I have searched literally decades for one of these. Finally found one in my price range.
I could type for an hour on the history of the rifle, the calibre, charging system, the bayonet.........it's just a fascinating historical rifle all around and each component mentioned has it's own story; but since not everyone's a history buff I'll keep it short.
Below is a St. Ettienne 1907 Berthier chambered in 8x50mm Lebel. This is the iconic French rifle of WWI. Despite being very undergunned compared to the Greman's Gewehr's and eventually K98's in trajectory, rate of fire and reloading speed it served the French well and remained in service into WWII, after the great war it became the standard rifle of the French Foreign Legion as well as seeing service in various colonies. It was eventually phased out of service largely (I believe) because they could simply not make a machine gun feed reliably with the odd bell shaped cartridge (one of the first designed for smokeless powder).
To me everything about this rifle reeks of a very early design at a time when both horses and A/C were used on the same battlefield and commanders were still of the, "form square" mindset which led to trench warfare and cavalry charges against dug in maxim's. We've all read the joke's about the French military, but the reality couldn't be further from the truth and the French have a long and storied history of honour and unbelievable courage. I like to think of things like this rifle as a tactile piece of history well worth preserving for future generations.
Pic below is an 8mm lebel cartridge with a 30-06 for comparison; on the left is a loaded clip which would drop out the bottom of the rifle when the third round was chambered:
If this sort of stuff interests you there's ton's of good info on the net, and it's a very interesting read. Careful though, you may end up fascinated and searching for, "unicorn" historical rifles like me.
