Belgian FN C1
- Thread starter cube60
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im not a member of the forces but i have many friends who are and my buddy is an armourer (sp) he got me into the local base fault to have a look at some firearms they had which hadnt seen the light of day since they were built ....brand new inglis hi-powers in the inglis box there were 10 iirc this was about 25 years ago ..plus they had brand new C7's which he said were for the cadets but they werent allowed to use them so they would probably never leave the room there were about 10 C1's but really rough and 4 of them had the .22 cal kit installed and the kits were never removed ...all in all and awesome day ...i also had a tour about 15years ago of the forensics lab in toronto ..i got into the siezed firearms room there what a pile of junk ..but i also got to see what was basically a museum filled with many types of firearms civvy and military ...i got to hold a lightweight inglis and a few early brens ....i really liked the cut away brens that they had that were in the white ....never get that chance to go these days im sure
Last time I fired one of these beauties was during my JLC in '85. My next shoot was to qualify on the new C7 at the Connaught Range. The only reason for that was because we were flying CC144 Challengers into Bahrain almost non stop. Got out of there with our pax McKnight 01 Aug 90 about midnight.
my buddy teaches armourer school at Camp Borden he sends me videos of the neat stuff he gets to play with he gave us the grand tour last summer ..wish we could have gone to the range to pop a few ..he sent me a vid of him shooting an Fn C1 D which is the the normal C1 A1 with full auto capability ...very uncontrolable ....
Actually when I was in Gagetown in the 90's, some FN FAL's came in from a Cadet Corp for destruction, they were serial #s EX00001 and EX00002 they were the first trial rifles issued to Canada from FN. No flash suppresser, full body cover, different rear sight. I informed the Base Museum but can't remember if they got cut up or not.
I hated the C2. The wooden bipods were the pits and they would open up on you at the worst moment - like when you were sneaking around in the dark on patrol. Not to mention that magazine bra was like strapping a fridge to your chest. It was also extremely hard to keep under control in full auto. I remember seeing very few holes on the 4ft targets even at 200m.
Now the C1, that was a fine rifle in its day. For it's day. Though it took a lot of training to get anyone to shoot it well compared to the C7. The FN was just not forgiving. She was a vengeful one!
Would love to shoot my Ishapore FN but its prohib. Why can't they let us shoot prohib rifles like prohib pistols? Does anyone at CSSA care about those of us with these 12.5s?
Now the C1, that was a fine rifle in its day. For it's day. Though it took a lot of training to get anyone to shoot it well compared to the C7. The FN was just not forgiving. She was a vengeful one!
Would love to shoot my Ishapore FN but its prohib. Why can't they let us shoot prohib rifles like prohib pistols? Does anyone at CSSA care about those of us with these 12.5s?
Yeah...Winona. Fired many FN C1A1 rounds downrange, out to the 800.
Also fired my Mk II Inglis Bren there a few times.
"Those were the days, my friend..."
The C1 was a breeze to shoot if you knew all the little tricks. Too many new guys ended up with "Chipmunk" face.
I do remember a time on the range when the RSM was giving me and a buddy grief over our shooting positions. We would ram the mag into the ground, and turn the gas regulator down so that the action just barely cycled, grip the mag and not the forestock and some other little peculiarities. He stomped over, chewing our asses over how we didnt follow SOP, proper shooting position, blah blah blah. Pulled the targets, and somehow we were the only two of approx 20 to pass that particular Shoot To Live section. He muttered under his breath and stomped away, but left us alone for the rest of the shoot. Good times for sure!!
I do remember a time on the range when the RSM was giving me and a buddy grief over our shooting positions. We would ram the mag into the ground, and turn the gas regulator down so that the action just barely cycled, grip the mag and not the forestock and some other little peculiarities. He stomped over, chewing our asses over how we didnt follow SOP, proper shooting position, blah blah blah. Pulled the targets, and somehow we were the only two of approx 20 to pass that particular Shoot To Live section. He muttered under his breath and stomped away, but left us alone for the rest of the shoot. Good times for sure!!
I got my introduction to my new best friend, FNC1 s/n 7L2612, during basic training at the old Armoured Corps School in Borden in 1965. The SMG was the personal weapon of the tank crewman so we had one of these too, mine was s/n 0S7185. Did a lot of shooting with them after that, incl various rifle teams. The FN was the "gold standard" for a battle rifle at the time-rugged, reliable, easy to strip and clean, but a tad heavy. I prefer an Garand or M14 type on the range, but the FN was it for a fighting rifle.
I think our contingent on the Golan Heights was just about the last CF unit to convert from the FN to the C7 in 1987/88. I did an earlier tour there in the 1970s during which time our QM burned down and toasted a few FNs and SMGs in the process. More importantly, all the issue records for personal weapons were destroyed in the fire. I thought I was quite clever when I had the RQMS get an aquittance roll from the pay office and go around in dawn's early light to inspect every man's personal weapon, and have him sign for it by s/n on the aquittance roll inorder to restore our weapons security. Several years later I learned that they had torn down one of the old Turkish-made pre-fabs that we were living in at the time and found an FN in the attic insulation that was not on inventory. I guess some "gunnut" decided to nick it and maybe send it home, but lost the stomach to go thru with it.
I remember another loss in that fire, an expensive Italian o/u shotgun belonging to one of the UN civvies. I had agreed to him securing it in a paul bunyan container in the QM while he went on home leave to Greece. Needless to say it was toast as well. This guy got all PO'd and accused me of destroying his nice shotgun because of previous "disagreements". I told him that he had indeed pi$$ed me off a few times, but not enough for me to burn down our QM stores as a revenge act. I remember another funny one in the aftermath of this conflagration where NDHQ had produced a listing of everything that had ever been issued to us from the supply system. The list included 10,000 or so of the MWO's metal collar rank badges, and they queried me as to why our excessive consumption of these. I told them that we were a 130 man unit and that promotions to MWO had been quite slow during my tour, but maybe they were an everyday event before my time.
I think our contingent on the Golan Heights was just about the last CF unit to convert from the FN to the C7 in 1987/88. I did an earlier tour there in the 1970s during which time our QM burned down and toasted a few FNs and SMGs in the process. More importantly, all the issue records for personal weapons were destroyed in the fire. I thought I was quite clever when I had the RQMS get an aquittance roll from the pay office and go around in dawn's early light to inspect every man's personal weapon, and have him sign for it by s/n on the aquittance roll inorder to restore our weapons security. Several years later I learned that they had torn down one of the old Turkish-made pre-fabs that we were living in at the time and found an FN in the attic insulation that was not on inventory. I guess some "gunnut" decided to nick it and maybe send it home, but lost the stomach to go thru with it.
I remember another loss in that fire, an expensive Italian o/u shotgun belonging to one of the UN civvies. I had agreed to him securing it in a paul bunyan container in the QM while he went on home leave to Greece. Needless to say it was toast as well. This guy got all PO'd and accused me of destroying his nice shotgun because of previous "disagreements". I told him that he had indeed pi$$ed me off a few times, but not enough for me to burn down our QM stores as a revenge act. I remember another funny one in the aftermath of this conflagration where NDHQ had produced a listing of everything that had ever been issued to us from the supply system. The list included 10,000 or so of the MWO's metal collar rank badges, and they queried me as to why our excessive consumption of these. I told them that we were a 130 man unit and that promotions to MWO had been quite slow during my tour, but maybe they were an everyday event before my time.
the tank was used in a movie sort of like that pink submarine movie with the girls in the sub ..ross said that some movie company from the US came up rebuilt everything and whenever he wanted repainted they would cover the cost ..he moved it back and forth into the ware house and had stuff piled on it so he was waiting till it found a good home before he repainted it .now i wish i new the name of the movie but i did see a bit of it .....its not tank girl ...thats the story of the pink tank .
Actually, I saw a picture of the first Canadian units in Germany (PPCLI if I remember correctly) being issued the Belgian FN's (no flash hiders) well the production of the Canadian C1's were being manufactured. It was a personal picture of a gentlemen being issued his rifle on the parade square (he showed it to me) and he said that they were given metric FN's to train with well they waited for the Canadian ones. Very interesting picture.
