Wanting To Buy A FAMAE SG 540

Mumbles Marble Mouth

Mumbles Marble Mouth

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I just handled one the other day. I noticed the gun is pretty loose. The hand guard and the fit of the upper to the lower part of the receiver. Is it suppose to be like this? How accurate are these rifles? I want to buy one but not this one if the hand guard and receiver is not suppose to be loose like that.
 
Every rifle that utilize pins to connect a lower to an upper will have some degree of flex, as long as the optics is solidly attached to the upper than accuracy is not an issue.
 
Mumbles Marble Mouth said:
I just handled one the other day. I noticed the gun is pretty loose. The hand guard and the fit of the upper to the lower part of the receiver. Is it suppose to be like this? How accurate are these rifles? I want to buy one but not this one if the hand guard and receiver is not suppose to be loose like that.
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Yes it's supposed to be like that, we discuss this starting at 6:50 of this video. Doesn't effect function negatively at all.

 
Thanks for posting the video. It has definitely piqued my interest in the rifle once more. BTW, where is the range you were using located? It could've been any number of areas I shoot at regularly when hunting here in Newfoundland.
 
I like the rifle, but just have a hard time justifying the 3000$ price tag with no aftermarket options and the finish of it. Also the mags equal with the price of gold really make it not feasible. I think I will save up a few hundred more and get the Modern Hunter.
 
I had a Swiss arms that had some play and I've got ARs that have play too. They all shot fine but the play bothered me. On the ARs I out a foam ear plug under the tab where it mates in the lower in the rear and on the front I put an o-ring on the tab on the upper where it mates with the lower.

On the Swiss arms I put a piece of an eraser under the tab of the upper where it mates with the lower on the rear pin. To remove the slop of the handguards I put a thick elastic band where the handguards fit into the gas block. No more play.
 
Once you are in the $3000.00 neighborhood the Alberta Tactical , made in Canada option is just down the street another couple blocks and the accuracy difference alone should compensate for the extra fuel cost to get there.
 
Throttle_monkey1 said:
I had a Swiss arms that had some play and I've got ARs that have play too. They all shot fine but the play bothered me. On the ARs I out a foam ear plug under the tab where it mates in the lower in the rear and on the front I put an o-ring on the tab on the upper where it mates with the lower.

On the Swiss arms I put a piece of an eraser under the tab of the upper where it mates with the lower on the rear pin. To remove the slop of the handguards I put a thick elastic band where the handguards fit into the gas block. No more play.
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Is it just me,or does anybody else think that a $3000+ rifle should NOT need to be fixed with bubblegum and rubber bands?
 
grinrgrn said:
Is it just me,or does anybody else think that a $3000+ rifle should NOT need to be fixed with bubblegum and rubber bands?
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It's not really a "$3000.00" rifle in my opinion. It just costs that much in Canada.
To be fair it's a stamped metal, mass produced basic infantry rifle and wiggly parts is not a big concern in the field.
It will be interesting to see what the prices are when they are when they enter the US market.
 
grinrgrn said:
Is it just me,or does anybody else think that a $3000+ rifle should NOT need to be fixed with bubblegum and rubber bands?
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They don't NEED to be fixed at all, these are battle rifles not precision target rifles and the play between the upper and lower does not affect function or accuracy at all. As soon as people get it out of their heads that just because it costs more than $2000 it should be some kind of sub moa semi auto target rifle the sooner people can just be happy with their rifles and get out shooting instead of coming on here whining about the cost of black rifles in Canada.
The reason the tolerances are loose on a battle rifle is because they need to make them reliable and the rifle is built loose so it will continue to function when it has some crud in the action, if they were built to tight tolerances the rifle would only function in the hands of civilians because all we do is drive to the range or our favorite shooting spot, take the rifle out of it's nice protective case, shoot 200 rounds through it then take it home and clean it. Try running around for a week with it quadding and fishing, drop it in the mud a couple times (check your bore is clear before firing), shoot 1500 rounds through it between cleanings and guess what, that's right it will still be functioning, try that with a tight tolerance semi and you'll be stripping it down to clean it out so it will function again.

I do agree that the Famae are overpriced but it isn't because there is some play between the upper and lower.
 
cr5 said:
They don't NEED to be fixed at all, these are battle rifles not precision target rifles and the play between the upper and lower does not affect function or accuracy at all. As soon as people get it out of their heads that just because it costs more than $2000 it should be some kind of sub moa semi auto target rifle the sooner people can just be happy with their rifles and get out shooting instead of coming on here whining about the cost of black rifles in Canada.
The reason the tolerances are loose on a battle rifle is because they need to make them reliable and the rifle is built loose so it will continue to function when it has some crud in the action, if they were built to tight tolerances the rifle would only function in the hands of civilians because all we do is drive to the range or our favorite shooting spot, take the rifle out of it's nice protective case, shoot 200 rounds through it then take it home and clean it. Try running around for a week with it quadding and fishing, drop it in the mud a couple times (check your bore is clear before firing), shoot 1500 rounds through it between cleanings and guess what, that's right it will still be functioning, try that with a tight tolerance semi and you'll be stripping it down to clean it out so it will function again.

I do agree that the Famae are overpriced but it isn't because there is some play between the upper and lower.
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Then how is it that KACs, LMTs, Armalites and the likes aren't built to the same loose specs as FAMAEs, yet still are used in the field by multiple MIL and agencies?
 
BenL said:
Then how is it that KACs, LMTs, Armalites and the likes aren't built to the same loose specs as FAMAEs, yet still are used in the field by multiple MIL and agencies?
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They are built to much looser tolerances than any precision rifle. I've owned Armalite, Daniel Defense, DPMS, Bushmaster, NEA, Stag and PWS and all of them have some slop between the upper and lower. This does not affect accuracy as most of my rifles were or are capable of 1 moa or better with their favorite ammo.

Ammo and the quality of the barrel are far more important to accuracy than having no slop in the AR system. Even my piston driven PWS with 12 inch barrel has shot sub MOA with quality ammo.



PitBull1973 said:
Oh and let's not forget that they are far more accurate than the Famae
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I do agree that the Famae seems cheaply built and I would never pay $3000 for that rifle but it's the design of the rifle that makes the AR more accurate not the slop between the upper and lower. The AR barrel sits in a fitted forged aluminum socket and is held in place by the barrel nut. There is no gas piston attached to the barrel stroking away above it affecting the barrel harmonics. The AR is as close to a free floated barrel in a semi auto as you can get. This is increased when a free floated forend is installed and is also why the Adcore BEAR piston system uses a hybrid gas piston system where gas is routed to the piston through a gas tube like on a DI rifle. http://adcordefense.com/products/a-556-elite/

My Swiss Arms classic green target was not overly accurate but it was very well built, there was slop between the upper and lower but the reason it wasn't very accurate was that it had a huge long stroke gas piston stroking away over top of a pencil barrel that was held in place by a stamped steel receiver.

These rifles are not designed for precision shooting but as the Swiss competative shooters and the guys running high end AR's with expensive barrels show us that in the right hands the rifles are capable of amazing things when tuned properly and fed the right ammo. The AR is much easier to make accurate than the other platforms because of it's design, all it really needs is a high quality barrel and a little experimentation to figure out what ammo it likes best.
 
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I'm just curious as to why people say the famae is over priced? Are there major qc problems? Major recall? High failure rate? Or is it solely based on the perceived value people have made up of their own accord based on what else is available?

This is not a loaded question, just curious.
 
A stamped nothing spectacular rifle made by the Chilean Norinco equivalent (as in a state-owned firearms manufacturer).

All this for 3k$. That is ludicrous and laughable.
 
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