FN 49 Issue

[jabathehut]

I bought 2 FN 49's (SAFN's) a number of years ago at a local Hardware store(FFL) on impulse.

I'd always wanted a FAL but never had the required $$$ and found the SAFN had the adjustable gas vent feature,

I bought some 8 mm Mauser fodder curent commercial 170 gr,SP and some WWII German Military and headed out to the range, and was immediately extremely impressed, the adjustable gas vent allowed the rifle to comfortably digest both the extremely watered down Remington 170 gr.SP and the extremely hot German 197 gr FMJ (I assume this was MG Ammo)
I found that even with the hot German fodder I could open the vent enough to have the action cycle gently enough to lay the ejected hulls
right next to the rifle on the bench.

And found the SAFN's inherent accuracy, handling and ergonomics were superb. (Sterling !)

After determining what an incredible rifle the SAFN was I flew back to the hardware store and bought the remaining other FN 49 (they were $150 :-)
without a doubt the best firearm scores (by a wide margin) I'm likely to ever experience. :-)

I subsequently obtained a CAI L1A1 rebarreled it with a NOS Lithgow arsenal had my smith cut the chamber on the snug side and found the FAL to be every bit as accurate as the FN 49, the FAL is a truly wonderful
and even beautiful rifle, but I actually prefer the SAFN as it has a considerably better trigger and seems to have a more robust build quality
(the FAL is however anything but a slouch !)

The issue I have now is I traded my 2nd FN 49 to a friend and found that even witth the vent wide open his SAFN ejects with enough violence
that his hulls are dented, with my SAFN and the vent wide open the rifle become essentially a straight pull bolt rifle, requiring me to cycle the bolt manually.

My question is, were there differing recoil springs per SAFN
chambering ?

Any alternative problems I might have over looked ?

And is there a supplier for 8 mm specific FN 49 recoil springs ?

I'm thinking my other SAFN had a 7 mm recoil spring inadvertantly installed and it not having adequate tension (strength) to resist the 8 mm bolts recoil inertia.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated

J Hut

cpbglmn223223@sbcglobal.net

[ArkansasHunter]

Feller there ain't been no one around to Hep yee ???
Well don't give up we'll see what we can do...A.H

[17poundr]

Interesting! I would love to see pictures of this gun as it's not familiar to me...

Also any specs would be nice (although I know I could go and google them, maybe a user/owner of the gun could ellaborate better the qualites of this weapon)...

Yours truly:

Mr Poundr.

p.s. I'll put pics of some of the greatest looking 'long guns' that I know of (in no particular order, and from most time periods of the 1900-2007 era)...

[slipskally]

are there any high capacity mags for FN 49 in 7.62 out there?Even some std 10 rounders would be nice.

[BFRANKlin]

I, too, bought a FN-49 on an impulse. It shot well for 1/2 a mag, then the trigger quit working. I thought 'Hmmm', and put the safety on which caused it to fire! I tried it again and it shot a few more rd.s and quit working again, and fired again when the safety was put on. So I took it back and traded it for a very fine Yugo AK, since they couldn't get any FALs at the time. The FN-49 cost $700.00!, but I had the money at the time, and it would have been a nice addition to my small mil-surp semi-auto collection. I didn't think I could have ever fully trusted it especially since so few were ever imported and repair parts are practically non-existant here. Mags are rare and $$$ when you can find them. Probably only 20 rounders will be all you can find. I imagine a safe working rifle is a fine rifle, but that one was overpriced and unsafe. Oh well! Have fun with yours but be careful if the trigger quits working.