>>64034987
The old saying "The French copy no one, and no one copies the French" is kinda true. That being said. Most of their guns, while quirky in a way only the French can do, aren't bad guns.

And a lot of French wierdness comes down to 8mm Lebel. It's the first smokeless powder cartridge to be adopted by any country. When it was adopted, it was amazing. But the French wouldn't let it go. The aggressive bottlenecking and rimmed case forced gun designers into wierd designs. The Chauchat magazine is the way it is because 8mm Lebel is about the worst cartridge imaginable for magazine feeding past about 5 rounds.