Hi James,
I am looking at purchasing some FN-FAL [1] (metric) magazines and would like to know which are the best ones to buy? – John Y.
JWR Replies: As I mentioned in my FN-FAL/L1A1 FAQ [2], nearly all of the government issue 20 round metric FN-FAL magazines on the market were made on Belgian (FN) tooling, and work fine. (Such as Israeli, Brazilian, Argentine, et cetera.) Even used FAL magazines work fine if they have no dents. Since they are the most fragile part of the rifle and a large number of magazines might be needed WTSHTF [3], I now recommend buying at least 25 magazines per rifle. That might sound excessive, but I tend to look at retreat logistics from the imagined perspective of my yet-to-be-born grandchildren. I am confident that someday they will stand by my gravestone and thank me for my foresight. With nasty Federal gun legislation looming in the U.S., it is now a particularly important time to stock up on your “lifetime supply” of full capacity magazines. If you can afford to, buy some extras for barter. They may very well double or triple in value in the next year.
Some of the best prices on used FAL magazines can be found at: Inter-Ordnance [4], (and BTW they also have great prices on inch pattern L1A1 [5] magazines) and the some of the best prices on new magazines can be found at: WhatACountry.com [6] (They have brand new Israeli mags and Belgian magazines.) When contacting either company, please mention that you heard about them through SurvivalBlog, since hey are both likely candidates for SurvivalBlog advertisers. Thanks!