Lebel Audio User Service

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How does a Lebel work?

  A soldier equipped with a Lebel could outrange troops carrying rifles chambered for black-powder, large-caliber lead-bullet ammunition. Using smokeless powder, he could remain virtually invisible to an enemy at longer ranges, yet locate an enemy at any range by the smoke from their rifles.

• Where did the Lebel come from?

  The Lebel followed the bolt action 11mm Mle 1874 Gras and the Mle 1878 French naval Kropatschek rifle designed by an Austrian, Alfred von Kropatschek, and shared the latter's tubular magazine in the fore-end.

• What kind of bayonet did the Mle 1886 Lebel have?

  The Mle 1886 Lebel rifle was issued with a long needle-like quadrangular épée bayonet, the Épée-Baïonnette Modèle 1886, with a length of 52 cm.

• How accurate is a Lebel rifle?

  The Lebel rifle was a hard-hitting and solidly built weapon with a reputation for reliability in adverse environments including those of trench warfare. The Lebel rifle was quite accurate up to 300 yards and still deadly at three times that distance, thanks to the spitzer and boat tail "Balle D" bullet.

• What kind of weapon is a Lebel?

  The Model 1886 Lebel was fitted with a thin, 20½" cruciform-bladed Epéé bayonet with a metal (brass or nickel-silver) grip and hooked quillon, which was later dispensed with. The edged weapon produced invidious puncture wounds that were slow to heal and liable to infection.

• Is the Fusil modéle 1886/93 “Lebel” obsolete?

  To subscribe to the magazine, visit the NRA membership page here and select American Rifleman as your member magazine. Despite its impressive record, there are those today who insist on denigrating France’s Fusil Modéle 1886/93 “Lebel” insisting that by the time World War I began it was obsolete and out of date.

• Who was the real Nicholas Lebel?

  Lt. Col., Nicholas Lebel, whose name was attached to the Fusil Mle 1886, actually was more involved with the design of the bullet used in the 1886 cartridge than the rifle itself.

• What is the origin of the nickname “Lebel arm”?

  Though the arm eventually was named for him, Lt. Col. Lebel’s contribution was actually a 232-gr., 8 mm flat-nose (to safely load cartridges nose-to-base without fear of accidental discharge) cupro-nickel-jacketed bullet. Dubbed, Cartouchè a Balle Ordinaire Modéle 1886, it was usually called Balle M for maillechort which means “nickel” in French.