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As Sweden was looking to adopt a new self-loading infantry rifle in the 1950s, one of the contenders was a modernized version of the Ljungman. The Fm/57 is one of the last iterations of that project. It is chambered for 6.5x55mm but uses the short-stroke gas piston conversion that we previously saw on the 7.62mm NATO conversions of the Ljungman. It also uses a more refined lower receiver than its Fm/54 predecessor, with a nose-in-rock-back 20 round magazine and a folding stock. It was entered into formal trials against the GRAM-63 (another domestic Swedish design), the M14, G3, SIG 510, FAL, and AR10…which it lost.
Way back when, I was really hoping Ian would get to these… And, behold! He has!
Of all the transitional weapons between the old-school wooden-stocked individual weapons, and the modern ones… These just fascinate. You can see the underlying weapon, still, but it’s been “modernized”. The FN-49 -to-FAL transition is a lot more “hidden”; you have to look for the similarities. Here, they’re right out in the open.
I’d like to know specifically why the Swedes went to short-stroke gas vs. the old direct gas impingement mechanism; what did they find? What were the reasons for it?
Likely lost in whatever hell designer’s working notes go to, just like Stoner & company left nothing behind for how they arrived at the AR-10’s ergonomics. Sad, that… I’d love to know the details. There’s probably a little notebook somewhere at Ekilstuna, hidden away, and nobody knows what it represents.
For a frigid Nordic nation with ice and snow, the clever little tube to prevent the metal folding stock of the kpist m/45 and this prototype from freezing to the firer’s face is a nice touch!
Now we’re all waiting with bated breath for the episode on the Gram 63 prototype! Nice foreshadowing…