Fabrique Nationale was formed as a consortium of small gunmakers to produce Mauser rifles for the Belgian Army, and when that work was complete the company basically had nothing else to do...until they met John Browning. Browning had a new pistols design and needed a manufacturer - and FN happene...

The Browning High Power story begins with a French 1921 request for a new military pistol. FN engineer Dieudonné Saive developed a double stack, single feed magazine and John Browning adapted a Browning 1903 pistol to use it, and this was sent to France for consideration. This pistol worked well ...

The Browning High Power (“Grande Puissance”, aka GP-35) was developed by Fabrique National in Belgium, designed primarily by John Browning’s apprentice Dieudonné Saive. It began in the very early 1920s as a pistol designed for a new French Army requirement, but eventually split into two separate ...

After World War Two, the Belgian military wanted to replace its many Sten guns with a better standard SMG. The solution was designed by Colonel Georges Vigneron in 1953, and adopted by all branches of the Belgian military (as well as the Force Publique in the Belgian Congo) in 1954. This is a ver...

The Vigneron was adopted to replace the Sten in Belgian service – so is it actually better than the Sten? In my opinion, yes. The sights and overall handling are better. The pistol grip is a welcome addition, although its contours make the grip safety a bit difficult for me to fully depress.

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...

Someone digging through the warehouses an FN in Herstal found 400 FAL rifles turned in by the Belgian Gendarmerie when they upgraded to newer arms...and they decided to send them to the US as parts kits. So FN America has these 400 kits now, and they are selling them off via lottery (free entry f...

The FNC (Fabrique Nationale Carabine) was FN’s followup to the unsuccessful CAL rifle. Chambered for the newly-adopted 5.56mm NATO cartridge, the FNC uses a long stroke gas piston system very reminiscent of the AK, combined with a stamped upper and milled aluminum lower. After about 5 years of de...

Today, we're taking the FN FNC out to the range to see how it handles...

Bloke tries to go out for a night of well-protected wenching, leaving his beautiful platinum-haired wife behind. Ends up staying in to talk about a very gentlemanly Belgian bulldog revolver in 7.5mm Swiss from before WW1, fit to grace the pocket of any well-heeled fool. [It's early days with the ...

Produced by Alexandre Fagnus of Liege, this is a military style, six-shot, .450 caliber revolver with a particularly interesting and unusual unloading mechanism. The rear half of the trigger guard is a lever which can be rotated 90 degrees out from the frame, unlocking the barrel and cylinder. Th...

FN introduced the paratrooper folding-stock version of the FAL rifle in the early 1960s, and it became a very popular addition to their rifle line. Since the recoil spring on the standard pattern FAL runs down the length of the buttstock, fitting a side folding stock required a redesign to the in...

The CAL (Carabine Automatique Leger; Light Automatic Carbine) was FN's first attempt to produce a 5.56mm rifle as a counterpart to the 7.62mm FAL. While light and handy, the CAL was a relatively complex and expensive design, and failed to garner many sales. About 12,000 were made in total before ...

Shooting .32 S&W Long Wadcutter in a 7.5 Swiss Ordnance chambered Belgian Bulldog

Sometimes Enfield does things right. Normally when they're just polishing up an existing design. Like the L1A1 SLR, the British version of the FN FAL.

The Chap takes you through the 1871 Belgian Rifle, a very Winchester High Wall falling block type of single shot black powder affair, built for the Belgian Civil Guard and widely adopted in South America

It's always interesting to be able to try two particular pistols out next to each other on the range, particularly when one is a modification of the other. In this case, the Daddy-Gat is a 1974-dated FN Browning GP-35 Hi-Power, and the Son-Gat is an FN BDA-9 (not to be confused with the other BDA...

Well, there's only one fun way to test whether an FN Browning Hi Power magazine will fit and function in an FN BDA-9 (aka HP-DA or DA-HP, as in double action Hi Power) and vice-versa, and that's to test it out on the range! Will we confirm or refute what the Intartubes says about it?

With a so...

Yet more Browning Hi-Power GP35 mechanical nerdery for you: this time it's what's simultaneously really clever but really dumb/awful/craptastic about the trigger mechanism.

The Browning Hi Power GP35 has possibly the worst magazine safety ever devised, and this vid explains why, with reference...

Some mechanical nerdery for you: magazine safeties / disconnects sound good on paper, but in my view are dangerous and counterproductive, so should not be a thing. But they are. So here we are.

The Browning Hi Power GP35 has possibly the worst magazine safety ever devised, and this vid explai...