laststandonzombieisland

The FN FAL was the so-called Free World’s Right Arm for almost forty years. Springfield Armory imported their own version for years and it’s a classic. In fact, many say it is the best FAL in the US.

After World War 2, the Belgian firm of Fabrique Nationale (FN) based in Herstal developed a select-fire battle rifle known as the FN (Fusil Automatique Lger “Light Automatic Rifle”) to replace all of Europe’s old bolt-action rifles. This long-barreled gun, chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 Winchester for us here in ‘Merica), had everything you wanted in a modern weapon.

It was accurate, powerful, effective, could take 20 to 40 round box magazines, and get the job done. In fact, with the exception of the US who used the M14/M16 and Italy who went for a M1 Garand with a box magazine, just about every western military adopted FN’s FAL in the 1960s. More than three million of the guns were made, not only in Belgium, but also in England, Australia, Austria, Brazil, and others. This earned it the moniker of ‘The Free World’s Right Arm” which it held until fading to history in the 1990s.
With the dawn of the 1980s, people were very interested in the FAL design. FN had imported the guns into the country in a special semi-auto only variant in the 1970s but this supply was now cut off. Giving the public what they wanted, Springfield contracted with licensed-FAL producer Imbel in Brazil to make a semi-auto metric pattern rifle for the US import market.

Read the rest in my column at Springfield Forum.com