FN FAL / L1A1 SLR Reliability: Ian and Mike Discuss (With Reference To The HK G3)

4 years in british Parachute Regiment 2bt. 1979 to 83 I must have put thousands of rounds through my personal weapon and never had any issues. Nor did my mates. Used in anger on the Falklands, again no probs. I can only assume that the refurbished examples available in the USA have been poorly refited with parts which have already recieved wear an tear in another weapon before being scavenged for spares. Once a part has been "Run in" in another rifle, it'll never perform perfectly out of that gun.

"Ziga's AK started having the exact same trouble." Those pops in the background you're hearing aren't other shooters doing their runs, it's a significant portion of the internet furiously exploding in response to someone suggesting an AK had a reliability issue.

First off I wish to compliment the Bloke on the fine, Britsih Army approved mustache he's sporting. Good show sir! :D The L1A1 SLR still has a special place for me, being the first semi auto rifle I ever shot. She may may be a big bugger but damn does she do WORK!

I was issued the heavy barrelled, bipod equipped version of the SLR, the L2A1 back in my days in the Australian Army Reserve. It ran beautifully with a 30 round mag despite being an old rifle if I cranked up the gas plus to give it more gas. Lovely rifle to shoot. Interesting to see the L4 mags working well.

Bloke's epic stache and side burns won Finish Brutality

We used to load only 28 rounds in L4 or L2 39 round magazines (L4A4 Bren or L2A2 AR) with first two rounds loaded tracers (last rounds fired indicated you would need to reload) without trouble in Mallee Red Dust ..... Gas settings important too! Australian Army 1976-1989

We had a similar problem with the dust in central Australia until we started using graphite powder as a lube, rifle was dry and ran like a Swiss watch.

I did my service with the FAL both IMBELs and the original FN batch first purchased in the 60's, one day we took the old ones to the range to mark it those malfunctioning to be sent back to the armory, and lots of them indeed choked, the majority of the problem was in the old magazines, pristine domestic producted ParaFALs runned just fine, cant remember having a jam on those, this plataform is robust but they need some love to run good, especially with older parts.

The SADF designated the FN-FAL as the R1 rifle, as long as it's kept relatively clean the issues don't get serious enough to disqualify it as a good, reliable battle rifle.

So you both now have a better understanding why militaries all around the world drill their soldiers to fieldstrip, clean and inspect their rifle whenever they get a chance to... 😉

4:35 -Where's the forward assist? -Furious Ian sounds

The only time I had a failure on my L1A1 was when I put the gas plug in upside down

I started firing the FNC1 in the CF starting as a Cadet in the 1970s and in the CF from 1980 until it was phased out by the C7/C8. Unbelievably reliable fire arm. What you folks miss is the difference between the Canadian magazines and the others. The Canadian Magazines, with their locking hook gave a much more secure mag seating than the European mags. Yu should check it out. We also had a body cover that was entirely open which also facilitated reliability. That body cover also gave us the ability to replenish the magazine with 5 rounds clips without removing the mag.

FNC1A1 was the battle rifle when I joined the Canadian Forces. I didn't get to shoot it much after boot camp being an Air Force weenie, but it was a well-liked reliable firearm throughout its life with the CF. License built in Canada who did the bullwork in converting the piece to inch pattern.

Absolutely love the "Ally" mustache and (not so) regulation sideburns, I feel like it gives a distinct tactical advantage.

The sand cuts probably work better for sand. 😂 Moon dust is so fine it goes everywhere. It takes me about a year after deployment to stop getting crud out of my sinuses.

30Rd LMG Mags work fine with SLRs with no problems in my experience. Coupled with a cheap M16 bipod, it's a fine combo. Oh, and I didn't notice any mention of turning the gas up any time - solves so many problems!

Horrible that moon dust affects rifle reliability. :) Oddly, my Century Franken-FAL runs well. But I don't shoot in competition. It's a BSG upper parts, Bundes Heer lower, Belgian-style metric flash hider, and the Century receiver. Only issue was the mags didn't want to lock in place. A few strokes with a file on the mag catch took care of that problem.

During my military service in the early 80s, I fired thousands of rounds using the SLR rifle. Not once did I ever get a stoppage with it. It never let me down. Unlike the introduction of the SA80, which i found to be absolutely crap in its early days. The SLR for me was extremely accurate, i was the battalion marksman at the time and up to 600mtrs using iron sites it was very good. Occasionally, I would have the use of telescopic sights, which I loved using for those long-range shots. My kids loved me dressed in the Ghillie suit they used to call me the swamp monster. My personal opinion regarding the SLR was that it served me well, and i never had any issues with it at all.

While my initial thought was it'd be interesting to see Ian's reaction after running a working SLR. I'm starting to think you guys doing a "secret Santa" load out brutality could be interesting