Egyptian FN49 Sniper (Late Pattern)

Egypt was the first country to adopt the FN-49 rifle, and its purchases actually predated FN’s development of a method for mounting a telescopic sight to the rifles. So Egypt came up with its own solution, using Czech Meopta 2.5 power scopes.

However, by the time Egypt was making its last orders for FN49 rifles, FN had begun offering Echo mounts for telescopic sights. So, on the last order of 2,000 rifles, Egypt ordered guns with additional third sling swivels and converted a number of them into snipers after delivery. They did this by adding FN/Echo pattern scope mounts and converting their Meopta scopes to fit them. Original pattern Egyptian FN49 snipers are virtually nonexistant in the United States, but a number of the later pattern examples were imported and are available on the collectors’ market.

11 Comments

  1. I wonder how people considered this good for sniping. Self-loading weapons tend to vibrate a bit more than manually-repeating ones while cycling… or the idea could just be squad-level marksmanship used to take out the opposing “fearless leader.” Just kidding…

    • It is crucial to ask correct question(s). In this case: was its spread small enough for given task?. Apparently it was, considered they ordered them more than once.

      “(…)Self-loading weapons tend to vibrate a bit more than manually-repeating ones while cycling(…)”
      This is often repeated, however it should be noted that modern self-loading rifles could also provide low spread for example SR-25: https://modernfirearms.net/en/sniper-rifles/standart-caliber-rifles/u-s-a-standart-caliber-rifles/mk-11-mod-0-m110-sr-25-eng/
      is said to be capable of 0.5 MOA accuracy with match ammo. I do not know how much source of this might be trusted, but I doubt they would publish false information which could be proved wrong.
      Anyway, back to Belgian weapons, after WWII FN restarted production of bolt-action repeating rifle/carbine already exported widely in inter-war period. Photos of short rifle version of post-war production:
      http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/fusils%20reglementaires/1%201951%20mauser%20fn%20gb.htm
      Naturally, long rifle variant would be better suited for conversion to sniper version, but I think FN would deliver longer-barreled variant if customer wished so.
      So far I know FN repeating bolt-action rifle was indeed developed into sniper rifle called FN 30-11 but this was done in 1970s.
      Does any user of FN bolt-action repeating rifle tried to adopt it into sniper rifle earlier?

      • I’d say, in accordance with previous remarks by two notable gentlemen, that this was not full-bread “sniper rifle”. While during the war Americans, Germans and Soviets have semiauto rifles equipped with field-ready scopes, it was merely an attempt to be more efficient with semi-auto rifles.

        When you quote the AR10 as a “sniper-like” rifle in similar outline as the subject one, it is useful to bear on mind that the AR10 is inherently more accurate due to its operating system, not necessarily destined to fit a particular MOA prescription. If you also look at SVD in comparison, you find it will typically produce somewhere between 1-2 MOA, which is plenty satisfactory for all intents and purposes – but also decidedly not a sniper rifle.
        But then, definitions are prone to change during time.

        • If you asked me what kind of repeatability/ accuracy I consider as deserving sniper rifle name, if would likely be with no more deviation than 1 MOA, point of aim to point of impact. With the mentioned AR10 as exception, there are hardly any other semi-auto rifles which can achieve it.

        • “(…)quote the AR10(…)”
          Wait. I did not mentioned that, only SR-25 (call it Mk.11 mod.0 if you wish) developed 1990s NOT AR10.

  2. I recently bought a regular Egyptian FN49 that has been molested.
    The bayonet lug is milled off, the magazine capacity reduced to five rounds by the welding of a little piece of tube inside the magazine body, and the unit disc removed.
    Does anyone knows who could have done such terrible things to my rifle?
    Considering I’m in Switzerland, I would say maybe Germany, but I don’t know enough about their laws to be sure.

    • Good grief! I have no idea who “defanged” your weapon, but it’s ridiculous that such authorities would be TERRIFIED of a bayonet lug, since most people don’t use bayonets anyway! Perhaps the reason the thing was “demilitarized” was because it was obviously a powerful military-grade self-loading rifle. In contrast, I can’t imagine a squad of armed riot police cowering at the sight of a SINGLE civilian with a glorified field knife stuck on the end of a century-old bolt-action long-rifle (with the rifle clearly not mistakable for any modern self-loader).

    • Cutting off bayonet lugs and protective ears for the front sight were law in Germany for a long time, but the brass disc never mattered one bit. A limiter to five rounds in the magazine I have never heard of. Maybe for sport shooting, as most bolt actions only five rounds? But that is just a wild guess.

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