I am a complete noob to anything transferable. But I’ve been thinking lately about parking a few bucks into something I could have a little fun with. LGS just got a 4 position 5.56 FNC this morning and offered it to me for $17k. Looks to be in great shape, but I have no idea if it’s a good deal or a great deal. Since this particular LGS is ran by a great guy, I assume it’s a deal, just not sure how good of one. Any insight into current pricing would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Registered receiver or sear? It's fair price assuming it's in good condition and a registered sear gun. Especially if it's already in inventory and ready to be transferred immediately. Registered receivers are less desirable than sear guns, but also less common. Most of the transferable FNC's out there are S&H registered sear conversions.

Registered receiver.

Do you know who did the conversion? If it's a Fleming it's probably fine, anybody else I'd inspect it closely and test fire it before buying.

17k is good price

Agreed $17K is a good price.  Most folks seem to want $20K for them but they seem to sit forever at anything $20K or more.

I honestly don't think it makes much of any difference if its a registered receiver or sear as the sear can't really be moved to different platforms or even to another FNC without a lot of work.

Just in case you are new to the FNC platform there are critical parts on those guns that if you break them you are pretty much SOL.  Items such as bolts, carriers, gas blocks, are virtually impossible to find.   Even some of the small parts like hammers, fire control, and extractors, etc. can be very difficult to locate.

FNCs are robust guns but they are now all 35+ years old and most of them (especially the MG variants) have been shot a lot at this point and every gun eventually breaks something.    If you plan to shoot it just be aware that if you break one of these critical parts you are most likely going to need to buy a semi-auto FNC at $5000 to $7000 to get say a replacement carrier or bolt.

Just something to keep in mind as you can find M16s in the mid $20K range and parts virtually grow on trees for that platform.

Ok, guys. Thank you. I appreciate the insight. I’m gonna hold off. If it was a weapon system I knew about like an AK or AR, I’d jump at the chance for a good deal. But for a gun I know absolutely nothing about, I’ll pass.

$17k is a good price on a transferable FNC.

If you can stretch your budget a bit more, there is a RIA RR m16 converted by Fleming on Sturm for $25k. I have an m16 and FNC. I’d always choose the m16 over the FNC if I had to choose one.

I have both and like them both.
The FNC is a fine rifle.
Get the M16 if you want to change it around and do something modern.
If you prefer old school, buy the FNC and use the money you saved for magazines and ammunition.


RCA

If you have a source for a real M16 in the mid 20s, I would be interested. :)

Midwest Tactical has a SGW conversion for $27k.

17k is a great deal.  A few thou less puts you in a ruger and moving ahead say 10k just puts you in a nominal M16 so IMO that is very solid option.

I am always surprised at how expensive FNC's have gotten, given the spare parts situation with the guns. I remember when they were 8k to 12k. I think they made a lot of sense at that price. I do not think they make sense at 17k+.

Midwest Tac had a four-position paratrooper in its email today…

For $28k

I stumbled across two FACTORY built FN registered FNCs at 8K each. I was a newb to MGs at the time.
All the experts waived me off because of parts scarcity.
Experts. Yeah right.

I am a big fan of the FNC and at that price I'd buy one in a heartbeat (even before the run up in prices). At the time that a FNC mg cost 8k to 12k, you could get a semi auto for parts for 3k. That made sense.

It is perhaps one of the ugliest transferables made as well minus like the Spitfire and some of the other weird stuff. There was one I liked on Sturm a while back that was a shorty folder done up in FDE.

I would say you’re ok if you’re an occasional shooter but for hard use I would look elsewhere just due to parts availability.

I have a MAC, an M1919 and an M16 and will shoot the shit out of them because if I break something it’s easy enough to replace. The Valmet is a little more “special occasion” kind of gun.

Dealer I bought my FNC from was of the opinion that there were more sears out there than there were FNC rifles to put them in.


RCA

Used to own a FA FNC but I sold it years ago. The lack of parts  availability is a real problem, however I genuinely do miss that gun more than any other I've sold. It was an extremely smooth shooter and balanced quite well with the folding stock. Mine ran flawlessly and loved gen 3 pmags so you don't need fnc mags. I could hold it on target for the entire mag in full auto with ease. Something that i find not as easy to do with an m16. Someone else said its a cool straight up euro assault rifle and I agree that there is something about holding one and shooting one that you will love.

That was a widespread opinion that most people discarded about a decade ago.  Highest serial number observed on a sear was around 3700.  6000 FNCs were imported.

My FNC was my first machine gun.
Bought it from a St Louis dealer and a good friend, Chris Mergenthaler, RIP, a long time ago.

With any machine gun, bad deals seem to look quite good after a short period of time.

RCA