Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten weapons.com
I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at the Rock Island auction company taking a look at a Springfield SAR-4800
in 5.56, it's a FAL, but in 5.56
That is an interesting and unusual rifle. These were imported by Springfield Armory in the early 1990s
So I believe '92 and '95 or '92 through '95
in total about 700 of them came into the country in this configuration
and
When they actually came into the US they were all post 1989 post import ban guns
Which means when they came in they had dummy flash hiders and they had big ol solid thumbhole stocks
However, with the expiration of the assault weapons ban in the United States
it has been possible weakly to rebuild these rifles using enough american parts into a configuration like this and
Whoever had this one went one step farther and instead of just getting rid of the thumbhole stock
They went ahead and converted it to the actual paratrooper configuration, which is pretty cool
So this rifle was manufactured by embel in Brazil. Brazil had been making or working on
556 adaptations of the basic foul system in the guise of the MD
series of rifles the MD 1, 2, 3 and then MD 97
and i'm sure there was the potential for some interest in those rifles in the US
but that would have been meant going through the import hurdle of getting those guns approved as new semi-auto designs and
Especially with the onset of the assault weapons ban there really wasn't any, there was no possibility of doing that. They didn't want to
do that and then also do thumbhole stocks and this and that and
Would I suspect in Bell and Springfield realized is hey we already have the foul
We can just adapt it to 5.56 it's already been approved for import like yeah
We have to get an import permit for it
But the mechanism is identical, all the safety mechanisms are the same, all of the you know
the prevention of conversion to full auto all that stays the same so it ought to be pretty easy to import and it, in fact, was
We have a marking here on the upper receiver, Springfield Armory, Geneseo, Illinois, but made in Brazil
These have the same designation as the 7.62 NATO rifles that Springfield was bringing in that
1005 SA 48 match is on all of these receivers
along with Springfield Armory's logo
The really relevant part is here on the other side which identifies this as a SAR 4800 in
5.56 millimeter
Serial numbers 1647, It's a sporter. It was a post ban import.
In total they imported about 700 of these, the numbers serial numbers started a thousand and go up to about
1700 and for the record SAR 48
Without the zeros was Springfield's pre-ban import designation after the assault weapons ban import ban
they turned it into 4,800 anytime you see a
4,800 that indicates that the rifle came into the u.s. In postman configuration
now the 5.56 conversion is of course the main mechanical point of interest here, what they did was basically
Just they put a magazine well conversion inside the original magazine. Well, this is now a magazine release
So the rifle uses standard ar-15 mags
All this button does is simply reach across to the other side right there
Where it acts as a little catch
That hooks into the ARS magazine catch
Now the original FAL mag release would have been right here. This has been replaced by a solid fixture
That helps hold this magazine well in place
If I pop this open I can show you the inside
Theres that
now
Because this is in the Para configuration, there's no recoil uh, There's no space for a recoil spring to go into the buttstock
So instead, on the Para guns
By the way this rifle has a little recoil buffer in it
On the para guns the recoil spring was built into the top cover, mounted in the top cover. So
This is separate from the 5.56 conversion
This is simply a new bolt carrier and a new top cover to go along with a new lower receiver and new buttstock
the relevant part for our purposes
Is the bolt. You can see that this is serialized to the gun
1647 and this is a totally standard
7.62 bolt
Except that the breech face in the front has been cut for a 5.56 diameter cartridge instead of a 7.62
For comparison. Here's a 7 6 2 bolt. This is an FN produced bolt. This is an embellished bolt
So there are a couple little differences in some of the exact manufacturing cuts in here. But dimensionally these two are
identical
On that side
On the top
You see the difference when we look at the bolt faces
So 7.62 & 5.56, the extractors of course are a little bit different as well
to properly match the the rim diameter, but
Really?
That's all that's going on there. They just replace the bolt along with the ejector just to be the right length and
Set in this inner magazine insert
And a 5.56 barrel and that's it. You got yourself a 5.56 caliber foul
there is an interesting conundrum on the collectability of a rifle like this because you're looking at
collectors value versus practical value and on the one hand
the practicality suffers a little bit in this because you've got all the weight and mass of a
7.62 NATO rifle
But then it's been converted down to 5.56
So this is like one of the heaviest rifles in 5.56 in its class
On the other hand, of course that weight does help tamp down recoil a bit, but then at the same time
You've got some really purist collector sorts who are interested in rifles the way they actually were produced and came into the US
Which means with that fake flash hider with the original thumbhole stock
Those people aren't going to be super happy because this rifle has been converted to, well, to a whole different kind of pattern
However, it's a much more practical pattern. It's a way cooler pattern in my mind
I think thumbhole stocks are kind of ugly and I just don't like them in general
And so the idea of taking this 5.56
4800 and converting it to paratrooper. I think that's pretty cool
Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments below if you want to find out more about Rock Island
You can check out the links in the description text below to their Instagram page and their YouTube channel
They have some cool stuff there and they always have a ton of cool stuff in their auctions. So check them out. Thanks for watching