FN Saive submachine gun
Pistolet-Mitrailleur FN
This
submachine gun was produced in the early 1950s by Fabrique Nationale of
Belgium, and was designed by the prolific FN engineer Dieudonné Saive.
It was essentially a copy of the Italian Beretta Model 38. It operated
on a straight-blowback action firing from an open bolt. As per the
Beretta, the cocking handle was disconnected from the bolt and did not
reciprocate with it, and the ejection port was situated on the left
side of the magazine housing. The barrel was also a close copy
of the Beretta's, with a perforated barrel jacket and a four-slot muzzle
compensator. A two-position fire selector switch and a safety lever were
fitted near the trigger group. In addition, the Saive submachine gun
took Beretta magazines of 20, 30, or 40 rounds.
The FN Saive submachine gun was made in two variations, a commercial
model with a solid wooden stock and fixed magazine housing, and a
compact model with a folding wire stock and swiveling magazine housing.
The latter gun may have been intended for French military trials, but in
any case neither version was successful. There was little market value
in this design, especially since Beretta were still selling the Model 38
series for a reasonable price. The Saive design disappeared amidst the
flood of cheaper post-war SMGs and FN abandoned it in favour of
producing the Uzi under license from Israel.
Compacting version of the FN Saive submachine gun, made for French
trials.
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