The FAMAS

As I mentioned earlier, one of my bunkmates, Jean has served in the French army. (He's also going to give me a website where I can buy French camo- eat you heart out Evin.) So, me being me, I asked him what he thought of the FAMAS. Here are the main points:

1) The version in use by most of the French Army is the G1, this is the model with the built in bipod and which utilizes proprietory magazines. The G2 version which takes STANAG magazines (That's M-16 compatible, NATO standard magazines for those of you who are not airsoft. gun junkies.) is mostly used by the French Navy and by special units.

2) It's heavy. With a magazine it wieghs in at around 4 kilos, compared with the 2.5-ish and M4 weighs. This is Jean's only complaint.

3) The paddle safety in front of the trigger switches the weapon from safe, to semi and auto. An additional knob on the stock toggles either full auto or 3 round burst.

4) There are flip up rear sights. Open for up to 50 meters and two apertures for medium and long range respectively. Mounting optics is a pain in the rear and needs major work.

5) The barrel is on the heavy side to allow the firing of rifle grenades. The current issue grenades have a bullet-proof plate in the back allowing the to be launched with regular ammo rather than a special cartrige.

As an additional note on French Army kit, he reccomends avoiding French military boots at all costs as they are extremely uncomfortable.

Well I'm off to lunch now, just having cleaned up rom a morning dip in the Med. The water's fine. Also Israel finally has an Olympic medal. Bronze in windsurfing.