[ Belgian Congo FN 49 ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the
Royal Army Museum in Brussels,
part of the Belgian War Heritage Institute.
And we're taking a look at some of the particularly rare
and interesting firearms in their reference collection.
And this one is perhaps
the very rarest pattern of FN 49 rifle.
This is an FN 49 sniper from the Belgian Congo
Now the Belgian Congo was of course a Belgian colony
until 1960 when Congo received its independence.
And up until that time, military security was enforced in the colony by the
This consisted of about 25,000 men.
Its officers were all white Europeans, mostly Belgians, but also a few other Western Europeans.
Its NCOs were then half European whites and half native Congolese black soldiers.
And the enlisted men were all native Congolese.
This was an organisation that was equipped at the time
with mostly 1930 Mauser rifles until they ordered FN 49s.
They purchased a total of 2,795 FN 49s for the force.
Those were delivered ... between 1951 and 1954.
So they got 1,500 rifles in 1951, they got another 1,100 rifles in 1952
and then they got an order of 185 sniper versions in 1954.
Now all of these were actually AFNs, not SAFNs.
These are the full-auto capable version of the FN 49.
And this particular one, interestingly, was actually not one of the original snipers.
It is one of the 1952 contract guns that was later converted
into a sniper pattern for the
So let's take a closer look at some of the markings
and the few little details that make this distinctive to the Belgian Congo.
Basically all of the FN 49 contracts had one crest or another on the top of the receiver.
And the most distinctive thing about this is that crest.
So we have the lion and the crown for the Belgian Congo.
And then the marking below is FP for
And that date obviously indicates this is part of the 1952 delivery, as does the serial number.
We have that serial number there on the side of the receiver,
as well as the top cover and the stock.
And that puts this rifle right at the very beginning of that second delivery.
And of course all of the FN 49s (well there's our serial number again),
and then all the FN 49s were made by FN in Herstal, Belgium.
In addition to that crest, the Belgian Congo contract guns are all chambered in .30-06 calibre.
They will all have stock recoil bolts here.
The muzzle is just this plain cap.
The
And they also purchased bayonets with the guns.
These are all AFN models, so they have a selector switch here.
You'll notice the little like proprietary thread screwdriver thing there,
that is because the guns were essentially locked in the semi-auto mode.
... Under Belgian army regulations the armourer was the only one in the squad with the tool
to allow you to unscrew that so that you could switch the rifle into automatic mode.
Needless to say, a .30-06 like this in a traditional wood stock
is not the most practical or controllable rifle in full-auto.
The 10 round magazine kind of limits its utility in full-auto.
And much like the ... M14 and also many of the FAL rifles in military service
these were generally locked in semi-auto. Certainly more practical in semi-auto.
Certainly more practical in semi-auto as sniper rifles.
This uses the standard ECHO mount.
It is a quick detach scope, so I can unscrew these two thumb wheels and lift that right off.
We've got a pair of round lugs that lock into the scope base, right there.
Also while we're here I'll point out, the cheek riser was a standard element in FN factory sniper rifles.
That just brings your cheek weld up so that it's properly in line with the scope.
The scope here is a 4x power magnification scope made by OIP.
Their logo right there. ABL 1951, so this is a Belgian Army scope
that was put onto this Belgian Congo rifle. And that is scope number 29.
And what we have here is a dual marking in French,
Tireur d'élite
and then we have essentially the same thing abbreviated in Dutch.
The windage and elevation dials on these scopes have
really good positive clicks on them, which is kind of cool to see.
And then a BDC that runs out to 800 metres.
And the reticle in that scope is just a very simple German post.
It is worth noting that you can drop down under the scope mount to still use the iron sights.
Within just a couple of years of the arrival of FN 49s in the Belgian Congo
they began to be replaced by FALs.
So starting in 1955 the
They also right in this time period were getting Vigneron submachine guns.
All of which would be used by the organisation
up until 1960 when Congo got its independence.
The province of Katanga seceded from the rest of the Congo and civil war broke out.
And the civil war would last a number of years, it's still not a particularly safe area to this day.
However, there was ... specific Belgian support
for some of the Katangan separatist forces, rebel forces.
The arms of the
and were used by forces on both sides of the civil war.
And ... got their way into much of the rest of Central Africa ... after the civil war ended.
So these are rifles that are still found throughout Africa today.
This is part of the reason that these are so rare in western collections today
is because they never really came back from the Belgian Congo.
They were used there, and then went into basically rebel and individual hands,
and were never exported in any quantity at all.
It's also interesting to point out that the Katangan Rebellion
is like the one place in military history where
you will actually see both sides of an armed conflict using FN 49s.
Because the UN sent a peacekeeping force to Katanga
that included a contingent of Indonesian soldiers.
And the Indonesians had also purchased FN 49s, which they brought with them.
And so you ended up with FN 49s on both sides.
At any rate these are, as I just said, extremely rare today.
So a big thanks to the Belgian Army Museum for giving me access to this one to show to you guys.
If you are ever in Brussels, I would highly recommend taking some time to stop by
and check out the museum. They have a tremendous number of really cool artifacts
from World War One, the inter-war years, World War Two,
and more, all out on display in a number of large galleries.
So check it out, hopefully you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.