ontarget
Member
I saw one at an LGS recently and thought it looked interesting. Then I saw it mentioned here in another thread. Are they good, bad, or what? I think the price tag was around $350.00.
Bro, run down there and snatch it!I saw one at an LGS recently and thought it looked interesting. Then I saw it mentioned here in another thread. Are they good, bad, or what? I think the price tag was around $350.00.
There is lots of misinformation or conflicting information out there about the Spanish guns. What I confirmable is that a whole bunch of Spanish Mauser rifles had the barrels replaced with .308 barrels when Spainwas switching to the .308 in a semiauto (Cetme). The general story was that the mountain of bolt rifles were still serviceable but they were in the wrong calibers and as such they were fit with new barrels. The reasoning behind the new barrel configuration seems logical that they would follow suit on their new service rifle would be and refit the barrels with something similar on the bolt rifles.
Spanish short rifles are considered unsafe with .308 ammo, but are considered safe with handloads loaded in .308 cases at .300 savage pressures.
Fr7 was built on the same actions as the rechambered short rifles and are likewise safe with the same ammo as the short rifles.
Fr8 was built on a different action with better heat treat and is considered safe with commercial .308.
But of course the Spanish arsenal that did the work on rebarreling has been described as everything from a hack shop where things are all unsafe because it crossed the property, to a center for competent gunsmiths, metallurgists, and voodoo priests capable of making any gun incredible by simple chants. Sounds to me a lot like some modern cries about polymer guns.
Surplus FMJ bullets over trailboss is nice.As you say, the mists of time have shrouded much truth, but yes the FR7 is a small-ring 93 action and the FR8 a large-ring 98. Folks will debate endlessly about the safety of commercial .308 in these guns. I shoot commercial loads in my FR8 all day long without losing any sleep, but I wouldn't try them in my Dad's FR7, which has been relegated to wall hangar status until I get setup to make some light handloads.
The one in picture is more like an small ring FR7 with straight stock. FR8 is large ring and stock is 98 mauser style.I would love to have a Spanish FR8. The way that I understand it and someone can correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe they were a Spanish training rifle in 308 before the CETME came out. I actually have a friend that made an FR8 with the appropriate CETME parts out of a Mauser action (a 98 I believe) and he had it rechambered in 7.62 x 39 and it turned out pretty slick and better yet it's really inexpensive to shoot all day long at $0.25 per round ..
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Dan's Ammo has it for $189 for a case of 1000 rds, or $99 for 500 rds. I think he still has free shipping on the 1000 rd case.Gunny,
In 1982 the Hessian Police were using that blue stuff on an indoor range at the Police Academy in Hanau in the G1 version of the FNFAL. They also used .32 ACP version and a 9x19mm version. They claimed to like the FN more than the G3.
I have a grand total of one 50 round box and have been able to find no more. I look for it at shows an ocassionally on line but no luck.
WARNING!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!! OR ANY PLACE ELSE, DANG IT!!!!!!
The Green plastic 7.62 NATO Blanks like this were popular in my Infantry outfit in the mid 1970's. We would cut away the plastic, remove the flash suppressor from an M16A1 drop the brass blank base in the flash suppressor with the primer facing out, Screw on the flash suppressor and have what we called a "Hollywood suppressor" We would point the barrel at the soft ground to remove the primer via the explosive force of a blank …. I know, insane and no doubt dangerous...see exclamations above. The primer vent on that cartridge base was just enough of a restriction to allow the M16A1 to function like it had one of the big ugly BFAs screwed on the muzzle. The effect was much improved by taking a hacksaw to the brass base and removing the bit normally covered by the plastic so one had basically a washer of cartridge brass so the flash hide seated almost normally.
So equipped our rifles appeared to be firing ball ammo when in use and it on more than one occasion frightened other units "aggressing" against ours long enough to make a good get away or twice run off the attackers.
-kBob
No way in heck would I ever do this with one of my own rifles. At the time, being still invincible because of an over abundance of testosterone and lack of life experience and since it was Uncle Sugars rifle it seemed like a fun idea. You know sort of "Want to see something neat? Hold my beer." Anyhow I still have my face and both eyes and no one was crippled by molten or fragmented cartridge brass from rifle stock number 114.