Marko Kloos
Moderator Emeritus
For those who have never seen one, here's a Spanish FR-8, also known as "Cetmeton". It's a Spanish large-ring Mauser, converted to 7.62x51mm NATO. When the Spaniards adopted the CETME battle rifle, they reworked their stock of existing M1943 Mausers and fitted them with CETME-C barrels. The Mauser got sawed in half, and the CETME barrel assembly mated to it upside down. The FR-8 was issued to rear-echelon troops and Guardia Civil units.
The tube underneath the barrel is the cocking tube on a regular CETME-C, so they had to invert the front sight assembly to make it right-side up on the FR-8.
There's a lot of folklore out there regarding the suitability of the FR-8 for full-power 7.62x51 NATO. Some folks claim that the FR-8 was chambered for the weaker 7.62x51 CETME, and will not stand up to the higher pressure. The truth is that the Spaniards used CETME-C barrels for their FR-8s, and the FR-8 conversions were done in the mid-1960s, when the Spanish Army had already converted to the CETME-C designed for full-power NATO ammo.
Spain also converted their small-ring 1916 Mausers into FR-7 rifles, and those are probably not suitable for full-power .308. The FR-8, on the other hand, can shoot NATO surplus ammo all day long.
The FR-8 makes a really cool-looking and handy little scout rifle. I keep it around as a companion to my CETME. It's kind of neat to have a bolt-action rifle with a NATO STANAG flash hider for launching rifle grenades.
The tube underneath the barrel is the cocking tube on a regular CETME-C, so they had to invert the front sight assembly to make it right-side up on the FR-8.
There's a lot of folklore out there regarding the suitability of the FR-8 for full-power 7.62x51 NATO. Some folks claim that the FR-8 was chambered for the weaker 7.62x51 CETME, and will not stand up to the higher pressure. The truth is that the Spaniards used CETME-C barrels for their FR-8s, and the FR-8 conversions were done in the mid-1960s, when the Spanish Army had already converted to the CETME-C designed for full-power NATO ammo.
Spain also converted their small-ring 1916 Mausers into FR-7 rifles, and those are probably not suitable for full-power .308. The FR-8, on the other hand, can shoot NATO surplus ammo all day long.
The FR-8 makes a really cool-looking and handy little scout rifle. I keep it around as a companion to my CETME. It's kind of neat to have a bolt-action rifle with a NATO STANAG flash hider for launching rifle grenades.