BOOM April Issue 16 | Page 48

GUNS & AMMO The Untold FN Story I t’s very unusual to find a company more than 125 years old that appears to have more history ahead of it than it does behind it, but such certainly seems to be the case with Fabrique Nationale (FN). FN Herstal is part of the Herstal Group, which focuses on both defense and the shooting sports. In addition to FN, the group contains other iconic brands such as Browning and Winchester Firearms. One of the interesting things about FN is that it is Belgian. Belgium never set out to conquer the world. The country never was a large military power. Yet it has produced the legendary Hi-Power 9mm pistol, the FN FAL, the M240- and M249-series of crew-served machine guns, not to mention the work performed on other Browning machine guns as well as many other designs. While Belgium certainly never set a course for world domination, the firearms produced by FN have greatly expanded this modest nation’s sphere of influence. Belgium especially had long been recognized as one of the preeminent arms manufacturing countries in the world. There were a number of larger and smaller firms manufacturing everything from some of the finest, most highly decorated sporting arms through contract military weap- onry down to simple, inexpensive handguns, gallery rifles and shotguns.FN’s story begins in 1889, when Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre (National Factory of Military Weapons) was formed to manufacture 150,000 Model 89 Mauser rifles for the Belgian military. Originally designed in Germany, this rifle was produced under contract from Ludwig Loewe and provided excellent service to the Belgians through World War I and well into the 1930s. In 1897, FN contracted American firearms genius John Moses Browning. It was one of the most important, far-reaching partnerships in the history of firearms. Beginning with the world’s first true pocket automatic, the FN Model 1900, the team introduced the most cleverly designed, best-built handguns, long guns and military small arms ever conceived. A short list would include not only the 1900 but the 1910 pocket auto (one of which was nefariously used by Bosnian anarchist Gavrilo Princip to assassinate heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand, precipitating World War I), Auto 5 shotgun, Browning Superposed shotgun, .25 Baby Browning vest pocket auto, Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), several .22 repeating rifles of various stamp 48 | BOOM