Original French WWI Chauchat Machine Gun Maintenance Cleaning Kit – Complete Original Items

Original Item. Only One Available. This is an extremely scarce maintenance kit for the French Chauchat Machine gun, the most produced Machine Gun of the First World War, and one of the most iconic out there. This is the first example of this maintenance kit that we’ve offered, so don’t miss it!

The maintenance kit is complete, being constructed of French canvas secured by two buckle straps on the front and a third strap under those two which is secured by a rivet. The kit includes two oil cans, a barrel cleaning brush, a smaller brush in a checkered metal case, a put-together cleaning rod, and a couple other items. All items are secured by their original leather straps. This is one of the nicest of these kits you’ll see.

This is a phenomenal example of a WWI Chauchat Maintenance kit, that will fit perfectly alongside a Chauchat in any display. Don’t miss it!

The Chauchat, named after its main contributor Colonel Louis Chauchat, was the standard machine rifle or light machine gun of the French Army during World War I (1914-18). Its official designation was “Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG” (in English: “Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG”). It was mass manufactured during World War I by two reconverted civilian plants: “Gladiator” and “Sidarme”. Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry where the troops called it the FM Chauchat. The Chauchat machine rifle in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917-1918 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F) where it was officially designated as the “Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)”. The armies of eight other nations, notably: Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia and Serbia, also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I.

A total of 262,000 Chauchat machine rifles were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely-manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. Besides the 8mm Lebel version, the Chauchat machine rifle was also manufactured in U.S. .30-06 Springfield and in 7.65×53mm Argentine Mauser caliber to arm the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) and the Belgian Army respectively. The Belgian military did not experience difficulties with their Chauchats in 7.65mm Mauser and kept them in service into the early 1930s,. Conversely the Chauchat version in U.S. .30-06 made by “Gladiator” for the A.E.F., the Model 1918, proved to be fundamentally defective and had to be withdrawn from service.