Uniquely Ethiopian Shortened Lebel Rifles
France
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9m 15s
Today we are looking at an interesting sub-type of Ethiopian Lebel short rifle. When InterOrdnance brought in the surviving Lebels from Ethiopian storage, eleven of one hundred were in this configuration, with barrels shortened to about 25 inches. Each rifle is a bit different - especially in front sight configuration - and all of them have Ethiopian markings added to the receiver. Viewed individually they simply appear to be badly cut-down rifles, but I think it's interesting to note that they formed a non-trivial proportion of the rifles in Ethiopian stores. It is not known who made these changes or when, but one can easily understand the desire to shorten a rifle as long and unwieldy as the original Lebel.
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