7.5×54 M1929C

French army set to develop a new, modern rifle- and machine gun round to replace obsolete 8mm Lebel ammunition in early 1920s, and in 1924 it adopted the 7.5×58 M1924 round, which was a close copy of the German 7.92×57 round. The similarity between these two round eventually played dirty trick with French users, as loading very similar 7.92mm round into weapons chambered for 7.5mm rounds caused excsessive chamber pressures, which sometimes resulted in damage to weapon and injury to shooter. To remedy this problem, in 1929 the cartridge case was redesigned and made shorter, so 7.92mm rounds that had cases 57mm long could not be chambered in the new French weapons. After adoption of this round all 7.5mm weapons then in service were rebarreled for this shorter round. The Mle.1929 round was standard issue ammunition for French rifles (bolt action and semi-automatic) and machine guns until 1960s. Very few (if any) commercial weapons were ever chambered for this round, and today it is obsolete for all practical purposes.

 

Designation Bullet weight, g Muzzle velocity, m/s Muzzle energy, J Comments
Balle C 9 820 3030 with pointed FMJ bullet