Chauchat Model 1918 (.30-06)
Official wording
French, C.S.R.G. (Chauchat) machinegun, Model 1918, cal. .30.
What this entry requires
- INFOATF states no date; production was about 1918.
- INFOStill an NFA firearm; only registered examples transfer, with ATF approval (26 U.S.C. 5812, 5861).
Editorial facts · Our research
Source
- Official wording
- ATF P 5300.11, April 2025 edition · Section IV · PDF p. 83 ↗ · ATF original ↗
- Entries
- 1 line
- Verbatim check
- Checked against the PDF text before every release
- Editorial facts
- Confidence: High · Last revised 18 October 2026 (Evidence pass) · How we rate confidence
- References
- 1. Wikipedia, “Chauchat” ↗, maker: the .30-06 Model 1918 was 'made by Gladiator for the A.E.F.'; SIDARME 'manufactured 18,600 CSRGs, exclusively in 8mm Lebel'
- 2. Wikipedia, “Chauchat” ↗, years: the Gladiator factory delivered to the AEF, 'late in 1918, 19,000 Chauchats in .30-06' (the Mle 1918)
- Fact tags
- ATF the ATF wording states it.
- REF ¹ an outside reference supports it; the number points to the list of references.
- ESTIMATE an approximate or indirect reading, for example the production range of the base model.
- NO CITATION we haven’t attached a reference for this fact; it’s our editorial reading, not ATF’s.
- Source checked
- 20 October 2026: ATF’s page still lists the April 2025 edition
- Corrections
- 2 changes · see below
Correction history
- Evidence passYears: 1917–1918 → 1918. Wikipedia: the 19,000 .30-06 Chauchats were delivered late in 1918
- Evidence passMaker: Gladiator; SIDARME → Gladiator. Wikipedia: the .30-06 guns were Gladiator-made, SIDARME made 8mm Lebel guns only
Historical context
Image: Wikimedia Commons, “Chauchat 1 (50643241222) (cropped).jpg” by National Guard Militia Museum from Also Lawrenceville, Public domain. Retrieved October 2026.
Summary: Wikipedia, “Chauchat”. Text CC BY-SA 4.0.
FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Chauchat was the standard light machine gun or "machine rifle" of the French Army during World War I (1914–18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modèle 1915 CSRG". Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the FM Chauchat, after Colonel Louis Chauchat, the main contributor to its design. The Chauchat in 8mm Lebel was also used in 1917–18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". A total of 262,000 Chauchats 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. The armies of eight other nations—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.