Fn49

[Scorpius]

Well.... Now I just need to find that gas tube tool. Anyone got a spare ?

Auction ended and it's mine
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=575380033

[Artful]

https://www.libertytreecollectors.co...idproduct=3161
$18

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/ad/1104070.htm
Gas Adjusting Sleeve Tool, Original FN Mfg., VG to Exc $14.20

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145774
The gas adjustment tool (called a “gas regulator key” by FN) is a multi-purpose tool that is not only used to adjust the gas adjustment sleeve, but also to tighten or remove the various FN-provided muzzle devices. The key also has a screwdriver blade sized for the stock end cap screw. While many rifles have gas adjustment sleeves that are relatively free to turn (making the tool unnecessary), some have many years of powder fouling that do require a tool (and these should be disassembled and cleaned to make them easier to turn). In addition, the tool is handy to have when adjusting gas on a rifle that has been fired a number of rounds – the gas adjustment sleeve tends to get a bit hot…

The bottle cap opener on a swiss army knife also works to make adjustments on the gas system of an FN. Don't over gas it. Please CLOSE the gas port and open a little until it functions ok. Big open port hole + lots o gas pressure=wreaked rifle.

HERES A START:

http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/fn49/FN49A.PDF
http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/fn49/FN49B.PDF

Gas Adjustment
The gas cylinder is located under the front handguard. A threaded sleeve is provided on the outside of the gas cylinder in order to adjust the opening size of the gas bleed vent. This adjustment is used to regulate the amount of powder combustion gas that is applied to the end of the piston rod. The sleeve is screwed farther onto the gas cylinder toward the front sight in order to block the gas vent reducing its size, thereby increasing the pressure applied to the piston rod. Alternately, it can be rotated the opposite direction, away from the front sight, to open the gas vent, thus reducing the amount of gas pressure applied to the piston rod._

Proper adjustment of the gas system is needed to prevent violent ejection that results in excessive wear and tear on the rifle. Gas pressure can increase or decrease with different types of ammunition, ammunition production lots and atmospheric conditions. The gas system has a broad operating range and does not require minor adjustments when set properly for the type of ammunition and powder being fired. Once the gas regulator is set, mis-adjustment through tampering or accident is prevented by having the regulator sleeve located under the front handguard._

To adjust the gas system, begin by removing the front handguard. This is accomplished by first removing the stock end cap screw and then the stock end cap located under the front sight assembly. Once the stock end cap screw is removed, the stock end cap is removed by sliding it forward to disengage it from the tabs on the front handguard and then downward off the barrel. The front handguard is then removed by sliding it slightly forward out from under the lower stock band and lifting it off the rifle from the forward end. Removal or loosening of the lower stock band should not be required._

Begin the gas adjustment procedure by rotating (opening) the gas regulator sleeve on the gas cylinder until the gas vent is completely unblocked. From a standing position, fire a single round of ammunition of the desired type. Note how far the spent cartridge is ejected from the rifle. If the spent cartridge fails to clear the receiver or is not ejected sufficiently to achieve approximately 8 to 15 feet to the forward and right of the firer, screw in the gas regulator sleeve several turns until the gas vent is slightly blocked and repeat the procedure. The proper setting is attained when a spent cartridge is usually ejected some 8 to 15 feet to the forward right of the firer. A setting that causes the spent cartridges to be ejected farther can cause excessive wear and stress on the rifle. Too little gas pressure can result in unreliable spent cartridge case extraction and lack of ejection. In my experience, it is not unusual to have a spent cartridge ejected rather close to the rifle now and then, but on average they should fall approximately 8 to 15 feet from the rifle._

Excessive gas pressure can cause premature extraction of the cartridge case, even before chamber pressures have decreased sufficiently to allow the cartridge case walls to contract from the chamber. A sure sign of extreme gas system pressure is having rims torn off spent cartridge cases by the extractor. Excessive gas pressure will also be evident when spent cartridge cases are being ejected into low earth orbit, are being heavily dented by the receiver cover, or the spent cartridge case fails to be extracted from the chamber altogether. "Hotly" handloaded cartridges as well as extended range factory loads can cause this same problem and even a properly adjusted gas regulator sleeve and gas vent system may be unable to compensate for these excessive pressures. Like most semi-automatic rifles, the FN-49 functions best with cartridges loaded to the middle of the normal pressure range. The FN-49 is built sturdy enough to handle "hot" loads quite well, but the gas system may not be able to function properly in those circumstances, and semi-automatic firing should not be attempted. In these cases, such as when using extended range factory loads, set the gas plug to single shot operation.
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-9576.html

[Scorpius]

Awesome information! Thank you !
I just learned about over gassing this weekend with my hakim that was ripping up my shells on extraction.
Have a feed issue I'm working through on that one.

[Adam Helmer]

FN Model 49 rifles are great shooters. As I understand they were made in four calibers: 7x57mm, 8x57mm, 7.65x53mm and .30-06. I have all but the 7.65mm because I never saw one for sale. My gas sleeves are finger adjustable. I prefer the M49 to the Garand for cast boolit shooting because one can turn off the M49 gas and manually cycle the bolt to save wear and tear on the cartridge cases upon firing and not have to readjust the gas sleeve from firing jacketed rounds.

Adam

[Artful]

Adam you can make a Garand a manual repeater by

1.) unscrew the gas plug and leave it off (Temporary only solution)
2.) get an adjustable gas plug and open it wide open
3.) get another gas plug and drill a hole through it front to back so it ports the gas.
4.) mount a grenade launcher on the end of your Garand - it turns off the gas as well.

If you remove the gas plug, the entire gas assembly can become loose, resulting in quite a "wandering zero", so that's why it's a Temporary Fix.

Oh, you missed when all the 7.65x53 49's came in - but all the examples I saw had terrible bores - most where rebarreled into either 7mm or 8mm because of that - and new barrels where cheap at that time in those calibers.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They were indeed good shooters. But I know a former British soldier, Lance-corporal Acting Unpaid in the Cameronians, who was issued one for British army trials. He praised it highly in most respects, but thought it was far too delicate for the treatment rifles receive in battle. In particular the wood forend or handguard (I don't remember which) was liable to damage.

In his hands it probably played one of the most unusual roles of any British firearm. In fulfilment of the Cameronians' origins, as religious fundamentalist guerrillas resisting compulsory Episcopalianism mere 250 years earlier, he used to stand guard with ball cartridge at church parade in case of attack by the British army.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Now that's a quaint bit of military lore. Reminds me of an assistant District Attorney I knew who had received legal post-graduate education in Britain and became a Barrister. On a field trip to somewhere his group stayed overnight in an Abby where Queen had once stayed. Apparently, so the story went, she wasn't above helping out and made bread pudding for those with whom she shared the table that night. A small portion remained, and it was mixed into the pudding the next day and became a tradition which continued and became known as "The Queen's Pudding." So my friend had some of the Queen's Pudding for dinner. He was sitting at my dinner table when he told the story, and I asked, "Queen Elizabeth?" "Oh, no," he replied, "Queen Victoria!"

[Adam Helmer]

Artful,

Thanks for the Garand refit information. I have several M1s and one is my best cast boolit arm. I load 36 grains of IMR4895 behind the Lee 185 grain .312 RN sized .309 with a gas check. Happily, the cast load shoots to the Ball M2 sight settings. I get very little leading and shoot many rounds before I need to clean the gas cylinder of carbon. "Ping...ping...."

Adam

[hodg0610]

I ordered one of the gas wrenches from Sarco several years ago. Just checked their website quickly and didn't see one. You might check out their site for other parts. http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/fn49.aspx

I have found my 8mm FN49 to be a pretty good shooter, although it does tear up brass pretty badly as Adam mentioned. I wish someone made accurate reproduction stocks for them. Most of the stocks you find are absolute dogs.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Here is an ad from what may be the only January 1968 American Rifleman in the UK, given to me by a friend who went over the wire from school early, to become a merchant navy engineering cadet. Of course in those days $69.50 was a bit of money.

Not many people know that Dieudonné Saive did much of the development work in exile in the UK, as well as recreating, while the original drawings were in German hands his high-capacity P35 "improvement" which John M. Browning thought the Colt 1911 didn't need. It can be argued whether Saive's tilting bolt originated with the Winchester-Lee Navy straight-pull rifle or the Colt-Browning "potato digger" machine-gun, both of 1895. My money would be on the latter, which had probably been longer in development.

[pinztrek]

Here is an ad from what may be the only January 1968 American Rifleman in the UK, given to me by a friend who went over the wire from school early, to become a merchant navy engineering cadet. Of course in those days $69.50 was a bit of money.

From memory they were still in that price range in the mid-70's when I was given a stack of American Riflemen. I still have some of those Century ad's, one with a Luger for dirt cheap.

At the time I did not want a 7mm (ignorant youth) even though my shooting advisors were telling me what a great cartridge 7x57 is.

I did end up with a 30/06 FN49 around '79 and had quite a bit of fun with it. Sure wish I had it now! Sadly sold it after a year or two to fund an newer germanic black rifle.

From memory if they are tearing the brass up the gas is set too high. Never tried to download them, I was shooting surplus 30/06 at the time.

[Ithaca Gunner]

The FN 49 I had is one rifle I'd love to have back! .30/06 sniper variant. Matching cheek piece and Griffin and Howe mounts. I didn't have the original scope to it, but a 3-9X Weaver did the trick well enough. Only troublesome point I thought about the rifle was you had to remove the forward handguard to make gas adjustments, which could then be made with a loaded cartridge.

I too got rid of mine to fund a Germanic black rifle, an HK 41, (pre-91) and regretted it, even though the HK was a sniper variant also with a Hensoldt scope. The thing was the most unfriendly rifle to operate I ever had. You had to have a 6" thumb to use the selector without moving your hand off the grip. The Germans are welcome to keep their G-3 rifles.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

From memory they were still in that price range in the mid-70's when I was given a stack of American Riflemen. I still have some of those Century ad's, one with a Luger for dirt cheap.

There were no Lugers in my edition, and if anybody had batches of them around that time, they were likely to be East German Volkspolizei, probably refinished and with mixed parts, which is not a good thing in Lugers. There were a few short-barrelled Webley RIC single-ejecting revolvers, which Elmer Keith called the best police pistol ever made. If he was talking about a concealable detective pistol for non-Hollywood confrontations, he might have had a point.

I've only ever handled an FN49 once, many years ago, but it was more instinctively pointable than most assault rifles. The Kalashnikov for me, is about as pointable as a shoebox of rocks. Unfortunately it came when many countries were flirting with selective-fire, for which the FN49 wasn't really suitable. The best of those that are, I think, was the Swiss Stgw57. It was considerably heavier, and had the geometry for control in full-auto. Switzerland's potential battlefields were predictable ones, where weight didn't much matter, and the fire from twenty or thirty nearly-machineguns would make a formidable multi-point ambush.

[pinztrek]

There were no Lugers in my edition, and if anybody had batches of them around that time, they were likely to be East German Volkspolizei, probably refinished and with mixed parts, which is not a good thing in Lugers.

I'll try to dig my old scan out. Wish I had kept some old Shotgun news with the MP-40 demils for $75. My mentor told me I did not need to be fooling with them. But now wish I had and made a dummy receiver.

I've only ever handled an FN49 once, many years ago, but it was more instinctively pointable than most assault rifles.

this will be heresy, but I found the FN49 to be better balanced and easier/more fun to shoot than Grands. And finished/machined better, or prettier anyway. Nicer wood. Not saying it was a better combat rifle. I just liked it better. The Garand action was probably superior on paper.

Friend found me the right stripper clips (Mauser? 03A3?). I was determined to mod a Bar mag to increase the capacity in my youthful ignorance.

[pinztrek]

Claims to be a P08. These were about the same prices as you could get GI 1911's for at the time.

[Windwalker 45acp]

ah, the o'l 49... my personal White Whale.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Claims to be a P08. These were about the same prices as you could get GI 1911's for at the time.

Ah, the artillery model, with which I won my sole extremely small shooting trophy at Bisley! It was brought back from the First World War by a friend's grandfather, who can be seen as a general and military adviser at the back of the group photograph of the 1938 Munich conference, with Hitler in the front. Some say the military advice must have been bad, but I think it could have been the best in the world, and nobody would have heard him.

[Good Cheer]

You'd be hard pressed to make anything sound better than the ten round bark of that 8mm.

[Multigunner]

"There were no Lugers in my edition, and if anybody had batches of them around that time, they were likely to be East German Volkspolizei, probably refinished and with mixed parts, which is not a good thing in Lugers."

From what I've heard most WW2 issued Lugers were rebuilt WW1 era lugers, often with mis matched parts.
When the side plate that is part of the external sear improperly fitted pressure on the plate or a hard knock can cause an accidental discharge. Apparently this happened often enough that US troops were told the pistols were booby trapped and not to touch them if found on the battlefield.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A lot of them, yes, but a lot were carried by middle-aged officers who still had their own. In Saudi Arabia I knew what Japanese swordmakers term a Living National Treasure, who had worked on Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Not many people's working lives run from maintaining the Sopwith Snipe (presumably pensioned-off) in his apprenticeship, to the British Aerospace Lightning. He married a German fighter controller and was quite annoyed that she had handed in her father's Luger, which she carried or at least kept instead of the Belgian .32 or something they would have given her.