History of WWI Primer 001*: French Lebel Mle. 1886 M93 Documentary 

Lots of people are saying how radically different and improved the show is after 100 episodes. While we appreciate the praise I want to be very clear that our expansion came from exactly two factors: 1. Practice make perfect 2. Funding from our Patrons and other projects. Bruno alone freed Othais from about 15-20 hours extra an episode. Mae's hiring just reduced his hours to only 50-60 a week of direct, episodic efforts. That leaves some time for real life and plans to expand or take advantage of special opportunities. YOU all made the show materially better.

I say adopt the British nomenclature and make this Episode 001*

“Thanks to Ian’s late night texts, emails, calls, and general nitpicking we have to go back and redo every minuet detail we may have missed on all our French firearm episodes”

"Straight up yeet a grenade across the battlefield" My life is complete

40:18 Omg I did not expect "it can yeet a grenade..." I just about bust out laughing

French Soldier 1: Mon Dieu, zere iz a machine gun position beforeus, Jacques fire ze Rifle Grenade! French Soldier 2: Yeet!

France NEEDED smokeless power to that the Germans could see their bright blue coats and stunning red trousers.

German soldiers sitting in their trenches when suddently they hear a muffled "YEET" from the other trench befor blowing up

I need .32 French longue

It really should be Episode 001* - that way, every reiteration and redux can gain an additional star (you know, just in case you decide to add any small snippet of info you've stumbled across.) Tally ho, old chap. :-D

Boy, I can't wait for the Mas 36 video someday.

I know the show's about the firearms but the VB is such a cool little grenade. It didn't require a special blank cartridge. It had a bullet-sized tube running down its long axis through which the ball from a standard round passed. At 41:10 one can see the top of the fuze set on the right. As the bullet passed though it ran over the striker, igniting the 7-8 second delay. The muzzle gasses would lob the grenade something like 200 meters at 45° elevation. The knob on the top left of the grenade is the filler plug. One of its functions is to guard the striker from handling accidents. Safe, easy to use - I think it's a very slick design for 1916.

If you thought the order of Star Wars episodes confusing, now we have "Primer 001 was released after Primer 105".

To hear Othais say 'straight up yeet a grenade across the battlefield' brings me joy.

I don't mind you guys rereleasing old episodes, as long as you don't turn the guns into walkie talkies.

>Othias will rerelease dozens of Episodes of C&Rsenal before he ever gives you a M1911 Episode LIFE IS PAIN

I'm happy I live in a time and place where YEET can be used in an educational video. This 18 year old thanks you.

OH BOY CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY THIS YEAR

Ah, the long awaited Criterion Directors Cut Redux, or being about a French Rifle "Small Arms of WWI Primer 001: French Lebel Mle. 1886 M93 bis" ;)

Hollywood is really just about remakes these days, smh.

... Does this mean you are going to make Mae reshoot the reicht's revolver?

This is great, now I can finally upvote C&Rsenal videos twice!

If you had to redo the first 16 Primers for depth, I'm fairly sure nobody would mind at all :p

First day of sophomore year and I get a remake of the first episode hell yeah

Thank you for remaking this episode. I've been asking for it for years and I'm so pleased it's finally arrived. You guys are the best!

I love how this touches on so many episodes, really brings things together

I’m very happy you went back and did this one again! So, thank you!

Excited your revisiting the most influential rifle of the conflict. My T-shirts arrived today and so did a new episode, must be my birthday! Love the shirts! Thanks for all you guys & gals do!

I must say that I am so glad to see that the older videos are going to be redone. The fruits of your labor are so informative and a labor of love. Great work as always Othais and crew. I am so happy to be a patron to the show and make these things possible.

Thank you for remaking this. I had always wished for a revision of this, the Berthier, and the Gewehr 98.

Your commitment to Sparkle Motion is not being doubted sir. I ❤ you guys for all your hard work and awesome episodes!

Thank ya'll for redoing this gun. I've been wanting more time and explanation of ya'lls earlier reviews on the guns.

I remember stumbling upon this channel while looking for info on the Carcano since I had just purchased one. And then I kept watching and here we are. Excellent content and info

Been watching since 001 and wow amazing how different current production videos are from the initial ones. Not to say the old ones were bad the start was strong but y’all have really stepped up your game over the last 4 years.

This series and forgotten weapon series are like the only two youtube gun videos I watch again and again. :)

Hands down y'all have one of the finest channels on YT! Another superb vid!

I love these historical episodes! I hope you keep going for a long time.

Thank you for this great update on the French iconic rifle of the Great War!

I wake up to see this title as uploaded today and I must say this: do not scare me like that. Normally when I see an older episode title as a new upload on a youtube channel it is because some stupid copy write or block took the videos offline and they are are being re uploaded. But really it was good to see this one get some added information and discussion, I love the info and history aspects of the show.

Outstanding update, wish more channels would adopt this level of quality.

I'm home sick today so it's a perfect time to catch up on the last few episodes. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into these!

Really happy to see this re-visit. The improvement in quality really shows, hoping the C-96 gets a look in again too :D

Very informative, can't believe all this is free to watch!

~The best part of waking up~ ... is contextual history. Now I'm going to put down this cup for a minute, and tell you about the history of ceramics.

I never noticed that you guys redid this episode. The LaBelle and RSC 18 are my favorite weapons World War 1. Love French weapons and I love your show keep up the good work!

I actually really like when channels do this. Great stuff.

I found you guys through the Great War Channel. Fantastic videos. Keep up the good work!

A happy and prosperous 2023 to you and Mae and all your people! Dun/Colorado...🤑

I gotta admit - I went back to the original Lebel episode a couple of times but always ended up a bit disappointed. It wasn't bad per se, but yeah, this is such an improvement on such an important rifle! If I decide to come back to this episode at some point - I know that there's a lot to look forward to! :)

Far better and more accurate than any Hollywood remake, very well done Othais and Mae

Thanks for remaking this

I like flan. I also like Maes hair. It looks really good on her. Thanx for the redo of the lebel. This is the episode that I've been waiting for.

Great from you guys giving the Lebel some more love. Time to hop in to Verdun and dig it back out again.

Deeper dive, awesome!

Wooooooooo! Thanks Mae for this great episode!... and Othais too :p Are we going to see a Berthier update? I found and bought a greek contract berthier a couple months ago at a local gun show. It looks complete and in excellent condition. I am looking forward to the updated episode. I learned everything I know from Primer, Anvil, and Forgotten Weapons. True educational grade information on the internet?!? Crazy. Its like thats what it was made for! Keep it up!

I'm glad you have done this

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards a deserved retelling of the Lebel by C&Rsenal

literally burst out laughing at the "YEET a granade" XD

Thanks for this! Love the Lebel!

When re-watching episodes I wish I could like it again.

I wish I had known this was coming a week ago. I've started sharing 1 primer a day on my facebook page and will do so for all ~107 episodes over the next months. I guess I'll have to work this into a weekend double header somehow.

Besides being an excellent remake of the episode 1, this also seems to have the funniest "War were declared" piece!

Thank! This re-run is awesome! I think ep. 001* or 001M will be more tuned to the timeframe.

Thank you! Super!

20:44 - "...Make sure we don't have any danger beans in there..." Words to live by. Next time I'm reloading I'll be thinking, 'One danger bean, two danger beans...'

great history lesson. I've always been interested in the French WW 1 rifle

Yes! A new one, Hooray! Love this show.

I was looking for Spanish mauser M93 then I saw your channel I was amazed then you became my favourite channel☺️

Actually, half expected to see Crozier get lowered into view in the lightbox for some reason.

This is funny I just re-watched that first episode and wishing that you do it in the style of today, wishes do come true.

I’m going to binge watch these and it’s going to take years

All french soldiers had a screwdriver baring the same serial number as the rifle and bayonet In the end part of the screwdriver was an oil container

Finally a new episode

Recently I watch forgotten weapons video about history of big iron and then some more about early colt black powder revolvers and I would real love to see you making some day detail video about them.

Pleasure to watch. Worth waiting. I'm going back to the manlicher series now...

Really superb work on this rifle review!! Thanks a lot. I am French and it is such a pleasure to see how much research you did on this rifle. Would be amazing if you could do the same video for the Lee-Enfield n°4. Again, thank you and your team!!!

Othias... you are my MASTER!!

Love from West Virginia ya guys keep it up

You know... Looking back, we have certainly seen the development and polish of the show over time. Yet one thing has remained steadfast... Othais' hat and beard combo have remained as constant as the tides. Mae has rocked the pixie 'do, the pageboy and now the long curls (are those frosted highlights I see?). When are we going to get Othais sporting a finely tailored handlebar? I would probably keel over if he ever showed up clean shaven though.

Great video

I hope he does more remasters like this. I'd love one on the bertier

French Lebel Version 2.0 was AWESOME!

Suggestion - a discussion of the ups and downs of straight vs. bent bolt handles and the decisions taken when choosing which one to use. (Naturally this should be limited to infantry rifles; the cavalry carbines are going to trend toward bent for obvious reasons.)

Regarding the tip to primer detonation issue, I know of a dug up relic from a battlefield in France that had suffered this unpleasantness, nasty. As it is now in the UK it still had to be deactivated........ it makes you smile.

Well I screwed up a bunch of pronunciations. Huge improvement over the years and keep up the good work.

That recoil is down to momentum (p = mv). The 8mm Lebel produces about 10 kg.m/s of it kicking back into your shoulder. Just over for the round nose (10.35), just under for the spitzer (9.34). The 30-06 does about the same (10.65 in its heaviest loading). The .303 is about the same, the 7.62x54R is about the same... If I went around and ran this calc for most other full power rifle cartridges of the time they'd all probably be about the same - sitting between 8 and 11 kg.m/s of momentum. No matter how heavy the rifle, the shooter has to absorb all that momentum. Where rifle mass does help is in how sharply that recoil is felt (equation is the same!). A heavy rifle going slower into your shoulder will invariably be easier to manage and less unpleasant than a light rifle going faster. This is also why bracing the weapon really hard into your body helps - at that point your whole body is absorbing the momentum as if it were part of the rifle, so it never quite gets the chance to accelerate more and hit you. What you two felt when shooting this rifle is entirely justified, there's nothing weird going on.

Okay. This is a much better episode.

Talking about magazine detonations in a tube magazine: Was in the office at a gun range near the beginning of deer season about 5 years ago and heard one occur. Gun was on a bench stand and he had been sighting it in, luckily he was not injured as badly as he could have been, but it was an impressive accident, still put him in the hospital. Marlin of some variety, I remember them saying he had handloaded ammo, and it appeared to all be a spitzer type bullet. Believe he had 3 in the magazine and one in the chamber when it occurred. I don't remember the chambering, but I believe it was .30-30

Will you be redoing the G98 video as well? With the rest of the Mauser series being so excellent, it would be a shame for the pinnacle of the Mauser action to not have a video of matching quality (not that the first one was bad at all).

Some of the Label recoil is caused by the cartridge's extreme taper. The case drives to the rear instead of sticking to the wall of the chamber. The large diameter of the case base acts like a larger piston, thus the thrust of the case is greater than smaller diameter cartridges.

I couldn’t stop staring at that RSC on the wall edit: soon as I heard you say we might see an auto loader I got a huge grin on my face can’t wait for that episode the RSC is one of my Dream dream guns as in something I want but probably will never afford

"It turns out the Lebel can straight up yeet a grenade across the battlefield like no other". I cannot WAIT to read this kind of language in history textbooks!

Please consider redoing the Gewher 98 episode. Compared to the later Mauser episodes it really feels lacking after all the work you did for the earlier Mausers.

Ironic that the original episode was rushed, since the rifle itself was rushed to production

I am struck once again just how beautiful Mae is.

"LiableToLebel" will always be my favorite ww1 gamertag.

Now this is a remake I can get behind

Was hoping we get a remake of the level.

Waiting for Martini-Henry & Enfield vidya. But a proper video covering the Lebel & Mauser 98 (soon) is more than good too.

One of the things I like about Forgotten Weapons is its respect for French small arms, and I find the process of find the process of developing the Lebel pretty effective. The problem was the quickly obsolete cartridge.