Legendary FN FAL automatic rifle

The most famous small arms in the world, without a doubt, is a Kalashnikov assault rifle. During his more than sixty-year history, he managed to be noted in dozens of wars and conflicts on almost all continents of the globe. This legendary weapon is often compared to the American M16 automatic rifle. This is not entirely fair: it seems that there was no other weapon. But there is another sample of small arms, which is more suitable for the title of the main competitor AK 47 - this is the Belgian automatic rifle FN FAL. It was she, and not the capricious product of American industry, that resisted the Kalashnikov assault rifle in numerous colonial conflicts of the second half of the 20th century.

FN FAL is far from the simplicity of AK, but in some respects it surpasses the Soviet automaton and is still in service. Moreover, FN FAL is one of the most popular and common types of small arms today. There was a time when the Belgian rifle was in service with several dozen countries of the world at the same time.

History of creation

The history of this legendary weapon began about the same period as the path of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. In 1946, the development of a new automatic rifle for an intermediate cartridge 7.92 × 33 Kurz, which the Germans developed for their “Sturmgevera” (Stg. 44), began in Belgium at the FN Herstal armory company.

It would be more accurate to say that this “Sturmgever” was developed for a new cartridge. In general, the invention of the intermediate cartridge gave a new impetus to the development of automatic weapons. Submachine guns did not suit the military with their low power and low aiming range, and the rifle cartridge had too much power and size.

Similar developments in the Soviet Union led to the creation of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Simultaneously with the development of weapons for an intermediate cartridge, the Belgian gunsmiths created FAL for a conventional rifle cartridge. In 1950, both options participate in the competition in the United States. The Americans really liked the design, but they demanded to change the ammunition. They offered their own patron - 7.62x51, which today is known as 7.62x51 NATO. In FN Herstal remade weapons and in 1953 were ready for mass production.

Canada was the first to use FN FAL. In 1956, this rifle gained recognition at home and entered the service in the armed forces of Belgium, and in 1957 it is adopted by the United Kingdom. It should be noted that both Canada and England began to release their own, somewhat modernized versions of the FN FAL.

After that, the triumphant march of this rifle on the planet began. Many countries have purchased a license for its production. Among them: Austria, Brazil, USA, India, Australia, Mexico, many countries in South America and Africa.

FN FAL began to be removed from production around the seventies of the last century. Today, the largest producers of these weapons are Brazil and the United States, numerous weapons modifications have been created in these countries, the rifle is very popular among the civilian population.

Description of construction

Automatic rifle works by discharging powder gases with a short stroke gas piston located above the barrel. The piston has its own return spring, the gas chamber is also located above the barrel, it is equipped with an adjustment that allows it to adapt to specific conditions or completely block the channel.

The barrel is locked by skewing the bolt, the locking part of which rests against the stop of the breech block. The bolt carrier with a split bolt is slightly different for different weapon modifications: in rifles with a one-piece butt, the return spring is fixed in it, and with a folding butt in a receiver.

After the shot, the frame with the shutter receives a strong impulse from the gas piston and rolls back. The reloading handle is on the left side, after the end of the cartridges in the magazine it remains in the open position, and after the curb magazine is installed, the bolt is sent.

Trigger trigger type. It has a high degree of reliability; it has been copied many times for other types of weapons. Above the trigger guard there is a fuse that can have two or three positions, depending on the particular model.

Box-type magazine with a capacity of twenty or thirty cartridges. The shape of the store is slightly different on different weapon modifications.

The standard sighting device FN FAL is a diopter sight and front sight on the gas piston. The first models were designed for a firing range from 200 to 600 meters. Fly has backlight. To install other types of sights on the cover of the receiver can be installed a special bracket. If you want to install any other sight on the FN FAL, you need to change the regular cover to the cover with the bracket.

Recent new weapon modifications are equipped with Picatinny slats, which makes the installation process of sights much easier. The vapor pipe in the front of the closes the forearm, consisting of two cheeks. In the first models, the butt, the hilt and the forearm were made of wood, later plastic was used for production, which significantly simplified and cheapened the process.

On some models, a carrying handle was installed above the center of gravity, it was shifted to the side during the shooting. The barrel was equipped with a flame arrester characteristic of the weapon, different for different modifications.

Some of the rifle models are equipped with a heavy barrel, they can be used as light machine guns. Such modifications are usually equipped with bipods, although the bipods were installed on many of the usual modifications of this weapon.

There are two large groups FN FAL: "metric" and "inch", depending on the units of measurement of the countries in which they were produced.

Advantages and disadvantages of a rifle

The advantages and disadvantages of the FN FAL are due to the cartridge used in this weapon. 7.62x51 NATO is a very powerful ammunition with high energy, it is much more powerful than the cartridge that is used in the AK. However, a powerful cartridge and a relatively small weight of the weapon lead to the fact that shooting in bursts is not very effective, even for modifications of weapons with a heavy barrel and bipod. There are also many complaints about the rifle being too large.

Despite this, FN FAL is a very popular weapon, simple and reliable. This rifle is characterized by high accuracy and good accuracy in the management of single fire. Especially effective weapons at distances up to one kilometer. In the armies of NATO countries, this weapon is equipped with an optical sight, it performs the functions of SVD.

The rifle is somewhat sensitive to clogging with dust and fine sand, but overall it is rather unpretentious. After the Six-Day War, the Arabs abandoned the Belgian rifle, calling it capricious and too complicated. At the same time, the Israelis successfully used these weapons. The fact is that in the desert FN FAL should periodically disassemble and clean. It can be added that incomplete disassembly of a weapon is done without the aid of tools and is simpler than disassembling a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The rifle was actively used in the jungles of Vietnam, it proved to be much better than the American M16. Powerful cartridge effective in dense thickets of vegetation.

In many conflicts, FN FAL its high reliability and simplicity, and today it remains a very popular type of small arms.

Major weapon modifications

There are four main modifications of this rifle:

• FN FAL 50.00: standard rifle with awkward butt;
• FN FAL 50.64: ​​standard rifle with folding stock;
• FN FAL 50.63 (FN "Paratrooper");
• FN FALO / FN FAL Hbar (FAL 50.41): the modification has an elongated and heavy stem, bipod. In fact, it is a light machine gun.

Specifications

Below are the main specifications of the FN FAL automatic rifle.

Watch the video: unboxing a legend. (November 2024).