fuck commies
so guys weve been talking soviet weapons so far
but now were gonna talk about the fn fal
right arm of the free world
fal is french for fusil automatique leger
light automatic rifle
so this gun was designed right after world war ii by belgiums fabrique national
i dunno if you guys know about fabrique national
but you friggin should
they have a long history of making excellent guns
they did a lot of work with john moses browning
patron saint of all gun owners
they made his famous browning hi power
and to this day they make the m240 machinegun and fn scar
among many many others
so yeah guys fn is legit
the fn fal is a perfect example of their awesome guns
so yeah its right after wwii
and remember i said how after wwii this whole assault rifle idea is the next big thing
an automatic rifle that shoots an intermediate rifle cartridge
less powerful than the bolt actions from before
but more powerful than a stupid submachinegun shooting pistol rounds
so fn was doing work on this
and they made a rifle to shoot the 7.92 mm kurz round that the nazis invented
work was going all right and the british were interested
guys
never ever listen to your customers lol
so the british asked fn to make a prototype in their new .280 british round
and fn is like ok
the the british are like can you make it a bullpup
and fn is like um ok
then the british are like meh thats boring were going with this other stupid gun lol
and fn is like argh
so then fn goes to the us and is like trying to give us a sweet deal
like saying we can manufacture without fees and stuff
but the us is big on tradition
dat m1 garand doh
so we just won the war with the m1 garand shooting the .30-06 round
but like powder chemistry had advanced since nineteen aught six
and we were designing the new .308 cartridge
but its designed to have the same ballistics as the .30-06 with smaller more efficient dimensions
and we were working on a rifle called the m14
but its basically just a modified m1 garand with magazines lol
oh and lets give it full auto
thats not a retarded idea or anything
so fn was having a hard time and both the british and the us were kinda being putzes
but then the british overthrew their commie government and put winston churchill back in charge for a bit
and he cancelled the gay rifle they had just adopted and wanted the fal
so then he did some secret negotiating with the us and hes like cmon lets adopt the same rifle and ammo and all that for this new nato thing we just made
we gotta standardize
and the us is like um well theres no way are we adopting your gay .280 caliber
our round is .30 caliber
thats like
.02 bigger
so churchill is like ugh ok just adopt the fal and well agree to adopt your new .308 round
and the us is like ok
so nato adopted the .308 as the 7.62x51 nato
and fn made a version of the fal in 7.62x51
but the us is like jk were gonna just go with our m14 lol kthxbai
so whatever the fn fal is now 7.62x51
thats not an intermediate cartridge
its a full power rifle round
this is not an assault rifle anymore
the name ends up almost as a joke
light automatic rifle
dude it weighs like ten pounds
but if you ever try shooting it on automatic it turns into an antiaircraft gun by the third round lol
in fact most militaries removed the automatic setting entirely and just had safe and semiauto
so in the end the fal becomes what we term a battle rifle
a semiauto rifle shooting a full power round with detachable magazine
and it was adopted by pretty much every nato and allied nation with that one glaring exception of not the us lol
it served from the 50s and continues to serve in some places even to this day
its still a good rifle
its just kinda complex to manufacture compared to modern designs
so its a short stroke gas system
if you remember when i talked about the sks
that means it bleeds some gas from a port in the barrel
and pushes it against a gas piston over the barrel
the gas piston kicks the bolt rearward and then springs back forward while the bolt continues on its way
the gas system on the fal has a wide range of adjustments
you can screw in this sleeve to determine how much gas goes to the piston and how much gets bled off as extra
that means you can really dial it in so it cycles your ammo reliably without knocking the shit out of the gun from too much pressure
it has detachable 20 rd magazines
overall its pretty long
like 43 inches
with a 21 inch barrel
but there are some variants
theres a variant with a heavier barrel and bipod for a squad light machinegun
there are variants with shorter 18 inch barrels and folding buttstocks
those are my favorite
and there are a lot of more radical modifications you can make
overall the aftermarket accessories are good
the fal has been popular for decades and various militaries have supported and modernized it
its easy to field strip too
theres a lever you move on the back of the receiver
rotate it and the whole gun hinges forward
everything can then pull out the back
nice and simple
the standard fal is called a metric pattern
and england decided to make a variant called the inch pattern
because they love to fuck your shit up
the patterns arent really interchangeable partwise
interestingly in the falklands war you had the british and argentinians fighting each other both using fals
ive never shot an fal but theyre awesome and i wish i owned one
it functions well in combat too
the british added some sand clearing cuts in the bolt to prevent stoppages
the israelis didnt have these tho and had problems
so they eventually switched to a kalashnikov derivative called the galil
but then again other people favored for fal over the kalashnikov
ill wrap up with an account from rhodesian selous scouts during the bush war
FAL 7.62 long rounds have the power to punch through the tree trunks generally found in the African savanna and jesse bush! AK47`s using 7.62 short, on the other hand, generally did not. This fact was used to great effect by the Rhodesians. When firing into an area that included trees, rocks or ant hills etc, a single round down the left hand side of a solid object was good practise (not forgetting most opponents are right handed), then double tap the base of the tree and continue to the right, squeezing off single (or double) rounds in fairly close proximity (In a Conventional situation, moving from left to right takes out the trigger man before the machine gun loader or second.) Smallish rocks, strange "lumps", or "bundles of rags" were to be killed. In fact anything out of place was to be dealt with - the "rocks" may be heads, hands, or a pattern on a camouflage uniform etc. The soldier then moved his aim to the next area of cover and repeated the process.
this is the kind of kickass power you get with a battle rifle like the fn fal
pew pew
previous posts
mosin nagant
sks
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frankenglock ago
I used to have an imported British version, the L1A1 (with a stupid thumbhole stock) back in the 90's. The L1A1's were nice because they retained the folding charging handle and the ability to use inch or metric magazines. At first magazines were rather expensive, so having the ability to reliably use either was great. Eventually they were almost giving magazines away.
It was imported by the infamous CAI, but I seemed to have gotten a good one because it functioned reliably and the open sights were very consistent, giving me 6" groups at 300 yards. It was actually very ergonomic, even thought it looked bulky. It wasn't, it was actually rather thin and well balanced for the way it looked, and takedown and cleaning was really easy.
The problems I had with it were the action top cover would not allow a scope to be mounted without getting some special pieces, which back in the 90's were hard to get. It seems like all the FN FAL's I see today have scopes. I could not get mine to keep a zero with any of the mounts or scopes available back then.
The USA really missed out by not adopting the FAL. I think it was never popular in the US because, unfortunately, it wasn't in any big blockbuster action movies and never got any screen time or exposure. The only movie that I can remember the FN FAL being in was "The Wild Geese".
I eventually sold the FAL to fund the purchase of what was soon to be several DPMS .308 rifles in various barrel lengths and stock setups. Not having to deal with the imported rifle bullshit regulations with the thumbhole stocks and imported parts (since domestic FAL parts were still unicorn farts in the early 2000's) were nonexistent. The DPMS pattern .308 rifles shared the same trigger parts, grips, stocks, etc as their smaller cousins the AR-15.
Nadeshda ago
:) that made me smile, thank you for sharing this with us.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
u/nadeshda you see this
.308 at 300 yds still has enough power to blow open a head like a watermelon
top covers not designed to do anything but keep dust out and parts in
same as on the ak and sks
it can be done but only with modifications
.308 ar is a good system especially in america
when i get around to buying a semi auto .308 id like to get a keltec rfb
but the fal will always have it beat for its history
frankenglock ago
I agree 100%, with every point.
I would love to shoot an RFB, but they are almost impossible to find locally, and I'm not going to pay over MSRP just to try one.
Since I have other AR's, the semi .308 DPMS were a good deal for spare parts, the same ergonomics, and troubleshooting is the same since they are both DI.
But yeah, every time someone brings up the FAL in a post or casual conversation, I remember back to my L1A1 and how much fun it was to shoot.
Most people at the range had no idea what it was, but many of the old-timers respected that it was .308, even if it didn't have a single bit of wood on it. I remember a couple of them saying that it would be nice in walnut. I would tell them yes, but because of the import regulations, I could not do that without replacing several other parts with American made parts, which weren't available at the time. I had a set of black plastic handguards that I spray painted with a black, sand paper like paint that was very easy to keep your hands on.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
i actually found an rfb in a gun store
it was surprisingly heavy but compact
Nadeshda ago
I clocked it ;)