I first heard of FN working on a commercial carbine earlier this year and now word on the street is that this will become a reality at SHOT Show. I’ve heard that FN has placed orders for parts for these guns. And if that wasn’t enough, LAV has released this photo of a semi auto carbine prototype he purchased awhile back from a former FN employee.
I can’t wait to see if there is any teeth to these rumors.
Hmmmm. No! My Noveske’s are far superior!
Why do you say that?
For a second there you had me excited they were doing a commercial FAL carbine. Then I saw the pic…
That would be far preferable – after all, everyone makes ARs these days. A 5.56 FAL on the other hand…
Sounds like a direct competition for the Colt 6920.
I hope so.
They build the rifles that the USMC carry.
My M-16A2 issued to me at TBS while in the Marine Corps was made by FN. No really a big deal, worked fine and I shot expert with it on the KD course of fire. Good solid piece of pipe.
The FN made M16 I carried in the 90s had a better fit and finish than the colt made rifles. But that was 20 years ago.
I’m not sure when the rifles I’ve used recently were made, but the Colt M4s have much better fit and finish than the FN M16A2s.
The FN M16A2 I carried in 1991 was deplorable. Fortunately, they build a great rifle now.
I must have received a good one. I couldn’t miss out to 300m using irons. All the forging lines we removed nice n smooth. Not one problem.
Agreed. They started out very poorly, particularly the barrels. We shot out nearly 10% of our training guns in under 3000 rds. They failed not just with Gage’s, but multiple keyholes rounds were found on quals. However, they remedied the problem relatively quickly and none of the replacement barrels had any such issues. It was disappointing, to say the least, to receive such shoddy rifles, but encouraging to see how fast they resolved the problems and produced a better gun.
Damn autocorrect: “gages”
Searching for Gage where ya? You’ve been bad.
If they run like the machine guns I used in the Corps Ill take three.
I am hopping the make a M16A4 clone.
I second that. Loved that rifle. Tac driver and super reliable.
I was under the impression that FN’s contract with the US government prevented it from building and selling commercial semi-auto rifles. Has this changed?
More AR-15’s !!!! They’ll be so many,the liberal’s won’t know what to do anymore. Lol
Although , I’d rather have FN put this effort into the scar. Like an aluminum lower, different stocks, non-reciprocating charging Handel, and most important “lower prices” !!!!
I don’t think people understand the size of the engineering groups some of the large firearms companies have. Companies like FN have the ability to assign multiple engineering groups to multiple different projects without interfering with other projects. You can only have so many people working on a single project.
How often have you read something to the effect of “Man, I wish COMPANY X would give up on designing new logos and instead keep working on product X so we can buy it”. It’s the same type of separation of work.
There have been FN manufactured carbines on the commercial market for a couple of years, albeit with some other name stamped on the magazine well. FN has been acting as an OEM manufacturer for to Palmetto State Armory (also in Columbia, SC) since late 2011, early 2012. As a .gov contractor, FN (or Colt for that matter) cannot sell the same product commercially for a lower price than they sell the item to the DoD. Hence, the higher than average commercial prices on Colt 6920’s et. al.
Palmetto State Armory states their barrels are made by FN, but yours is the first claim I have seen that the entire carbine is made by FN. Do you have any supporting evidence of this?
The barrel is the only component FN actually produces to my knowledge. Uppers and lowers forgings are outsourced to one of the larger OEM forging houses (every maker in the AR world outsources some or all of their upper and lower forgings). Hammer forging machines for barrels are expensive enough….why invest in a traditional drop forge when there are half a dozen plus reputable firms that specialize in raw, semi finished, and finished forgings for the firearms industry?
The secret sauce on AR’s is in the correct dimensional specs, grade of materials, and quality of assembly…
Agreed, but it is my understanding that it is PSA folks putting the components together, not FN folks, who I would think would have better quality control and inspections. In my opinion, having an FN barrel does not an FN carbine make. Not bagging on PSA, I would take one in a heartbeat, but I don’t think think a PSA is an “FN manufactured carbine.”
FN does not make their uppers or lowers. Almost all commercial hammer forged barrels in use (PSA for example) are made by FN. You must specify the details (contour, gas port, etc..) and they do it.
PSA lowers and uppers are mostly likely made by Aero Precision based off of the dimensional aspects and overall appearance.
If only we could get them at .gov pricing, with the fun switch…
…Purple anodizing on upper. Good luck!
Delta or no Delta, thats a hot weapon! 😉
By the model designation on the pictured lower, that gun was probably one of a few that were prototyped. “FNX” is probably not a production model.
Yes, I seem to recall using the “term” prototype in the article. Thanks for noticing.