In the early Seventies, the French constabulary faced an extraordinary criminal threat. The country remained awash in weapons left over from its occupation in WWII.
Le milieu, the thoroughly updated twentieth century successor of the swell criminal mob (
la haute pègre) originally mythologized by Balzac in
La Comedie humaine, did not hesitate to employ military grade firearms in bank robberies. The gang of the Lyonnais employed an enviable array of handguns, submachine guns, and assault rifles to great effect in over 35 daring robberies that netted up to twelve million francs apiece between 1967 and 1977. As a result, French police agencies gradually accepted the idea of arming their personnel, traditionally equipped with blowback autopistols chambered in .32 ACP, with locked breech autopistols and heavy duty revolvers chambered in 9mm Para and .357 Magnum. American-style handgun shooting reached Europe in the 1962, with Raymond Sasia, a judo instructor employed as a bodyguard by Charles de Gaulle, who was sent to study the shooting techniques of the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He returned to France with an FBI certification and founded CNT, the National Center for Shooting Instruction of the National Police (
le Centre National de Perfectionnement du Tir de la Police Nationale), a shooting school in Paris that taught range officers, French nationals at first, then foreigners. The latter, upon returning home, taught new range officers. Thus the method “Sasia” promulgated FBI’s revolver shooting techniques throughout the Western world. Meanwhile, CNT sought to develop and adopt a standard issue police sidearm. Sasia’s experience of training with the FBI dictated chambering the revolver in .357 Magnum. At first, Smith and Wesson developed at his behest and on his behalf, a special production run of its .357 Magnum Model 19 revolver, designated M19-3RS, equipped with a 3" barrel and fitted with fixed sights.
In 1971, the
Service d’études techniques de la Police Nationale of the Interior Ministry, headed by master shooter Valéry Carmona, charged Manurhin with the creation of a new French .357 Magnum dual purpose (police-sporting) revolver. The stage was set on issuing a French product, expected to number 80,000 revolvers, in constabulary service. The Manurhin MR73 revolvers ensued from this program. Its titular year saw the production of Police/Defense fixed sight variants with 2½", 3", and 4" inch barrels, in 9mm Para and .357 Magnum. The following year Manurhin rolled out its Match and Sport versions, with 4", 5¼", 6", and 8" barrels, all in the .357 Magnum caliber. In 1977, it added 3", 5¼", and 8" GIGN (Gendarmerie) versions in .357 Magnum. In 1980 and 1981 came the turn of the MR32 and MR38 Match revolvers in .32 S&W Long and .38 S&W Special, along with the 9" MR73 Long Range. The centerfire MR range was completed in 1983 with the 10¾" MR73 Silhouette in .357 Magnum and the limited production, stainless steel MR73 10-year commemorative. The MR22 in .22LR and the small-frame 5-shot Remora in .38 S&W Special followed in 1986.The MR range culminated in 1987 with the Convertible model, fitted with interchangeable, tensioned barrels fed by hand-detachable cylinders in .38 Special, .32 S&W Long, and .22LR, with the aid of a frame-mounted firing pin selectable for centerfire or rimfire ignition.