Belgian Gendarmerie FAL w/ DSA Receiver
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- Опубліковано 23 кві 2023
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A few months ago FN America was able to import 400 parts sets from original Belgian Gendarmerie FAL rifles. I got one of them, and had it completed by DSA. They made receivers with Gendarmerie markings, as well as the barrel and other parts not included with the kit. So today we'll take a look at the finished rifle and the work that went into completing it.
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"FN has no use for FALs, they're not a current product." The single saddest statement ever made on Forgotten Weapons.
Very sad indeed. The FAL is still relevant. SCAR is all plastic, and overrated.
Heresy, I say!
@@ratagris21 There are much better rifles for most applications than the FAL nowadays. No one wants a rifle in .308 that's 2 pounds heavier than anything else on offer and has next to no modularity straight from the factory. It's a cool rifle and an important part of history, but it doesn't have much going for it in current military doctrine.
@@HTacianasyou have not used one in combat. It’s a life saver. Best jungle gun I’ve used.
@@Manco65 I don’t. I have three. All at least 40 years I’ve had them.
No matter what happens FAL always looks cool.
The FAL has a timeless look to it, I love the ones with wood furniture as well.
Yep, looks like a 'real' rifle...especially for us who used them ;-)
Gorgeous, reliable, and with a powerful cartridge
The Belgian gendarmerie actually no longer exists, they got folded into a new police body when some notable cases made it apparent the gendarmerie and other (local, federal) police units weren't really cooperating well, this happened somewhere in the 90s and now we really only have the Federal and Local police force levels, while every other branch falls under one or the other of these 2 levels (made a slight correction/oversimplification).
and it had totally nothing to do with several supermarkets getting shot up
No, that is not correct. We also have the "local" police on the level of the cities under the leadership of their mayor. Federal and local police work together and share information. We have several different specialised forces, like harbour police, railroad police.
Not entirely true. We still have local police ("de blauw") and federal police ("de rooi" -- i.e. more or less the previous Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie). For example, If you see a Belgian cop car with 1 light blue and 3 blue stripes they're local, 1 red stripe with 3 blue is federal. Then there's the military police with all red stripes, etc.
Ditto in Greece too, the Police and the Gendarmerie merged in 1984. Interestingly, the FAL is still in use by the Greek Police alongside the G3 (both were made under FN or H&K license by the Greek EVO - Hellenic (Greek) Weapons Coy)
@@conductorcammon Belgium isn't France.
One detail that usually stuns people in the US is that a two-man Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie patrol had access to a pair of Browning GP's, an FN Fal, an UZI and a shotgun.
That's a great set of options for the officers to have access to.
You still see them carrying UZIS
Add on a rocket launcher and that would almost be a typical loadout for a first-person military shooter. Or a remake of The Wild Geese.
And despite this fact, the number of innocent people gunned down by the police is exceptionally lower than it is in America
That's roughly the US patrol car load. Rifle, shotgun, individual pistols on the duty belt, and potentially some variety of SMG or pistol caliber carbine.
Fun fact. You can put the handguard from an Israeli FAL to a Daewoo K2. The small male end of the Israeli FAL handguard socket will fit in the handguard retaining area of the K2, and you can drill through the handguard grills to utilize the K2’s handguard retaining bolt hole. It looks really sexy.
I actually like the look of the Daewoo K2 as well
Also, the pistol grip, stock and charging handle look very similar (not necessarily interchangeable without mods). If you look at K2 prototypes, it quickly becomes apparent that it was at some point heavily inspired by the FAL.
I have L1A1 wood on mine.
@@elmoreoocyte Nice
I personally dont like the k2, its unreliable and its, well no easy way to say this, korean, soooo
Back in the 1980s we trained with vintage 1962 dated wooden stock FALs while the new(er) all black "plastic" ones where kept in storage.
Our instructor told us the advantage of these heavy all wood and metal rifles was that if we ran out of bullets we could still use the rifle as a club. I think he meant it.
Absolutely! I'm a firm believer in the superiority of wood and steel! ❤
@@michaelbrogan7537 All the mass may be more inconvenient to carry, and require more day-to-day care.
But those materials are a lot nastier to get hit with, and in the long run are a lot more durable.
Belgium's Gendarmerie in French, or Rijkswacht in Flemish, became a civilian police organisation in 1992, but following corruption charges was abolished in 2001 and replaced by the Federal Police and Local Police.
@@infernaldaedra Idk since Belgium and Belarus are two completely different contries. 🤔
Local police sounds American, I say national police sounds better.
@burhanbudak6041 but wouldn't that be the federal police? Local police are for individual cities.
@@infernaldaedra you've confused Belgium and Belarus multiple times now. Seems like a pretty niche approach to trolling...
@@sir_vix I made a horrible reading blunder that is embarrassing
We Canadians have a special love for the FAL. My friends in the forces were almost unanimous in their outrage when we switched to the AR pattern of rifle. They loved their FNs.
Same thing happened when the UK swapped out the gorgeous FN FAL for the ghastly & universally despised SA80.
@@carlnewman7096 we can blame the septics for that m8
@@carlnewman7096 worst part of the story is, if I'm correct the Brits came up with a new rifle and it was compatible with the original cartridge FN had designed the FAL for.
Enter US stage left.
"But we want a bigger bullet. We want something like an .06 Springfield".
So everybody shelved their plans and to keep the Yanks happy, tada!! 7.62 NATO. Everything got reworked and tweaked for the full size 7.62, and what happens.
America, Enter stage left again.
" On second thought, these 5.65×45 cartridges are kind of cool. Besides that, our GIs couldn't handle the 7.62 when set to Rock n Roll."
Well, you know what happens then.
Didn't the UK call the FAL the L1A1?
Think Canada was one of the last to switch, probably because of financial constraints.
Also, I'm sure you've heard about some folks fighting at longer than jungle combat ranges, in the dessert saying,
"Ya know, that 7.62 could be kind of useful out here. We got any M14s left stored away?"
Just goes to show, one cartridge isn't ideal for every situation. If the US wasn't involved in the Nam, who knows. Probably the AR10 in it's planned for 7.62 load.
My dad was part of the rijkswacht and was trained with the FAL. He still brags about the fact he got injured during a training exercise eventhough he was the one that hurt himself. He held his FAL wrong and the casing flew in his eye with some burning powder.
Wow, is your dad the guy that caused the Rhodesians to chop the carry handle off their FALs?
Find someone who looks at you the way Ian looks at the FAL at 13:05
I liked how FN tried to circumvent scalpers by having a sweepstakes to get the opportunity to buy the parts kits, but unfortunately for me the only luck I have is bad luck. Nice to see one on the channel.
Still feel it was fixed, no one on here has commented on winning a lotto spot 🤔
I didn't even bother entering, because Commiefornia.
Same, I signed up too.
I won one. Im just a regular person. I dont know what exact parts I need however
@@dariusbelzer3256same here, I'm just a normal dude, and I won one.
To add to the trivia : the marking/stamping RW next to Gd ( Gendarmerie ) stands for Rijkswacht. Which literally translates as Kingdom Guard. I shot a few rounds full auto with the FAL during my National Service for the kingdom of Belgium, it was fun.( the shooting part, not the service part).
I was looking forward to the shooting part when I tried to join the belgian military but turns out I have hearing-loss (I was 18 at the time) so I immediately got rejected, and before people start saying I shouldn't have listened to loud music or loud stuff in general. first of: I don't and second: it's mid hearing-loss which is the part of hearing that cant be damaged so if anything is wrong with that it's genetic
@@sethubaghs5551 Army: _"you can't join, you have hearing loss"_
Also Army: *causes hearing loss*
@@sethubaghs5551 Stuff like that sucks, I was disqualified at 17 because I was "too well disciplined." They just assumed I was autistic. Never mind my parents were former military and trained me from 7 years old to be a soldier.
Just a container of them lying around, some people should be so lucky!
I loved the behind the scenes look at the barrel and receiver
As a UK resident, the FAL has been one of the only military battle rifles I have been able to shoot, and this as a 14 year old air cadet. I loved this rifle even if it was a bit much for me to handle. Got some Good scores with it and proved proficient with same. ❤❤
I have an L1A1 FAL Sporter and love it!!!
I built around 10 FAL’s back in the day (early 90’s) with the right tools and gauges they where easily to build the kits where like $195 for good to very good unissued and the receiver I used where either DSA or enterprise arms and they where around $250 if I remember correctly magazines where around $5 for the metric and $10 inch pattern anyway I kept 2 a heavy barrel and a standard imbel for myself but now I wish I’d kept the G1 and STG 58’s and L1A1 SLR rifles I sold out of my shop…back then they where a dime a dozen like sks’s or m1 carbine’s to me it seemed like it around the same time everyone in the gun seen was into building the HK 91’s and AK 47 from flats it was the hay day man no cut up barrels and saw cut receiver’s with add’s in shotgun new twice a month …thanks gun Jesus you brought back some good memories amen
wish i was around then
I like seeing the machining and fixtures. As a machinist it gives me ideas on how I can achieve similar results with the tooling I have
I found a room full of FAL in a military base here in brazil. This is one of the most coolest guns I ever used
Were you military, or just wandering around?
I have a Brazilian FAL (made by IMBEL) which was imported into the US in the early 1980s by Springfield Armory (the company, not the government arsenal)
@@thesaxophoneboy I was a soldier in a combat engineering company when I found the room, here in the military base that I served there are also a lot of WW2 stuff like a bunch of old U.S equipments like military canteen, helmets, parachutes and also german stuffs like a lot of abandoned kar98
@@sbreheny IMBEL has some good stuffs like the FAL and the new standard BRArmy the (Imbel IA2 5.56)
Ian should do an interview with this Jean De Marie bloke. He must have an awesome collection of firearms. On a more serious note the machining from 08:36 is fascinating. The channel often talks about "the tooling" but it's interesting to actually see it.
IIRC, the 'RW" marking is Flemish...which is sorta Dutch. Belgium is one of those delightful countries which has two distinct ethnic groups mashed together (sorta like Canada)...the Walloons, who speak (sorta) French, and the aforementioned Flemish. They mostly get along with each other, unless beer and football (soccer for the Americans) is involved. 😉
You forgot the Germany speeking community who live in the east part of wallony . Little country with three differents communities !!!!
I was thinking the dutch gendarmerie is the royal marechaussee how would the dutch Koninklijke Marechaussee be RW
@@Fatty4president RW stands for Rijkswacht, the Belgian-Dutch/Flemish word for Gendarmerie.
@@Fatty4president Mixing 2 different countries here my friend. What the Dutch in the Netherlands call "Koninklijke Marechaussee", was called "RijksWacht" in the dutch speaking part of Belgium and "Les Gendarmes" in the french speaking part of Belgium.
Fun fact: "Rijkswacht" means "guardians of the realm", while "gendarmes" comes from "armed people" as in "people with weapons".
@@Fatty4president they speek géré about the belgian royal gendarmerie. Rijkswatcht in flemish.
Being a Belgian, quite happy to see such a video ! Nice work to see that FAL running again
Those clips of DSA putting together the rifle parts were really cool!
You and Paul Harrell are the two best firearms channels on UA-cam, IMO. Two different contents, both well presented. Thank you.
Right? Ian supplies the bulk of the "here's a neat firearm and how it works", and Paul supplies most of the "and here's what you should and should not do with aforementioned firearm". And you know they're both real experts because they're both unafraid to admit when they don't know something. :D
Putting the import marking on the inside of the magwell is really clever.
Love the FAL... just, so, awesome.
That machining but was fairly satisfying to watch. I've always liked the aesthetics of FAL's, but the furniture on this one makes it look that much better.
The function of the Belgian "gendarmerie / rijkswacht" used to be comparable to what you guys have in SWAT teams and highway patrol. They also used to provide security at large events.
Glad to see a video that is not an advertisement
That DSA footage was awesome. After home building an AKM, Having the right tool for the job is a game changer.
That gas block press is a combo hydraulic/pneumatic unit. The rams are hydraulic but the pump is pneumatic. We use a similar setup as a fuel tank/ subframe hoist at the shop I work at.
My safe queen is a Belgian Browning FAL 50.00 match, one of the last imports from FN. AR’s are crowding it out, but its my favorite piece. 7.62 being pricey today, so those range days where we would put 500 rnds downrange on a sunday are long gone.
My neighbor started hammering in nails on his back porch, and it synced up perfectly with a series of rifle shots. That was a confusing moment for me.
I am still amazed at how skinny the FAL was... Just look at that... And the controls were innovative for the time, with the bolt hold open and close mimicked by the AR-15 family. And the patented 'case deflector raised eyebrow' as I endearingly call it...
Factory tours are some of my favorite content, they give so much context on how things are made.
Thanks for the great videos.
It looks like DSA did a good job, beautiful rifle!
Back in 2007 purchased an STG 58 from DSA with the correct long flash hider and bipod. Great rifle. Also bought an enterprise Fal made in Irvine, California a Belgian carbine...it was used. Had a very good trigger!
The legend of "Old Nasty": On the FAL files (An old forum; remember those?) a guy decided to put his Imbel receivered build of an Austrian STG 58 to the test and see how many rounds it could go without cleaning. As of the last i heard, this rifle had 16,000 (!!!) rounds of various types of military surplus ball ammo through it. Without cleaning it once. Nope. It got dunked in a mud puddle once or twice but that's it. No stoppages, no failures, and still going. He wants to go to 20K but the cost of ammo is killing that off. Truly an extremely remarkable design.
Going wayyyy back, the British Hythe School of Musketry had a muzzle loading Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket which was fired daily for years without cleaning using service ‘Pritchett’ French style cartridges. It got well past 10,000 rounds through it using black powder.
Ex Canadian infantry here. At Wainwright Alberta, Battle School, to clean the gas piston post firing, we would take it outdoors to the sandy soil and rub it like a madman in the dry dirt to get it super clean of any carbon. We used varsol baths to clean more delicate parts.
That was cool seeing how they put those parts together. I have never built a gun and it was great seeing how they did that and the tools used. That is a sweet rifle.
Cant say i love plastic furniture on an SLR but it still gives me goose bumps whenever I see one. Takes me back to my JDF days and the Grenada invasion.
I love how you quadruple down on your coast Guard analogy
Ive owned 2 FALs, A south AFrican one i built and a pre ban from back in the day SLR clone in inch pattern, and i regret letting both of them go. they are my all time favorite rifle and no one can persuade me there is anything id like better..
Always great details about design and manufacturing that most folks wouldn't have thought of. e.g. The lock shoulder needs to be extra hard, but you don't want to have to do the same to the whole receiver. Also really appreciate the video from DSA. Thx.
I loved my FN, accurate, light and very usable. I was only allowed a single shot, because UK.
It's fascinating to learn about the development and evolution of firearms over time. Thank you Ian as always for sharing your knowledge with us!
For all the ridiculous regulations and bans for firearms in Canada, I'm thankful that we can at least buy guns online and have them shipped directly to us.
Spinners: [Exist]
Ian: [Pulls out the FAL]
Also Spinners: [Start spinning on their own out of fear]
Ian: You're goddamn right
for the one that are intrested the belgian gandarmerie was called "rijkswacht" but they were disbanded in 2001
A TV-show aired in Belgium just 2 months ago about the gendarmerie in the 1980s. It follows the robberies and murders committed by the infamous Brabant Killers (aka the Nivelles Gang) which were never officially solved. The show posits that several high-ranking gendarmes and government officials were implicated in and even accessories to the crimes, along with some far-right Gladio-esque stay-behind units. I saw someone on a website about this whole affair refer to the time period as "the Belgian Years of Lead" (referring to the Anni di Piombo in Italy), which definitely rings true if even half the events happened the way the show speculates they did. Very ironically, it began to air just one week after one of the gendarmes suspected of having some kind of inside knowledge about the gang - Robert Beijer, who is portrayed in the show itself - was extradited from Thailand and repatriated to Belgium.
EDIT: I know it's been said already in these comments, but for those who may have missed it, the Belgian gendarmerie was disbanded in 2001.
Looks great Ian, glad you got one sorted and performed so well.
Very similar to my old FN FAL, 1971 production, sold new in South Africa, semi only with timber stock but plastic furniture.
Metric pattern.
One of my favourite rifles ever owned.
The FN FAL was by far my favourite rifle in the Army, accuracy, power and reach, always found mine reliable.
I had DSA rebuild my Australian parts built Century arms L1a1 (that I’ve had issues with for 20 years) with their Australian upper. After running a magazine through it, I hit a 1 lb. Tannerite at 70 yards with open sights on my first attempt. Rad gun. It runs Magtech ammo well, ZSR not so much
Fantastic to see a bit of the sizing, fitting, assembly and gunsmithing side :) I did a little with a gunsmith over here in the UK but mainly worked on air guns and shotguns, definitely no FAL barrel fitting
That was really cool to see the machinery, tools and how they're used.
It's kinda cool that DSA officially owns the rights to the FAL. The FAL Para is my ultimate dream gun with it's heavy machined receiver, gas piston operation and all steel construction. I've always considered the FAL to be the AK of the West.
Itd be cooler if DSA actually built their products well.
I don't think anyone owns the rights to the FAL now. Theoretically any company in the US could start making them - it's just that DSA specializes in them. DSA has a somewhat mixed reputation in the FAL-ophile community. Most of the time their stuff works but it isn't rare to get a receiver which is out of spec and has to be machined a bit to work.
It's worth noting that Belgium no longer has a Gendarmerie. They were rolled up into the federal police in the fallout of the Dutroux affair. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie_(Belgium) is one place to start to read more.
Well there were many questions raised when Gladio became public knowledge, issues at the time the Nijvel gang went on their killing spree and the fact that their armouries were like self-service with screen door security and quite a whole range of dubious issues all covered by total omerta.
Dutroux was the final nail in that coffin.
Read all about the Dutroux affair.... Now I'm really sad 😔 there are still many unanswered questions
I have one of the DSA FALs using the Israeli parts kits w/ the wood furniture and it has been fantastic. They also did the appropriate markings on the receiver for it as well and i do enjoy that.
Pretty cool seeing some of the process to manufacture the rifle.
Always a pleasure to see well designed jigs and fixtures. If anyone is interested, jigs guide a tool (e.g. a hole for a tool to go through). Fixtures hold. They look simple, but a lot of thought has gone into datuming using 3,2,1 constraining/locations. Ian mentioned the need to parts match FALs (shoulder and bolt carrier), which is why tilting bolt has been superseeded by rotating bolt.
FAL ❤
Cool that you have the Gendarmerie Type C bayonet with it too. Love the FAL.
I get serious nostalgia every time I see a FAL
Carrried an L1A1 SLR in the Australian Army 1979 onwards, loved it!
I've always been a G3, or M14 guy, but just wow. What an incredible rifle. The attention to detail makes PTR and Springfield look like chumps. DSA and FN, what a power combo.
Great Video and nice to see these Rifles being rebuilt!
"FN FAL, the Right Arm of the Free World!"
I have an L1A1 FAL Sporter and love it!!!
in 1974, when I was 12 year old, I was visiting relatives in Belgium. This was at the height of the Opec Oil crisis and terrorism was very much a think in Europe. While waiting for my flight back to Canada, I could not help notice that Belgian Gendarmes patrolling the floor of Zaventem airport in pairs were armed with FN Browning HP's and FN-made Uzi's, while others, singly and armed with FAL's stood watch over the floor from a balcony overlooking the main floor. I could tell these guys meant business.
When I served in the Australian Army back in the 80's this SLR as we called them, was our standard weapon that was issued, ans ons day at the range I put 600 rounds through one, and let me tell you, that your shoulder knows all about IT!!!
"It's a FAL, it's the right arm of the free world"
Proceeds to shoot it left handed
That spall coming back from the spinner at 13:00 !
Love the FAL, for many reasons. Never understood that extra long length of pull on an already long rifle though...
ian finally got his nice FAL.
It's always nice to see the actual manufacturing or modifying in process. I have always wanted a DSA FAL, but i think they stopped selling the one i wanted. All stainless with a fluted barrel. Maybe not historical, but it's what i wanted.
Haven't been to their site for a long time, perhaps i need to take another look.
For those wondering RW stands for "Rijkswacht" which literally translates to 'Imperial Guard', they abandoned that name 20 years ago with police reforms and now its just the federal police.
great to see the machining!
Cool to see your rifle being built
There is something particularly nice about the FAL.
We had Gendarmerie Stations all over IRAN up until the early 90s.
You almost got zinged with spalding from that spinner
Love me a FAL. I come from R1 land so grew up surrounded by our locally produced version.
Me too. Many an hour on the range with an R1 when I was in the SAAF.
It would have been kind of cool to have the markings on each of the receivers be random from all the possible markings, as it would have been if you were buying a complete rifle you would have no way to select which era of rifle you'd get
"TOOL and Die" MAKERS are Worth their Weights in GOLD!
Years ago I purchased a British L1A1 parts kit in like new condition. Dave bought a run of receivers (Imbel?) that were tied up in customs that Springfield ordered but the Clinton ban had muddied the waters. After wending his way through the maze he acquired the receivers and sold them. My friends and I bought 5, 4 more parts kits, and I called Springfield and asked the custom shop if they would assemble the rifles and parkerize. They said OK. Drove 150 miles to drop them off and picked them up 2 weeks later. Of my 4 FN's including 2 Belgium's it's my #1 shooter today.
FAL is a superb service rifle.
I love these rifles. The best to build and a blast to shoot.
Just what I needed today, to be reminded I didn’t get drawn to buy one of the kits 😔
Glad it turned out good though.
i really enjoy the 'how it's made' part of this video. more like that!
I had a FAL in the Dutch army, with a shorter barrel and no rubber pad on the stock, we sometimes made it full auto by loading 1 round, breaking it, remove the fire selector, close it and fire full auto. (witch was not good for the barrel, that's why the dutch army had the same selector as the rifle showed here). The dutch marines had the full auto models. (FN Falo)
I remember when taking out the safety switch, it could fire automatic. More then 30 years ago. And more accurate then next in line FNC!
I built several of the FALs in the 90s with Imbel made receivers when parts kits were under 100 bucks. I also built an L1A1 inch pattern on an Enterprise receiver. I remember when the L1A1s were imported, almost brand new in the 80's and were sold only to Law Enforcement on letterhead as they were full auto receivers with semi auto fire control parts. They were sold for 180 bucks, I remember LN condition, the seller was Century International Arms . I ended up buying two of these rifles as parts after the receivers were removed and turned into the ATF, as a local LE Agency no longer wanted the rifles. My rifles function and shoot very well, but not as accurate as my M14s. One of the last all steel MBRs.
Neat FAL, the sling is back to front the brass plates should be on the inside😊
Finally, a real man's rifle!
What a great looking rifle.
Every time Ian puts out a video on an FAL, it attracts a bunch of weird Rhodies
I'm kinda glad we chose the m16/m4 this thing is pretty big
Did anyone else notice the ricochet that hit in front of Ian on the third shot on the spinner?
Ah the FAL, my dream rifle.
My basic training rifle in the 90's ❤ I had one with a wooden stock.
The FAL might be the most precisely built military rifle of all time. I had a HK 91 and you could tell it was meant for quick production with all the stampings.
The FAL is my fave rifle.... The '80s British Inch Pattern version is my fave of the type! Love 'em all though!
I lived mine much better than what came after.
I’m waiting for my sight rail, tool kit and mags to come in for my DSA Jungle Warrior.
@@neilmorrison7356 I preferred what I had before the SLR! No4 in 7.62 nato is still the best rifle I've ever shot
@@DaveCox56 I had a No4 in 303 until recently which I loved but old SLR 910707was still my favourite we went through a lot together!
The finest weapon I had the privilege of using .. super good looking and super reliable weapon with serious punch power . Sad they are no longer in production .
I always wanted a FAL.. and a Galil.. those are my bucket list rifles to at least shoot one day