I just finished read a book about John Browning. It showed a picture of a wall of long guns he invented, in the photo was a picture that appeared to be a FAL being one of his inventions. But there was no mention in the book of Browning inventing the FAL in the list of firearms he invented. Did Browning invent the FAL?

My understanding is that while some concepts Browning developed were included in the weapon, just like a lot of other concepts from other weapons and inventors, Saive engineered the weapon from scratch unlike the HP which was a JMB design he completed after JMB's death.  While FN Browning invented the rifle, I've never once heard JMB get attribution as an inventor of the FN FAL.

Very interesting....JMB was a gifted man and may have started something with that.

Colt Monitor maybe?

Page 115 of book, John M. Browning American Gunmaker. I owned an FAL it sure looks to be a FAL to me, IMHO. He had a long working relationship with Fabrique Nationale.

He died 21 years prior to the FAL though.

What FAL, or variation thereof, was developed prior to WW2? Didnt J M Browning die in the 20's?

No he did not.

I've always felt the FAL was like a "final evolution" of the Tokarev SVT-38.

That's akin to saying the AR is the final evolution of the MP44.   Totally different weapons of totally different designs in totally different chamberings from totally different nations.

The FAL and SVT 38/40 are both semi-auto battle rifles.  The similarities end there.

The AR and MP44 both share a dust cover; that's got to mean something right?





Seriously though, do you not find the FN-49 and the FAL have similarities? If not, then sure, every unique design IS different. A Chevy pickup is not a Ford pickup.





If you do find similarities, then you should take a hard look at the SVT, which predates both.





From Wikipedia:


"The SVT-38 is a gas-operated rifle with a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston above the barrel and a tilting bolt.
This configuration gained wider acceptance later. There is some dispute
about who exactly first developed this operating principle, as the
SVT's mechanism (as implemented in 1935 competition prototype) closely
resembles Dieudonne Saive's design of 1937; Saive eventually designed both the FN-49 and FN FAL, which employ similar operating principles."





Saive was also John Browning's assistant at the FN plant.





 

SVT-40 (top) and SVT-38. See how totally different they are?