Post-WWII, the West had a problem. The Europeans, having paid attention to the recent fracas (especially the Eastern Front), had developed new less-robust service cartridges and rifles for them. The problem? The Americans and their insistence on retaining a 1,000-yard cartridge. All the Euro efforts at lightweight, compact rifles with low recoil and bullpups (we’re looking at you, England) were out the window. The USA was paying the bills, and the USA was going to get what they wanted, cartridge-wise.
Deuidonne Saive, head designer at FN, modified his excellent (but already retro, even in the late 1940s) SAFN, the FN-49, to make it what NATO needed: Out went the fixed 10-shot magazine for detachable 20-shot magazines; out went the wood stock and in came plastic; out went the regular contour and in came a pistol grip.
The end result by 1953 was the FAL.
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The FAL is a gas-operated, piston-driven, self-loading rifle, and it ended up being chambered in 7.62 NATO. The gas system is simple and straightforward, with a gas port in the barrel tapping gas out of the bore to hit the end of the piston. The piston slaps
