FN FNC, anyone have one?

[WillBrink]

Never seen one in person, but it looks like a very robust design. Any have such a gun? Quite expensive it sounds. Looks an AK and an FAL had a baby:

[Aries144]

Never seen one in person, but it looks like a very robust design. Any have such a gun? Quite expensive it sounds. Looks an AK and an FAL had a baby:

I got to spend a day with a full auto one. It's on the heavy side for a 5.56 rifle. No last shot bolt catch. Pleasant on full auto. There's some way to mount optics, as the one I shot had a red dot mounted to the top of the receiver.

I know they shot up in price some time in the past 25 years. IIRC, it was because the market collectively figured out that there were more registered sears for them than there were guns in the US and the sears were super cheap. If you can get Steyr Aug in here, I'd bet he'd remember something about them.

[RHINOWSO]

I shoulda bought one when they were $3-4K for a FA model, back when I thought that was a lot to spend on a firearm....

[ccosby]

I was talked out of buying one by Mike of TSC Machine and this is when he was doing some crazy upgrades to them. They are nice guns but parts are about as unobtainium as you can get. The thing is they don't really break other than hammers and bolts(which hold up very well). If you bought a full auto one though you'd want to then buy a semi auto as a parts gun so yea its bad.

Honestly you'd have to have a real hard on for one of the semi autos to buy it. Its cool but you can buy a nice ar15 and a scar 16 for the price of one of the semis. For one with a sear you are not that much less than a converted ar15 and by the time you buy a semi auto spare for parts you could almost buy a factory colt m16.

[Five_Point_Five_Six]

I've wanted one since 1995 when I watched Heat in the theater at age 15.

[TED]

I used to own a semi auto and a full auto. The full auto was my first machinegun. Basically if NATO made an AK that used 5.56 and NATO mags, that is the FNC. When you field strip it the bolt and carrier even resemble AK parts. As another poster alluded to it is very robust and not likely to break and that is a good thing since if it did, good luck getting parts. The only part that seems to ever break though is the firing pins and that is pretty rare. Spare firing pins were available at one time. This would also be a comparatively easy part to have made.

Bottom line, a semi auto FNC is not worth having in today's market as a shooter. It is not that it is bad, its just that there is so much other choices that are better. A full auto one is cool because it is a comparatively affordable full auto that still uses NATO mags.

I would rather have the FNC than the AC556 for example because of the mags. You could also think of it as a more affordable AK in 5.56 and using NATO mags.

TED

[GNXII]

I had the rare opportunity to shoot a semi version a few years ago. It was nice and didn't strike me in any major way either negative or positive. For some reason, it didn't like HK maritime mags. The guy who owned broght it out maybe 2X a year to show it off, shoot it and squirrel it away again. He stopped bringing it out for fear of parts breakage and it being deadlined forever, which now it is but nothing is broke...go figure. He bought his new for $4K but it was when they first dried up so it might not have been a good deal. If you collect have at it! Enjoy

[SnowFella]

Spent the majority of my Army service with the FNC derived Bofors AK5, found both rifles issued to me to be just about bomb proof. Some initial hassles came down to old worn out mags (only issued 2 during basic), after sorting that I can't remember ever having a single malfunction during live fire. And only one with blanks, Swedish 5.56 blanks use a hollow wooden bullet, blank nosed over as it fed and crushed the wooden plug...spewed the whole powder charge into the chamber.

I got to spend a day with a full auto one. It's on the heavy side for a 5.56 rifle. No last shot bolt catch. Pleasant on full auto. There's some way to mount optics, as the one I shot had a red dot mounted to the top of the receiver.

From memory FN made a sightrail that clamped in between the rear sight and trunion block, not really that secure but allowed mounting of optics.
Latest version of the AK5 comes with a welded on rail and hold open among other things.

[JoshNC]

I own a fullauto FNC. It’s converted with a registered transferable S&H auto sear. It’s a neat rifle. I like mine. But parts are very hard to come by and expensive when found. It’s a fun gun that comes to the range about once or twice a year. As others have said, if we are talking MGs I would certainly own an M16 over the FNC as the price difference between a FNC and non-Colt RR M16 is not that much.

[recon]

Bought mine back in the 80's. Paid $525 for it back then. Wish I still had it. Great rifle.