FN MAG: Best of the Western GPMGs
Forgotten Weapons
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18m
The FN MAG (Mitrailleuse d’Appui Général – General Purpose Machine Gun) was designed by Ernest Vervier, who took over from Dieudonné Saive as FN’s lead military arms designer in 1954. The Swedish government approached FN about building a belt-fed version of the BAR, which they had been unsuccessful at. Vervier took on the job, and in 1957 designed the MAG. It is essentially a BAR action turned upside down and mated with an MG42 type feed system. It was adopted by the Swedes in 1958, in 6.5mm (although they changed to 7.62mm NATO in the early 1960s).
The MAG is constructed like a Browning gun, with riveted side plates. This contributes to both its exception reliability and durability, and all its substantial weight (26lb / 12kg). Ince its first introduction, more than 100 countries have adopted the MAG, and more than a million have been built. The US first accepted it in 1977 as a coaxial tank gun, and then brought on more variants through the 1980s and 1990s until it finally replaced the M60 in 1995 a a standard infantry weapon in .30 caliber.
There is no doubt that the MAG will continue to see use worldwide for decades to come. The particular example is a registered pre-86 dealer sample, one of very few in the United States.
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