Posted on 10/06/2014 7:36:22 AM PDT by C19fan
It could have the United States’ main battle rifle. Instead, it became “the right arm of the free world.”
Name a war, revolution, or revolt during the Cold War that involved the British Commonwealth, Western European nations or their allies and you found the Fabrique Nationale FAL in the hands of the soldiers fighting the battles.
No wonder the FAL earned its nickname and became a symbol of the struggle against Communism.
Starting immediately after World War II, FN produced two million copies of the Fusil Automatique Léger—or Light Automatic Rifle. More than 90 nations adopted the weapon. At one time, the FAL was even the official rifle of most NATO countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
No pictures???
Don’t you know the rulz for posting gun porn on FR????
The US adopted the M-14 over the FAL because of the “not made here” factor of the FAL.
The Brits called it the “mechanical musket”.
Said to be a reliability difference between “inch pattern” & metric FALs.
Still glad the M-14 won that competition.
Yet today the GAU-21 .50 cal and M240D 7.62mm machine guns we use in the Navy are made by FN Herstal.
I used the FN C1 for many years,it was great ,as a member of a shooting team we would shoot it all summer long and never clean it
The US adopted the M-14 over the FAL because of the “not made here” factor of the FAL.
Yet today the GAU-21 .50 cal and M240D 7.62mm machine guns we use in the Navy are made by FN Herstal.
FN also makes the M249 and they are one of the suppliers for M16/M4. But all these are somewhat “made here” DOD requires them to be built at factories in the US.
We even had an old H&R M16a1 on our books. The only Colts we had were M16a1s and M203s.
A fine weapon but uncontrollable on”Full-Auto”.Similar to the M-14.If you are going to have a”Selector-Switch”on a battle-rifle,it should mean something more that just shooting off a lot of rounds!!!I Agree,Where are The PHOTOS???
Counting the 9mm M9 Beretta, the only US-designed weapon carried by your typical US infantryman (soldier or Marine) is the 5.56mm M16/M4 rifle.
Of course, all the foreign designed weapons mentioned above are made under license in the USA.
The M14 didn’t work any better on full auto than the FN.
IMHO the FN FAL is a superior weapon to the M-14 in everyway. Certainly far superior to the Garand.
I have all three, but the FAL is the best.
The GAU-21 is a monster.
I have machined several FAL heavy barrels successfully. Contact me if you ever get around to that project.
They both “work” on FA, they are just not very controllable.
Thanks for the offer. Used to work where I had all the equipment I needed. Miss that job.
I loath the GAU-21 with all my being. It fires too fast. It jams. Setting the timing on it is a bitch. Virtually every moving part needs to be replaced at 5,000 round intervals and at 10,000 rounds, practically the whole weapon itself. The parts aren't in the supply chain so we'll be sitting on a bunch of downed weapons waiting for parts. It isn't "soldier proof" as in you can put it back together incorrectly, it'll pass the pre-fire checks and then fall to pieces when you feed live ammo through it. I can go on for hours my loathing of this weapon. Just over-engineered garbage that nobody who is in the business of shooting a .50 cal wanted in the first place.
It replaced the tried and true GAU-16, which was nothing more than the classic Browning-designed "Ma Deuce" lightened for aircraft, a weapon we'd been using reliably since the 1930s. The GAU-16 didn't have a hi-time rounds count. It had two gauged parts, the barrel and the firing pin. When they failed their checks, you replaced them. It was easy to assemble, disassemble, clean, time and headspace. And it was soldier-proof! It wouldn't even go back together if any parts were positioned incorrectly. And it worked! Every time! Covered in rust, it worked. Covered in sand, it worked. Covered in mud, it worked. Spray it down with a little CLP and pull the trigger. Just a brilliant design.
Here’s photos of what “Ol Dirty,” a legendary FAL, looks like at 16,500 rds with no cleaning, but still functioning fine.
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6a8db9eba90a38d2d80bb8bed001995b&t=68486&page=9
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