Did Canadian FN's ever come with plastic stocks?

[Curtton]

The FN can be very accurate with a good shooter, but it is not a sniper rifle. That was tried in the 60's with the C1 sniper sight and the C.F. went with the Parker Hale rifle in the 70's.

i agree they werent good sniper rifle and while i dont believe ANY went to "hot" climate but i wont be at all surprise IF a few went with scopes, i just wouldnt be surprised IF dioter's rumour was true altho its kinda long for a house to house.

 

[Cocked&Locked]

DavidK it was called Maranyl. If you emptied a 20 round mag on FA you would be on your backside!

Nope, it can be done. Not going to get more then minute of barn door accuracy though. It is a fun 2 second ride . It's easier from the hip to keep the muzzle down as well.

 

[TimC]

I'll admit to doing the gpmg from the shoulder standing but that was kept down to 5-10 round bursts.

 

[NZ L1A1 Collector]

The Canadian's were at the forefront of testing for new furniture along with Britain and FN they tested all sorts of materials including plastics, laminates, cork, fibreglass etc. The Canadian's even produced plastic furniture prototypes for tests and trials but it never went into production, this was back circa 1959/1960. The main thing that came from it was the fibreglass reinforced plastic carrying handle in which they used to indicate converted C1 to C1A1 and C2 - C2A1 standard rifles.

As recce pointed out the change to the Canadian handguards were done for strengthening purposes, since generally it's cold in Canada and lets face it Canada didn't seem to be doing much in the way of overseas operations at the time in hot climates, so the heat vents weren't an issue. These new handguards would of been fitted during Armourers workshop inspections, if the handguards didn't need replacing or the rifles were in long term storage (war reserve) then the handguards wouldn't be replaced until needed.

As to British Plastics development, the Maranyl was brought into service mainly as a cost saving reasons, simply it cost a fortune to manufacture the full wood handguards and all L1A1 produced in the UK came from the factory with these. The laminated and then plastics handguards were brought in as spares and replacements. The advantage of the plastics was the ability to readily change the size of the butt S-N-L-EL just by replacing the butt plate, in doing so reducing the requirement to have 3 different size wood butts which required an armourer to fit to each soldier.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

from what i heard , there was 300 saved for the museum, now there isnt that many war museum in canada so i wouldnt be surprised if a FEW went to "hot " climate (to test snipering capability).

Gotta burst your bubble on FN C1's "coming back". The only people making noises like that are old time soldiers. There are precious few combat arms troops these days who want to see the FN back in service. Every soldier is trained on the C7 and that is the service rifle - period.

For long range single shots, the snipers are equiped with what they need. There are modern rifles available with spares, training and accessories that are generations ahead of the FN C1. These rifles have been shown here and discussed, but there is no need to disclose more information again. Talking about bring the FN back in service is sheer fanciful rumour spinning.

(And the only furniture I ever remember seeing was wood. The Airborne Centre in Edmonton had trashed non-Canadian drill rifles for jump training, and they may have been UK L1s with plastic stocks. But they were not regular issue service rifles.)

 

[Curtton]

Gotta burst your bubble on FN C1's "coming back". The only people making noises like that are old time soldiers.

if you want to burst my bubble you need to be quicker than that, that WAS my opinion a year ago, its not now.

 

[bear.23]

I seem to recall there were 2 or 3 plastic ones in the Fort York armory... They didn't lelong to the royals (different wall)...I believe they were ceremonial because I never saw anyone with them... There were none in Esquimalt that I ever saw..... All the ones I handled were wonderful and I long for the day I can handle one of them again....

Stupid laws from stupid people... What makes the FN any different then AR's, M305's or M70's.. Never said I understood the laws or the accepted said I had no choice but to follow them but it does boggle the mind..

 

[Colin]

My FN/FAL has the forestock with the vents in it.

 

[cantom]

I seem to recall there were 2 or 3 plastic ones in the Fort York armory... They didn't lelong to the royals (different wall)...I believe they were ceremonial because I never saw anyone with them... There were none in Esquimalt that I ever saw..... All the ones I handled were wonderful and I long for the day I can handle one of them again....

Stupid laws from stupid people... What makes the FN any different then AR's, M305's or M70's.. Never said I understood the laws or the accepted said I had no choice but to follow them but it does boggle the mind..

I remember reading of their thought processes at the time. There were hundreds of thousands of FN's held by a bunch of countries, they were getting ready to cut them loose and sell them on the surplus market as they updated to 5.56 weapons like the M16/C7/Steyr AUG/SA80 etc etc.

Canada had seen the flood of Lee Enfields floating around postwar for tiny amounts...difference with the FN was, with a tiny temporary mod you have a full auto, not so with the others you mentioned. TPTB weren't willing to see them in every hardware store in Canada for $20, so they restricted them. I'm sure they were never happy having them around at all.

At one point there was a handout on the wall at gun stores and police registry offices showing how to modify an FN so it couldn't go full auto. I'm sure this was the reason.

 

[Curtton]

I remember reading of their thought processes at the time. There were hundreds of thousands of FN's held by a bunch of countries, they were getting ready to cut them loose and sell them on the surplus market as they updated to 5.56 weapons like the M16/C7/Steyr AUG/SA80 etc etc.

Canada had seen the flood of Lee Enfields floating around postwar for tiny amounts...difference with the FN was, with a tiny temporary mod you have a full auto, not so with the others you mentioned. TPTB weren't willing to see them in every hardware store in Canada for $20, so they restricted them. I'm sure they were never happy having them around at all.

At one point there was a handout on the wall at gun stores and police registry offices showing how to modify an FN so it couldn't go full auto. I'm sure this was the reason.

im more likely to believe your reasonings why it was prohib than bcos of its "evil looks" ... i recall when i was a kid, in the 60s , every pawn shops in vancouver had racks of lee enfield in the display window, not for $20 but for $29-30 . how i wish i bot a rack. lol.

My FN/FAL has the forestock with the vents in it.

lucky you ... i cant seams to find vented c1 HG to make a pair, i only got one side. im almost tempted to take a non-vented ones and router in the vents but too afraid of screwing up.

 

[ian_in_vic]

There have been many posts by those "in the know" here that there are no C1A1's left outside of museums, government chop shops etc. So, to recap C1A1 rifles will not be used for any purpose by Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan. Also, since the Liberals have been in power in the interim they really did scrap those rifles (you're probably shaving with them). As an aside, my father was present for one of the first tests of the FN in Britain, after several mags on full auto the rifle was leaned against a bench, the barrel bent and everyone present was seriously unimpressed. My father still can't be convinced that the rifle is any good. Personally, I liked mine, but once I tried to do more than range work with it I realized why the M16 was so popular.

 

[Rule 303]

There were some SMG C1s at one point given to the Congo, but this was way back (and likely was against the liscencing agreement with Sterling arms). As to C1A1s going to any foreign government, not that I have heard of. The military has either now completely smelted or is still in the process of smelting, the war reserve stocks of the C1A1, the C2A1, the SMG C1, and the 106 recoiless rifles.

There were some C1A1s given, a few years back, to some Canadian artist to make into a big anti-war trash pile, but that is a whole nother story.

Can someone please explain to me just why Canada destroyed their reserve war stocks of C1A1s, etc?

 

[Rule 303]

I remember reading of their thought processes at the time. There were hundreds of thousands of FN's held by a bunch of countries, they were getting ready to cut them loose and sell them on the surplus market as they updated to 5.56 weapons like the M16/C7/Steyr AUG/SA80 etc etc.

Canada had seen the flood of Lee Enfields floating around postwar for tiny amounts...difference with the FN was, with a tiny temporary mod you have a full auto, not so with the others you mentioned. TPTB weren't willing to see them in every hardware store in Canada for $20, so they restricted them. I'm sure they were never happy having them around at all.

At one point there was a handout on the wall at gun stores and police registry offices showing how to modify an FN so it couldn't go full auto. I'm sure this was the reason.

Reference the full auto mod...hehehe...the ol' paper match over the sear trick, no?

 

[TimC]

that was the only way of doing it so it could be controlled, there were others but they meant a fixed firing ping so would empty a mag when you pulled the cocking handle to release it. We often were told to set ours on auto as enemy on exercise (a common job for recce pln), there never were enough lmgs available.

 

[cantom]

that was the only way of doing it so it could be controlled, there were others but they meant a fixed firing ping so would empty a mag when you pulled the cocking handle to release it. We often were told to set ours on auto as enemy on exercise (a common job for recce pln), there never were enough lmgs available.

Holy Shiite Tim! You're talking jamming the firing pin forward and letting er rip, untimed slamfire, possibly blowing the rifle up in your face with an unlocked action??
Why, when the rifle was otherwise so easy to jimmy (and quite safely too )??? (as anyone who's ever used one in the Forces or militia knows very well, like the paper match mod mentioned)

You were ordered to set yours on auto? How? A normal SLR has a semi selector? Or did they hand out some other parts?

Anyway, for those who wonder, this is surely why they've been treated as they have.

 

[bear.23]

They didn't have any special requirements when they were released... They were made special because of looks!

 

[sf]

FN was staying under the radar until dealers started to flood the civvie market
with shiploads of imported cheap FNs. That's when the politicians & others started to take note and make noise.

 

[cantom]

FN was staying under the radar until dealers started to flood the civvie market
with shiploads of imported cheap FNs. That's when the politicians & others started to take note and make noise.

Ah, but they were already restricted by then. They were specifically restricted by name long before anything else was.

 

[ipscgraz]

When the Order in council making the FN's restricted came out I phoned & #####ed & #####ed...I eventually got someone who said the govt of Cda was concerned about hundreds of FAL's, L1A1's, and eventually C1A1's out & up for grabs when Canada was being used as a training/terrorist base by several organizations that were planning on ripping up their home countries.

Think about Tam** Tigers, Air Ind**, etc.

Not saying I agree with him but that was the party line of the day.

 

[sf]

Ah, but they were already restricted by then. They were specifically restricted by name long before anything else was.

Not to my recollection until the cheap stuffs came in by the hundreds from Israel and elsewhere in the 80's. That's when the Order-In-Council BS took place overnight.