New Guy Question

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Police_State

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Hello everyone, I'm new to CGN and figure I might as well get down to business. No matter how hard I try I cant get the FN-FAL out of my head. Unfortunately as most of you will know they are classified as a "prohibited" weapon, as well as all of its variants (unless I'm wrong). So I thought I would ask the community if there is any Rifle out there that comes close to the same firing "feel" as well as style.
 
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Hmm, well I don't know to what extent you could consider it "similar", but I think a semi-auto rifle shooting 7.62x51 NATO would be a good start. That could narrow down the list... Maybe a Norinco M14 clone? Please folks, don't laugh too hard at my attemted reply....
 
I had the same problem. Being an old army guy, I wanted an FN. No can do. I found the right replacements in the Russian SVT40s and SKSs.
 
Look up the FAL's forerunner, the SAFN aka FN49. The mechanism is very similar so you might like how it feels when firing it, though it is less similar in its looks. They aren't cheap to buy nor do they come up for sale with great frequency but they are out there.
 
Dieudonne Saive patented the basic mechanism in 1936. He was working on a good rifle when Uncle Adolf invaded in 1940, so upped tools, design and prototype and off to England. He engineered the SLEM in 7.9x57 while working at Enfield, went back to Belgium and put it into production as the SAFN-49. Seeing the writing on the wall as regards short cartridges, he immediately started redesigning it into th FAL.

Feodor Vasilyevich Tokarev swiped the design in 1938, modded it after tests into the SVT-40. Simonov, designer of the SKS, worked on Tokarev's team, later came out with his own 2 rifles: PTRS and SKS, both using similar mechanisms.

SAFN will run you a grand or better for a good one. Total producton was only 160,000, spread out in 8 contracts and 4 cartridges.

SVT-40 is a vastly-improved SVT-38. They are available round $400 right now, but that WILL go up.

SKS starts around $160 for a really nice one. Ammo is cheap but they tend NOT to be accurate.

PTRS, on the other hand, runs bout 3 grand and ammo is about $30 a shot. Just a TAD on the rich end of the scale.

FAL, of course, is no-no in this Free Country of ours. So is the Majority of M-14 production. There WERE a small number of Winchester M-14s built without the full-auto parts (VERY early Winchester production only) but they are about as common as lunar cheese: I have seen ONE exactly.

There are Chinese copies of the M-14 being made; it takes the same 7.62x51 cartridge, run bout 450 bucks, new. If it's the STYLE you like, the Yanks DID build the E-2 stock for th M-14: pistol-grip stock.

So there ARE several possibilities.

Stick round and we'll get them all hashed out somehow.

And welcome to the forum!
 
"...close to the same firing "feel"..." None that I've ever fired. The felt recoil is next to nothing unless the butt stock is the wrong size for you. Then you get thumped on your nose as the rifle shows you the error of your ways. Doesn't hurt much, but you know you were thumped. The worst thing about an 'FN' was lugging the SOB around. 12 pounds gets heavy towards sun down.
"...Winchester M-14's..." Mine was made in 1961 or '62. Evil thing that it is.
"...Probably AR10..." The current production rifles aren't real AR-10's. Copies. Mind you, a copy is better than nothing. Still think the Finn's had it right. They ordered a few(about 5 or 6 rifles) for testing chambered in 7.62 x 39.
 
I think, for me personally, an SG 542 comes close enough.

SG542.jpg
 
Don't boo me to hard guys, but my XCR-M handles similar and feels a lot like the old FN, although I'm going on memory, cause it's been over 25 years since I shot an FN.
 
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