My uncle was part of the Elbonian Royal Air Force, as part of the world's only tactical weather balloon squadron- the true pride of the Elbonian armed forcs at the time, real cream of the crop sort- and he talked all the time about being issued this rifle for defense specifically against Kneebonian carrier pigeons. Sadly he was lost in an unrelated mud farming accident, but nevertheless. It's great to see such a historic piece of Elbonian equipment being represented on Forgotten Weapons :)
@thekraken1173 why do you mock us? Everyone knows we lost the island in our civil war to the femurian rebels, who we suspected were always supported by our traditional enemies the elbonians. Are you confirming the elbonians were in fact taking part in that? You people who joke about our military, are very insensitive.
It was part of our manual of arms back when I was in elbonian service, to save cost on ammunition and improve marksmenship, as recruits we would get 2 shots then pass the rifle to the next recruit who also gets the training value of stoppage clearing then takes his 2 shots and so on.
@@AnimeFanatic5602Well in defense of this thing, it seems the reliability issues come down to the usage of FAL mags. And historically, the FAL pattern of magazine wasn't an ideal design to begin with.
They didn't have the money to rebrand after the revolution. In fact, they didn't have the money for the revolution either. The monarchy runs a bodega in the Bronx trying to raise the runs needed to continue their long and glorious history of being mostly ignored. The Elbonian Royal Air Service retains its name for tax purposes, and sandwich discounts.
I served with the Elbonian Special Police for a short while and we had a few of these come in spare from the ERAS under an initiative to enable police units to combat hostile drones without the need for a military directive. We ended up modifying these slightly, adding a small wind sock picatinny attachment to allow us to see which way our police balloons were drifting while targeting a drone with the weapon. Obviously what ended up happening is the sock itself obscured vision depending on wind direction but I maintain that it was a vastly superior to the weather vane-esque replacement we ended up with.
I once owned a MAS 49/56 rifle modded by Century's assembly monkeys to .308, and a buddy bought one too. We never could get them to cycle reliably. I tried working with the gas system to fix it as well as polishing all contacting surfaces. A slight improvement was had, but still unreliable. Eventually the rifle was stolen with several others in a home break-in. My buddy fixed his problem by buying another MAS 49/56 in the proper French 7.5 caliber, and it's totally reliable.
If it makes you feel any better there was a small number of rifles, 250 of them, that were factory converted for 308. You can tell these by the factory stamps on the receiver. They didn't work either. :)
My favorite thing about Elbonia is that despite their bad decisions in munitions manufacture, they have yet to have any large scale military defeats, and part of that is the fact that even the best intelligence apparatuses can find it on a map.
My family migrated from elbonia during the 6th reversed civil war, we left everything behind including my great great great great grandpa, he was a part of the REAS during the war and was tasked with hunting us down and i remember seeing him using this rifle to do it, great gun, dislocated his hip twice while shooting it towards us. One thing wrong in the video tho, it is possible to mount an french optic in the rifle using the standard issue elbonian flextape.
@@darrenprince5435 There's a Hipistan brokered cease-fire, but since both nations diplomatic corps recruit exclusively from their ultra-nationalist political parties, a full peace treaty isn't expected anytime soon.
OMG! At 17:58 we see Ian's third hand suddenly in frame to clear a jam! Now we understand how he is so adept at stripping so many complicated designs. He's tridextrous.
The most dreaded weapon in the Elbonian arsenal is a massive dirigible autogiro carrier that undoubtedly served as an inspiration for S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra Helicarriers in various Marvel properties.
It’s extremely difficult to launch from or land an auto gyro on Elbonian mud. They actually learned that lesson on the first attempt. They couldn’t find a buyer for the craft though so it’s still mounted on top of the Royal Palace (after being bronzed) in honor of the courageous but unfortunate pilot.
@@markfergerson2145 Here and I always thought that was why the landlocked country of Elbonia had an aircraft carrier - to be able to take off and land their ornithopters and gyrocopters...
My uncle's community college roommate's 3rd cousin was issued one of these during the great Elbonian pigeon war of '91. Those poor boys in the party ballon brigade didn't stand a chance. Those birds just flew so much faster than the drones they were trained to shoot at. They barely had enough helium to get off the ground after they accidentally used it to inflate the bouncy house for the capital's Independence Day celebration.
@LJCyrus1 He mentioned something about the tanks being covered in pigeon crap, and no one bothered to clean the labels off. Unfortunately for the poor anti-drone squad that commendeered the bouncy castle, there were some major ammunition issues as well. The Ministry of Munitions had recently contracted Bubba's Reloading & School for Kids That Don't Read Good as their supplier, and that first shipment was issued that day. They found a bunch of over pressured .243 and 7mm-08 brass in the wreckage.
@NinjaDeathSlap Fortunately, most of the downed ballon crews were able to land in the Elbonian mud fields. Total causalities were 71 1/2 Royal Air Service personnel killed (mostly friendly fire and faulty ammo, plus a handful who were severely allergic to pigeons), and 137 injured. The guy I mentioned received the Order of the Participation Ribon: First Class for distracting a flock of pigeons with a bagel, which allowed the Minister of Beraucrats to escape the carnage.
Now I'm imagining Ian using an Elbonian kit at a match. Or better yet, a Brutality-style match themed around Elbonian weapon trials, with classes that strictly don't allow common, highly proven firearms like ARs, AKs, FALs, etc.
@@SedatedandRestrained Exactly! The Kneebonian government officials are nothing but Russian sock puppets. It's really sad that the Kneebonian population get so much hate over it. They're a hard working nation of mud farmers and scrap sorters, just like the Elbonians, and all they want is to eat real bread on Sundays and have butter on it for birthdays and weddings.
@@mistermonkey5842 Seriously, if Ian sat down and wrote a 300 page book of pure and utter fictional nonsense on Elbonian arms history, with accompanying "wider context", along with Headstamp's usual high quality fotos of the most obnoxious "Bubba guns" this world has ever seen, then it would sell like freaking HOTCAKES.
@andersjjensen this is why I would rather see it as a continuously growing folio of annual "technical" updates, perhaps also covering uniforms, LBE, shelter systems that consist of black garbage bags and duct tape etc. Let's let Varusteleka jump in too
There was such a book, "Murphynski's Annotated Guide to Elbonian Arms", but Zymurgy dropped it and it was lost in the mud. When informed of the incident, Murphynski issued a brief statement, which read, "Typical."
@11:30 you're telling me this is a sniper rifle - that - scopes can't be installed on it. Wow, Elbonian snipers gotta be Simo Hayya level on entry, that's astonishing.
The 3 round stoppage was an intentional feature, helps to stop careless Elbonian sniper troops wasting ammo and firing indiscriminately. It was referred to as the 'focus stoppage'.
A true 4D chess move: after spending $1000+ dollars on a $169 rifle, limiting the rate of fire to barely double-digits per minute would do wonders to balance the logistics books.
i mean, other than that the handguard may disintegrate at anytime, the rest of the modification seems just fine. I wouldn't mind using this instead of the original mas if it don't cost 6 times the amount
I have a cousin in the Elbonian Defense Ministry. He says that with the mass rise of drones, particularly drone swarms and kamikaze drones, they are currently searching for a firm to restart production of these, as they believe it's A much more cost effective method to defend against them. They are also shopping for armor plating for their RAS dirigibles
Oh how I love these Elbonian tales. There's so much detail on them a dude stumbling blind into one of these videos for the first time would probably not realize it was a fictional country. At least one google search for a map will set that straight.
Ian, I love these tongue-in-cheek breakdowns of fictional guns, and in the field of 'real sounding, but ultimately fake countries'. It'd be really hilarious and awesome to see you acquire and show us a piece from Latveria just prior to the coup held by Doctor Victor von Doom.
My cousin was a spotter for the Elbonian Air Force Long Range Interjection Teams. These rifles were operated in two man teams. The most experienced member of the sniper team would be the shooter and his job was to use the red dot mounted on the top rail of the handguard and he would aim the rifle in the general direction of the target. The junior member of the team would then "walk" the shooter in by look through magnified optic mounted on the left side of the handguard rail. When the junior team member was done doing all the ballistics calculation, he would reach around to the otherside and turn on the visible laser aiming device on the right side of the handguard rail, signaling to the senior member and shooter, that he fire at anytime. This is an impressive team system that removes all sniper dialogue from the equation! My cousin even proudly state that the Interjection Teams never missed a shot in their underground 1500 meter known distance ranges. Apparently they also dont like the non hanguard mounted rails, saying that they sit too high. Our professional boys did their homework on fixing the height over bore issue and saving the Airforce money by not buying the mounts! God bless Elbonia. God bless the Elbonian Royal Airforce. God bless the Long Range Interjection Teams. Elbonia forever.
I got an old Century Intl. Arms MAS 49/56. I made sure to get it in 7.5 French. Works flawlessly. Finding 7.5 French ammo is much easier than trying to get a .308 version to work.
I'm french veteran , this riffle is my first experiment whith fire arm . After mas 49/56 , i have firing whith Famas F1 but , my heart is for my old mas 49/56 . Thank you very much for this vidéo.
At 1st I see it and think "oh a MAS 49/56 that is modernized, like modern AK variants", and then I see the jank... The slapped on OEM AR buttstock/grip (can't believe they didn't go with A2 grip), then I see the handguard w/ rail height that changes O_o; then I see some sort of slate-black re-slick handguard covers...but still no welded-on rail to the receiver, and no front sight). Its the sort of gun that 99 other countries would say 'no thank you, we have better options' and then Elbonia is like "guys, you won't believe the arms deal we found for our air service" XP
@@Dang_Near_Fed_Up you're right. I was thinking totally wrong (expecting they 'could' hit something else). sh1t! See this is how elbonia is always beating their enemies: throwing them off by doing something completely diff; like never hitting the enemy.
@@noremorsewoodworking2258 Which is why Elbonia was the only significant military adopter of the Walther WA 2000. As their main infantry rifle. Chambered in .300 Win Mag.
One of my fencers competes under the flag of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Her Grace, Gloriana XII, has chosen to mainly arm her troops with arms appropriate to a realm whose only industry is wine. After seeing your reports of Elbonian arms acquisition, her grace's wisdom becomes apparent. Halbards do not fail to feed. They also look quite good on parade. (and thanks much for a wonderful review and assessment of why one doesn't throw good money after bad.)
They got those parts in just in time. From 2009 to 2011, Elbonia was placed under US sanctions for some international finance quarrels that were going on, but primarily for the suspicion of using forced labor in their mud industry. Accusations went back and forth, until a US diplomat went there and saw the mud farms personally, and concluded "they are indeed working voluntarily; they just really really hate it". Even though it lasted about 2 years, it's likely what caused McCann to drop the project, since there wouldn't be enough domestic sales to justify the costs.
I had an old MAS 49-56 rechambered to .308 from Century many years ago. I've since got rid of it. I had extraction issues with it in the beginning, but a nice swap of Rem-oil before you shot it eliminated the extraction issues for a little bit. I believe it was due to how they did the conversion concerning headspace, the brass would expand enough to catch it inside of the chamber, but I'm not entirely sure. Great video.
It's in reference to the historical Yugoslavian monarchy. Which is odd, because Elbonia was never part of Yugoslavia. Nor is it located in the Balkans. In fact, it's not even clear if Elbonia is located in Europe.
@@jic1 As far as I've been able to track down it's located within the borders of The Russian Federation somewhere north-east of the Caucasus. It may very well, in fact, be located WITHIN the Republic of Kalmykia, but Russian disinformation campaigns have made it exceptionally hard to pinpoint exactly.
They were planning to change the name of the Royal Air Service after the revolution, but the defense budget could not afford to cover the change in signage.
15:41 The Elbonian Royal Air Service's chief of aircraft procurement heard about the Boulton Paul Defiant from his sister's cousin's mud inspector who once saw a picture of a model of one. And the rest was history.
My great uncle back up bowling team substitute claimed to be a member of Elbonian SBS Special Balloon Service. During the great pigeon war of 99. I am sure he was probably issue one of these fine weapons.....
I heard about this one. The former head of the Royal Air Services procurement was later exiled as a traitor. The rumor was he knew it wouldn't go anywhere, but he argued he just really liked French rifles.
I remember using those during my service in the Elbonian air force experimental department. Strong wind and a helium balloon made for very good drone-downing exercices.
The image of the Elbonian Special Air Service loading into their dirigables is something that remains with me to this day. "Who dares wins" (depending on wind speed and direction)
It's utterly horrid but I'm intrigued. I'm more interested in how the .308 conversions held up over time--but from your range time, I think we know how it went. I remember the surplus rifles being out there in the original 7.5. Speaking of French rifles, you should explore their law enforcement Mini-14. I think you've briefly touched on it before.
I've got two of the converted Mas 49-56s. On there own they are not great, they need different firing pins, and adjustable gas systems. Then they are ok.
This entire vid is gold. Elbonia. Tactical balloons. Cartoonishly bad rifle. Hilarious French pronunciations by Ian. This one is gonna be tough to beat!
They do it for love of country. Also they need the free healthcare from having been repeatedly dropped on their heads as babies. It’s the contractors who make the big bucks.
I have undertaken some research in the Elbonian archives and the two round burst was an inteneded design feature. The Elbonian RAS was highly confident in their airmen’s ability to hit the target and didn’t want to encourage excessive ammunition usage.
Bonjour Ian. Actually quite interesting. I didn't know the french gov in the 90's tried to modernize a bit our MAS49. Good thing is, I've found the gunsmith who did it for the gov in the 90's thanks to the page of "action" magazine you posted. I maybe contact his enterprise soon to have a info, even more because they're barely 1h of road from me.
Elbonian Royal Air Service merch:
www.varusteleka.com/en/product/forgotten-weapons-royal-air-service-elbonia-t-shirt-cotton/78756
Are there any plans for the channel to jump over to Pepperbox? I know ya'll have talked about alternatives to this platform in the past.
"we have AR at-
we have FAL at-
Idk man. We have something at home"
😢😢😢😢🎉😢
On second thought, let's not go home. It is a silly place.
its not our home anymore with that.... thing... in it
Son, we have M110K1 at home:
I'm scared of home...
My uncle was part of the Elbonian Royal Air Force, as part of the world's only tactical weather balloon squadron- the true pride of the Elbonian armed forcs at the time, real cream of the crop sort- and he talked all the time about being issued this rifle for defense specifically against Kneebonian carrier pigeons. Sadly he was lost in an unrelated mud farming accident, but nevertheless. It's great to see such a historic piece of Elbonian equipment being represented on Forgotten Weapons :)
Was he deployed to Kneebonian Pacific Island Territory or the Mainland?
@thekraken1173 why do you mock us? Everyone knows we lost the island in our civil war to the femurian rebels, who we suspected were always supported by our traditional enemies the elbonians. Are you confirming the elbonians were in fact taking part in that?
You people who joke about our military, are very insensitive.
Mud farming…
Id like to know more about that
Tactical weather balloons, almost lost my donut, is that where the Chinese got the idea for those spy balloons?
☕🐝🇺🇸
I`m sorry for your loss.
The Elbonian Air Service. The mind boggles at the possibilities.
Never underestimate the power of the Elbonian Rapid Response Blimp Wing.
Elbowing air service I got a vision of an ass bl9wing air😅
@@Flaming1100 Nah, they're using modernised MiG 19's for their gun armament as it's 3x30mm cannons are superior in dogfighting.
Somehow I imagine it involves renting a sesna for combat missions...
They are still saving money to have a plane for air service to use.
I like how the mag was cleverly designed to cut off after two shots because two shots is all the Elbonian marksman ever needs
There!
This makes me wonder why they don't use a stealth crossbow. Also a forgotten weapon.
It was part of our manual of arms back when I was in elbonian service, to save cost on ammunition and improve marksmenship, as recruits we would get 2 shots then pass the rifle to the next recruit who also gets the training value of stoppage clearing then takes his 2 shots and so on.
@@MortdeathMinis ahhh so it's a multifunctional feature? Elbonian brilliance is astounding!
@@cleanerben9636 elbonian armed forces only utilize the finest of training methods
Thats where California gets is genius from!
step aside HCAR, we have a new "Modernized Old rifle" in town.
I feel like this could actually be something good. But there is zero demand out side of alternate history larping to make this a thing
At least the HCAR works reliably.
@@AnimeFanatic5602Well in defense of this thing, it seems the reliability issues come down to the usage of FAL mags. And historically, the FAL pattern of magazine wasn't an ideal design to begin with.
We need a video on the Mosin-Nagant Bullpup Rifles! 😎👍
Elbonia truly is one of a kind. A republic with a ROYAL Air Service. 🙂
Elbonia, special in every way.
Technically the US is a republic
A very, very special force indeed
They didn't have the money to rebrand after the revolution. In fact, they didn't have the money for the revolution either. The monarchy runs a bodega in the Bronx trying to raise the runs needed to continue their long and glorious history of being mostly ignored. The Elbonian Royal Air Service retains its name for tax purposes, and sandwich discounts.
@@skoshman1 Lemme get a breakfast sandwich, with bad guns, THE ELBONIAN WAY.
"SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE"
I served with the Elbonian Special Police for a short while and we had a few of these come in spare from the ERAS under an initiative to enable police units to combat hostile drones without the need for a military directive. We ended up modifying these slightly, adding a small wind sock picatinny attachment to allow us to see which way our police balloons were drifting while targeting a drone with the weapon.
Obviously what ended up happening is the sock itself obscured vision depending on wind direction but I maintain that it was a vastly superior to the weather vane-esque replacement we ended up with.
Did the Elbonian Special Police ride around in short paddy wagons?
Guys, Ian isn't joking when he says *no one* copies the French. I once undercooked a steak and GIGN showed up at my house with a bat.
They were furious that you overcooked it
Well, that's a rare issue.
fruit or vampire?
@@CaptainSeamusFruit. Vampire bats are primarily used by the Vulturii.
Did it have a scope and a bipod? The bat I mean, not the steak lol
I once owned a MAS 49/56 rifle modded by Century's assembly monkeys to .308, and a buddy bought one too. We never could get them to cycle reliably. I tried working with the gas system to fix it as well as polishing all contacting surfaces. A slight improvement was had, but still unreliable. Eventually the rifle was stolen with several others in a home break-in. My buddy fixed his problem by buying another MAS 49/56 in the proper French 7.5 caliber, and it's totally reliable.
Same… it hurt my soul because I loved the simplicity and durability of the design.. but wrecked by the monkeys at century.
If it makes you feel any better there was a small number of rifles, 250 of them, that were factory converted for 308. You can tell these by the factory stamps on the receiver.
They didn't work either. :)
My parents were Elbonian Mud farmers before the Great Storm. Always glad to see our heritage represented.
My favorite thing about Elbonia is that despite their bad decisions in munitions manufacture, they have yet to have any large scale military defeats, and part of that is the fact that even the best intelligence apparatuses can find it on a map.
as undefeated as the mongolian navy
Presumably you’re talking the modern Mongol Navy, and not the one from the 1200s that tried invading Japan…
@@zanaduz2018 *no human navy has beat the mongels
the Elbonian mud is also a major factor.
@@Avidshooter13Mongolian navy was destroyed in 1281 and has never recovered since
“Not the worst Elbonian rifle we have seen” - priceless!
I suspect they would be on clearance 😂
…. Yet
Elbonians on suicide watch with this one
My family migrated from elbonia during the 6th reversed civil war, we left everything behind including my great great great great grandpa, he was a part of the REAS during the war and was tasked with hunting us down and i remember seeing him using this rifle to do it, great gun, dislocated his hip twice while shooting it towards us.
One thing wrong in the video tho, it is possible to mount an french optic in the rifle using the standard issue elbonian flextape.
I've missed the miss-adventures of the glorious first under the sun republic of Elbonia
But if they're a republic, why do they have a *Royal* Air Serv-
Oh, right, of course.
Elbonia.
They were always ill-fated. After all, 'first under the sun' = 1st to get cooked. Their goose was cooked before birds further down even hatched XP
@@jic1 I mean North Korea is the "Democratic Peoples Republic" so why not Elbonia 😂😂
Are they still at war with the Anklestines?
@@darrenprince5435 There's a Hipistan brokered cease-fire, but since both nations diplomatic corps recruit exclusively from their ultra-nationalist political parties, a full peace treaty isn't expected anytime soon.
I literally screamed "Elbonia!" When i first saw the thumbnail
I will never missout on being early when it comes to glorious Elbonia
Your pronunciation of Elbonian names and locations has greatly improved over years.
OMG! At 17:58 we see Ian's third hand suddenly in frame to clear a jam! Now we understand how he is so adept at stripping so many complicated designs. He's tridextrous.
Remember, utilising your glorious Elbonian issue third hand is quicker than switching to your sidearm
It's been a while since we've seen Elbonia content, this gives me a "MEATS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS" feeling
🍖 🥩 🍖 🥩 🍖 🥩
What are you talking about? The glorious Elbonians do need their legs.
You mean MUD is back on the menu.
SLR: Sometimes Loading Rifle.
Long live Elbonia,
Glorious Motherland
The shortest national anthem in the World - definitely the best...
More like Mudderland ;)
Step-mutherland
Elbonia industry best in world
Elbonia stronk!
It surprises me (slightly) to learn that the Elbonians favor lighter-than-air craft rather than, say, autogyros.
The most dreaded weapon in the Elbonian arsenal is a massive dirigible autogiro carrier that undoubtedly served as an inspiration for S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra Helicarriers in various Marvel properties.
I was thinking ornithopters, a little more fanciful and less likely to work.
It’s extremely difficult to launch from or land an auto gyro on Elbonian mud. They actually learned that lesson on the first attempt.
They couldn’t find a buyer for the craft though so it’s still mounted on top of the Royal Palace (after being bronzed) in honor of the courageous but unfortunate pilot.
@@markfergerson2145 Here and I always thought that was why the landlocked country of Elbonia had an aircraft carrier - to be able to take off and land their ornithopters and gyrocopters...
The privileges and choices of technological leaders in the industry.
You gotta love the Icarus reference on the Elbonian Royal Air Service logo. They can't even get their mythology right.
Tragically, their graphic designer flew a little too close to the sun...
Well...the real world version of that is surely the RNZAF... their roundel contains a KIWI. (For those who didn't know..its a flightless bird!)
I should've known Elbonia would've been a fan of LTA aircraft. God bless them for keeping the airships alive.
And of turret fighters!
Absolutely the sort of thing one would expect from a Whisky Tango Foxtrot contractor for Elbonia I'd think.
My uncle's community college roommate's 3rd cousin was issued one of these during the great Elbonian pigeon war of '91. Those poor boys in the party ballon brigade didn't stand a chance. Those birds just flew so much faster than the drones they were trained to shoot at. They barely had enough helium to get off the ground after they accidentally used it to inflate the bouncy house for the capital's Independence Day celebration.
Was it actually an accident, or did an avian agent corrupt those in charge of the helium storage?
@LJCyrus1 He mentioned something about the tanks being covered in pigeon crap, and no one bothered to clean the labels off. Unfortunately for the poor anti-drone squad that commendeered the bouncy castle, there were some major ammunition issues as well. The Ministry of Munitions had recently contracted Bubba's Reloading & School for Kids That Don't Read Good as their supplier, and that first shipment was issued that day. They found a bunch of over pressured .243 and 7mm-08 brass in the wreckage.
I hear those balloons are getting an ERA upgrade package to improve survivability...
@NinjaDeathSlap Fortunately, most of the downed ballon crews were able to land in the Elbonian mud fields. Total causalities were 71 1/2 Royal Air Service personnel killed (mostly friendly fire and faulty ammo, plus a handful who were severely allergic to pigeons), and 137 injured. The guy I mentioned received the Order of the Participation Ribon: First Class for distracting a flock of pigeons with a bagel, which allowed the Minister of Beraucrats to escape the carnage.
Now I'm imagining Ian using an Elbonian kit at a match. Or better yet, a Brutality-style match themed around Elbonian weapon trials, with classes that strictly don't allow common, highly proven firearms like ARs, AKs, FALs, etc.
I hate how much I like that rifle
😂 same here 😂
Gotta join the elbonia foreign legion
Same
It looks so unironically cool
That's a normal reaction, it goes away immediately after you've worked on it. - Elbonian armorer
damn ... I forgot for a moment Elbonia is fictional and was totally vibing with Ian's elaborate narration.
That is the magic of telling tall stories 😉
That's Kneebonian propaganda, glorious Elbonia will never cease to exist!
@@SedatedandRestrained Exactly! The Kneebonian government officials are nothing but Russian sock puppets. It's really sad that the Kneebonian population get so much hate over it. They're a hard working nation of mud farmers and scrap sorters, just like the Elbonians, and all they want is to eat real bread on Sundays and have butter on it for birthdays and weddings.
@@SedatedandRestrained Exactly! Right in there with Slowjamistan!
Elbonia is real in our hearts.
The national bird of Elbonia is the frisbee
Holy shit who else gets this? 😂 That is a deep cut.
If only there were a reference book that catalogued the fine history of these weapons.
I feel that an annualized offering from Headstamp would be an excellent option. Perhaps with a later March to early April release date.
@@mistermonkey5842 Seriously, if Ian sat down and wrote a 300 page book of pure and utter fictional nonsense on Elbonian arms history, with accompanying "wider context", along with Headstamp's usual high quality fotos of the most obnoxious "Bubba guns" this world has ever seen, then it would sell like freaking HOTCAKES.
@andersjjensen this is why I would rather see it as a continuously growing folio of annual "technical" updates, perhaps also covering uniforms, LBE, shelter systems that consist of black garbage bags and duct tape etc. Let's let Varusteleka jump in too
There was such a book, "Murphynski's Annotated Guide to Elbonian Arms", but Zymurgy dropped it and it was lost in the mud. When informed of the incident, Murphynski issued a brief statement, which read, "Typical."
@11:30 you're telling me this is a sniper rifle - that - scopes can't be installed on it. Wow, Elbonian snipers gotta be Simo Hayya level on entry, that's astonishing.
The 3 round stoppage was an intentional feature, helps to stop careless Elbonian sniper troops wasting ammo and firing indiscriminately. It was referred to as the 'focus stoppage'.
That might be Elbonias best rifle. You can get 2 to 3 shots off before a malfunction! Comrades, it is a miracle!
A true 4D chess move: after spending $1000+ dollars on a $169 rifle, limiting the rate of fire to barely double-digits per minute would do wonders to balance the logistics books.
i mean, other than that the handguard may disintegrate at anytime, the rest of the modification seems just fine. I wouldn't mind using this instead of the original mas if it don't cost 6 times the amount
I have a cousin in the Elbonian Defense Ministry. He says that with the mass rise of drones, particularly drone swarms and kamikaze drones, they are currently searching for a firm to restart production of these, as they believe it's A much more cost effective method to defend against them. They are also shopping for armor plating for their RAS dirigibles
I'm not even into guns or plan on ever owning one but your videos showed me how amazing they can be, thank you
The stock adapter is brilliant.
"We do our best with the worst" The true spirit of Elbonia still going strong
Just last week i was wondering about Elbonian military purchases - I'm now glad for this update
Viva Elbonia
Wow! Im really impressed he fabricated a complete new lower just to add an ar stock and grip.
Oh how I love these Elbonian tales. There's so much detail on them a dude stumbling blind into one of these videos for the first time would probably not realize it was a fictional country. At least one google search for a map will set that straight.
If these chassis kits are still available on the market prepare for an increase in the price of surplus 49/56 rifles
I know what I got boy.
Thank you Elbonian Air Service members for your service.
Ian, I love these tongue-in-cheek breakdowns of fictional guns, and in the field of 'real sounding, but ultimately fake countries'. It'd be really hilarious and awesome to see you acquire and show us a piece from Latveria just prior to the coup held by Doctor Victor von Doom.
My cousin was a spotter for the Elbonian Air Force Long Range Interjection Teams. These rifles were operated in two man teams. The most experienced member of the sniper team would be the shooter and his job was to use the red dot mounted on the top rail of the handguard and he would aim the rifle in the general direction of the target. The junior member of the team would then "walk" the shooter in by look through magnified optic mounted on the left side of the handguard rail. When the junior team member was done doing all the ballistics calculation, he would reach around to the otherside and turn on the visible laser aiming device on the right side of the handguard rail, signaling to the senior member and shooter, that he fire at anytime. This is an impressive team system that removes all sniper dialogue from the equation! My cousin even proudly state that the Interjection Teams never missed a shot in their underground 1500 meter known distance ranges. Apparently they also dont like the non hanguard mounted rails, saying that they sit too high. Our professional boys did their homework on fixing the height over bore issue and saving the Airforce money by not buying the mounts! God bless Elbonia. God bless the Elbonian Royal Airforce. God bless the Long Range Interjection Teams. Elbonia forever.
i hope one day we have a "arming the dragon" sized book about Elbonian arms and history
Why am I seeing this book as including pop-up pictures and even some coloring in pages near the back of the book?
Glory to Elbonia!
I got an old Century Intl. Arms MAS 49/56. I made sure to get it in 7.5 French. Works flawlessly. Finding 7.5 French ammo is much easier than trying to get a .308 version to work.
I see Elbonian content, I click!
I'm french veteran , this riffle is my first experiment whith fire arm .
After mas 49/56 , i have firing whith Famas F1 but , my heart is for my old mas 49/56 .
Thank you very much for this vidéo.
Ahhh McCann Industries, the same guys that made the Elbonian .458 win mag M1 service rifle.
Some of the best times in my life were while serving for the Elbonian Royal Guard
ah, the dreaded Elbonian Assault Blimp, terror of the skies!
@@Dang_Near_Fed_Upterrible gas, aeronautically speaking but goddamn does it look stylish dragging across the ground
@@Dang_Near_Fed_Upterrible gas, aeronautically speaking but goddamn does it look stylish dragging across the ground
At 1st I see it and think "oh a MAS 49/56 that is modernized, like modern AK variants", and then I see the jank...
The slapped on OEM AR buttstock/grip (can't believe they didn't go with A2 grip), then I see the handguard w/ rail height that changes O_o; then I see some sort of slate-black re-slick handguard covers...but still no welded-on rail to the receiver, and no front sight).
Its the sort of gun that 99 other countries would say 'no thank you, we have better options' and then Elbonia is like "guys, you won't believe the arms deal we found for our air service" XP
@@Dang_Near_Fed_Up you're right. I was thinking totally wrong (expecting they 'could' hit something else). sh1t!
See this is how elbonia is always beating their enemies: throwing them off by doing something completely diff; like never hitting the enemy.
Elbonia really has a cool arsenal of weapons
Cool yet somewhat ineffective
@@noremorsewoodworking2258 Which is why Elbonia was the only significant military adopter of the Walther WA 2000.
As their main infantry rifle.
Chambered in .300 Win Mag.
One of the few, if not only, Elbonian weapons that I would want to own.
a marked improvement in the Elbonian Royal Air Services arsenal, a massive technological leap from David’s sling
One of my fencers competes under the flag of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Her Grace, Gloriana XII, has chosen to mainly arm her troops with arms appropriate to a realm whose only industry is wine. After seeing your reports of Elbonian arms acquisition, her grace's wisdom becomes apparent. Halbards do not fail to feed. They also look quite good on parade. (and thanks much for a wonderful review and assessment of why one doesn't throw good money after bad.)
Ahh the halcyon days of glorious Elbonia!
Need more Elbonian content. It always makes me smile.
For our Glorious ELBONIA!
the oldschool utg panels make me so happy ian, i love old-school utg panels so much
They got those parts in just in time. From 2009 to 2011, Elbonia was placed under US sanctions for some international finance quarrels that were going on, but primarily for the suspicion of using forced labor in their mud industry. Accusations went back and forth, until a US diplomat went there and saw the mud farms personally, and concluded "they are indeed working voluntarily; they just really really hate it". Even though it lasted about 2 years, it's likely what caused McCann to drop the project, since there wouldn't be enough domestic sales to justify the costs.
The UTG handguard and rubber caps gave me flash backs to my first AR build.
Long Live Elbonian
I had an old MAS 49-56 rechambered to .308 from Century many years ago. I've since got rid of it. I had extraction issues with it in the beginning, but a nice swap of Rem-oil before you shot it eliminated the extraction issues for a little bit. I believe it was due to how they did the conversion concerning headspace, the brass would expand enough to catch it inside of the chamber, but I'm not entirely sure. Great video.
I'm surprised the Glorious Republic of Elbonia has a *Royal* Air Service, but I probably shouldn't be.
I am surprised it is not "The Glorious Peoples Democrat Republic of Elbonia", In very small letters below, "A Constitutional monarchy".
It's in reference to the historical Yugoslavian monarchy.
Which is odd, because Elbonia was never part of Yugoslavia. Nor is it located in the Balkans. In fact, it's not even clear if Elbonia is located in Europe.
@@jic1 As far as I've been able to track down it's located within the borders of The Russian Federation somewhere north-east of the Caucasus. It may very well, in fact, be located WITHIN the Republic of Kalmykia, but Russian disinformation campaigns have made it exceptionally hard to pinpoint exactly.
@@jic1 But it is IN our hearts. Budge over Rome and make room.
They were planning to change the name of the Royal Air Service after the revolution, but the defense budget could not afford to cover the change in signage.
Oh man, I love this sort of thing. Figuring out how to work within an existing platform and figuring out all the intricacies just tickles me.
So when do we get the book. Arms and Armour of Elbonian Military. It would be fun when pepole try to figure out where Elbonia is or was in the world.
15:41 The Elbonian Royal Air Service's chief of aircraft procurement heard about the Boulton Paul Defiant from his sister's cousin's mud inspector who once saw a picture of a model of one. And the rest was history.
(Gently hugs and kisses my 49/56)
It's okay little guy, they can't hurt you anymore.
Man, here I was missing about Elboniam topics and Ian posts this.
nothing makes me click quicker than elbonia
My great uncle back up bowling team substitute claimed to be a member of Elbonian SBS Special Balloon Service. During the great pigeon war of 99. I am sure he was probably issue one of these fine weapons.....
I heard about this one. The former head of the Royal Air Services procurement was later exiled as a traitor. The rumor was he knew it wouldn't go anywhere, but he argued he just really liked French rifles.
I remember using those during my service in the Elbonian air force experimental department. Strong wind and a helium balloon made for very good drone-downing exercices.
Elbononians: "Can we have M16?"
No, we have M16 at home.
M16 at home:
more like M110 at home, considering it's a 7.62 semi auto sniper system that uses some AR parts
Good firearms engineers often impress me to no end with their solutions to problems.
I am very much not a fan of AR-15 style buffer tube stocks on things that are not AR-15, but this whole gun looks so bizarre it weirdly fits the theme
Wareing my elbonian air service tee shirt right now when this video dropped thanks Ian 👍👍👍👍👍
Glory to Elbonia!
Super enjoyed the storytime, thanks Ian!
"Not the worst Elbonian rifle we've tried" is rather faint praise, isn't it?
A misfortuned nation of mud farmers and scrap sorters will take any compliment, no matter how faint.
The image of the Elbonian Special Air Service loading into their dirigables is something that remains with me to this day.
"Who dares wins" (depending on wind speed and direction)
It's utterly horrid but I'm intrigued. I'm more interested in how the .308 conversions held up over time--but from your range time, I think we know how it went. I remember the surplus rifles being out there in the original 7.5. Speaking of French rifles, you should explore their law enforcement Mini-14. I think you've briefly touched on it before.
Yeah, the ones converted to 308 in the US don't function worth a dam. Mine has not left the safe in 20 years.
I've got two of the converted Mas 49-56s. On there own they are not great, they need different firing pins, and adjustable gas systems. Then they are ok.
I’ve got one, and it runs fine on steel case 308.
Direct impingement vs delayed impingement internal long stroke piston. That is really neat despite the utg rail . The concept is good .
Would everyone please rise for the presentation of our national colors. 🎵Hail, Hail, Elbonia! A land we didn't make up!🎵
@webtoedman yes
This entire vid is gold. Elbonia. Tactical balloons. Cartoonishly bad rifle. Hilarious French pronunciations by Ian. This one is gonna be tough to beat!
Ian: "Elbonian Royal Air Service"
Ed Nash: *my time has come"
collab please
I've been really getting into Elbonian military history recently, thanks for the video! ;D
The Elbonian logistical corps must pay well with the amount of headaches they must be subjected to
They do it for love of country. Also they need the free healthcare from having been repeatedly dropped on their heads as babies. It’s the contractors who make the big bucks.
I have undertaken some research in the Elbonian archives and the two round burst was an inteneded design feature. The Elbonian RAS was highly confident in their airmen’s ability to hit the target and didn’t want to encourage excessive ammunition usage.
In the words of Benny from New Vegas: "WHAT IN THE GODDAMN..?"
A perfect gun in concept and appearance.
Wait, the French wanted to float air-defense blimps with sniper platforms in the 1990's?! That is NUTS. I love it!
No, the Blimps were an Elbonian innovation to the idea. The French would have used helicopters.
Well, it worked well enough in 1914.......
@@howardmaryon Don't forget the civil war! Proven tech!
Bonjour Ian. Actually quite interesting. I didn't know the french gov in the 90's tried to modernize a bit our MAS49. Good thing is, I've found the gunsmith who did it for the gov in the 90's thanks to the page of "action" magazine you posted. I maybe contact his enterprise soon to have a info, even more because they're barely 1h of road from me.
Ian back at it again, by pulling out a weapon from prison wallet 😢😂😂.(Laying on his lap, out of frame, still makes for a good joke)
Awesome. We haven’t heard from Elbonia in a while.
Its like a FAL that gets worse the more you percieve it.
Keep up the awesome work Ian!
It hurts looking at that poor 49/56
How Ian gets though the Elbonia videos without busting a gut I will never know. I got as far as "blimp or dirigible"