF training rifles was acceptable to their Nazi overseers although a simple barrel swap to 7.5x54 French would have converted it to effective use by the resistance/etc/.

Here is another photo of my example of this uncommon French training rifle showing it's left side. The only significant identifying element is the "TIR" marking on the left side of the receiver. Otherwise, it would appear in most other respects to be a typical MAS 36. If you wish to see another perspective/photo of it, then let me know and I'll try to accommodate your request.