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