Hey guys,
my father has a FNC (semi auto) and has been looking at converting it and hes ready to take the plunge, accept i cant find an FNC sear and have no idea how much they go for now. Anybody have any good recommendations? Im staying away from an already converted one as my father already has a FNC. Also, whats your general take on the FNC, for under 10k seems like a good deal for a 5.56 MG and a good "supplement" until i get ready to get a Colt M16.

Did you try over at Bowers page?

I know some guys were holding out some hopes for the importation of some parts kits a few years ago, but alas none of those ever made it.

Off topic, unsolicited advice to follow:  

You do realize that spare FNC parts are nearly non-existent (with a few exceptions)?  Given that your father already has the semi, my preferred path would be to buy an already converted rifle and use the semi for spares.  The FNC is clearly a robust, military design, but something is going to break/wear out eventually if it is used.

I know there is a large difference in cost, but consider the loss in value of a full-auto FNC with a broken part that can't be replaced.

You should see the pile of spares I have for my Maxim and Vickers...

Something I've had good luck with is placing a WTB ad for a specific machinegun.  I'd place an ad here, in the NFA in the EE, Sturm, Uzi Talk, and I'd invest the $5.00 for an ad at Subguns.  That way the sellers come to you.  I've sold a couple a couple of machineguns.  You would not believe the "tire kickers" you get.  There are guys that just don't want to deal with all that.  So they been thinking of selling, but don't want to go through that.  So a WTB ad tells that guy thinking of selling, here is a guy that has cash and wants to buy.  Some of these sellers realize that it is worth a lower sales price to avoid the "tire kickers" and make a deal with a real buyer.

I agree that buying a FNC that is already converted would be a good thing.  I've shot a FNC.  Great rifle, but parts are non existent.    As time goes by that will get worse, not better.  That is why such a great machinegun is so cheap.  YMMV.

Scott

My honest take is that at this point the vast majority of the FNC sears out there have simply been installed into hosts.

Sure,...there are still folks out there who have small number of uninstalled sears .  I even personally know where one of those remaining uninstalled sears is located  

However,  the days of FNC sears being offered every other week on sub and sturm for $3 to $4K are most likely over for good.   The only one I know for sale publically  is with Vaughn at Autoweapons.com.   He has had one for some time and its probably because he is asking ~$10K for it last I head.

Another issue is that unlike HK or AR sears, nobody bothers to remove an already installed sear from an FNC host because the host is basically left as a machinegun as the hammer will follow the bolt home.  

An HK host you can easily throw a $200 semi auto trigger pack on the host and calling it a day or just remove the full auto FCG from an AR.  With the FNC there is no easy way to replace the lower with the hole drilled in it or even replace the modded fire control parts.  There is also the issue of where else are you going to move the sear to....another FNC host?  Once that sear gets effectively married up to that host there is almost zero incentive to ever remove it and sell it separately with the exception of some sort of kaboom type event that destroyed the host gun.

If you really want to  convert the FNC you have, I would agree with the other posters that you should put an ad on subguns and sturm.  I suspect that an offer of 7 to 8K would shake one loose in a reasonable timeframe. You could also try offering 5 or 6K and see if there are any takers.

If you can live with another host gun, I would suggest  just sell your existing FNC (or keep it as spare parts as mentioned above) and buy an already converted host for $9 to 10K.

Regarding the spare parts, surely some enterprising person could start a machine shop dedicated to keeping these things running and make a few bucks?  I mean, if parts are really impossible to get, why not buy a host and just start copying stuff?  The patents have got to be expired at this point...

Would be nice is somebody would.  I think there are couple of  issues the prevent this from happening.

There are not that many FNCs out there.  My back of cocktail napkin math says there are ~6000 semis total that were brought in, of which roughly half have been turned into MGs if you go off the S&H serial number schema.   Take high end numbers and there are 4000 MG hosts in the wild.   Maybe half of those get shot on any regular basis.  Figure a 5% failure rate a year and you have maybe 100 that break "something" every year.

Overall most people wait until a part breaks before they buy it.   Look at Green Mountain.  Folks moaned for years about not having spare barrels and when they did pop up on GB, they went for $500+.   Green Mountain made a new run of barrels and it took them forever to sell out the first lot.   There was a uzitalk thread about them being out of stock at one point and folks posting they wish they had bought one when they were available.  I see the guy who made a run of titanium firing pins recently is still trying to sell them off on gunbroker as well.

A large percentage of FNC owners are buying them as entry level guns and are saving/scrapping up every last penny purchase the host in the first place. As a result a significant number of new FNC purchasers are not thinking about stocking up on spare parts when they first buy them.  Those folks then eventually fall into the "wait until the part breaks camp", before they buy a spare part.

So ultimately somebody would do the community a favor and reverse engineering bolts, gas blocks, extractors, & slides and then make 100 or 200 of each. They would then probably sit on them for 5 years or more to sell them all off.

If there is one thing that would have been a seller, I would think it would be a 22 kit.  Now with 22LR being $30 to $50 a box, even a 22 kit would probably be a slow mover as well.

My guess is that the economies are just not there or somebody would have done it.

People have been asking that same question for years, and we are still in the same spot.  Ask me about the sheet metal feed boxes I made for the Lakeside Machine Razorback upper sometime.    I sunk about $5,000 into a producing something "badly in need" and after two years have barely broken even.  The demand is not there to support such an activity.

Yeah the FNC will mainly be "medicine" for the FA addiction i want so desperately to have until i can save for the US Prop M16A1 i really want

SH and Curtis Higgins feels there is more. I met him at the SAR show and he was stating that there is more tied up in the courts or something.


have you checked with http://www.tscmachine.com/FN_Herstal.html

They made some pretty bad ass updates for the FNC

Curtis used to be partners with Tom Seslar, the "S" of "S&H".  Together they made many if not most of the FNC Sears and were early HK conversion pioneers. They parted ways in a very ugly manner,  Curtis taking the "S&H Arms" name and Tom adopting "S&H Arms of Oklahoma". Big court battle and a lot of their assets are stuck in limbo.

With the advances in 3D printing it should eventually be viable to have all of the data stored to make most of the small, unique parts, I think. Things like barrels are a different matter.

Green Mountain made a run of barrels 2 years back.  It took them a while to sell out so they're probably not in a hurry to make more.

The only FNC part that is really critical is the bolt and these are like hen's teeth.  The hammer, selector, and other parts can be easily machined.

Is an M16 worth 2.5 times a FNC? Not really and I've never heard of a part breaking on an FNC.

Barrels are available and some spare parts floating around.  

I love both my FNC and M16A1

Perhaps not, but a more generic RR M16 is worth 1.5 times an FNC, IMHO.

If you can get a M16 for 15K, then I agree.

I still believe the FNC is the most undervalued transferable available.

I read somewhere that there are actually MORE registered FNC sears than there are FNCS to host them, something like 9000 sears for only 6000 rifles.

I bought a minty FNC para folder about 9yrs ago for around $1500ish I think.

Back then sears were everywhere for $2800 ... unfortunately I live in WA state so that didn't help me much.

Sub guns - sturmggweher would be where I would look for starters

I think the AC-556 models are the most undervalued transferables.  Factory gun, three modes of fire, complete parts kits available, good factory magazines, a good .22lr conversion kit already exists, cheaper than a FNC...

This. I bought a lightning link for 7k in 2013 though, and that works for me.

Sears are out there, just people not letting them go.

That's so true.
I have multiple HK sears & RLL, but I would not sell them unless my son pursuing for Phd.

I think the reason no one makes FNC parts domestically is that the demand is very low...   mostly due to parts not breaking.   And many MG owners don't really shoot that much.

The one part that would be nice to have as a replacement is a bolt.   But even if you needed one, you could buy a semi FNC for $3200.   Sell off the other parts for at least $2k.    Yeah, it would be helluva of expensive bolt at $1200, but what is the real demand out there?   I have only heard of one bolt ever breaking.

If machine gun collecting truly becomes a hobby of the mega rich, every collection can easily be anchored by an M16, there are plenty to go around.   To complement a collection with an FNC will be hard.   There are far fewer of them.  Besides H&K and the few Augs and AR70s, there aren't many European modern MGs out  there.   And the FNC is made by FN and very closely related to a SCAR.

We seem to be on the cusp of a revolution in manufacturing where you may be able to order up any part for which a design is known.  Little details like surface treatments and hardening, which will be important for some specialized firearms parts will still remain out of reach of such on-demand computerized manufacturing for a good long while, but at least raw "in the white" replacement parts may soon be available, which can then be taking to local shops for the necessary extra steps.

ha I know a guy with like 10 FNC sears in a box somewhere.

I have heard that too but don't believe it.
Who registered 9000 sears at $200 a pop ?
Unless someone had serious inside info.

Tell him to get his damn degree already.
The class three world cant wait

An SOT could have registered as many as he wanted for free, once he paid for the license.

This, Class 2 manufacturers don't pay per-item to register them, just their flat yearly special occupational tax.  Transfer fees then apply to subsequent transfers if both parties are not SOTs at the time of the transfer.