France's Iconic Service Rifle; THE FAMAS

The FAMAS: Because 25 rounds are divisible by a 3 shot burst if you believe hard enough 🥖🇫🇷

Hello, so I've been 8 years in the french infantry (92RI - 2008-2016, started solider ended staff sergeant) so I was quite interested in your opinion of the famas. I think that you summarize quite well what an experienced user like me would say about this rifle. Here's a few additional infos: The FAMAS was designed to be ambidextrous which is great for left handed shooter like me, but has also its flaws like the safety close to the trigger that's is quite an odd design choice. However in the army we didn't use the strong hand to manipulate the safety, but the weak hand. If you try this way you'll perhaps find that it is less unintuitive. On the F1 and FELIN versions, the front flippable pip was a little bit larger than the commercial one I think, however I do remember that most of us just kept it lowered at any time as you didn't need it for engaging up to 300m, which was most of the time anyway. The stock was badly designed yes, I completely agree with that, and it doesn't feel better after 20k rounds. In fact, shooting while wearing protection glasses (which is the basic, right?) was already quite uncomfortable, let alone with a gas mask and armor... The hump though, at 31:22 is holding the piston that absorbs the recoil, being over the center of gravity of the weapon it also stabilize it. If it was under, the weapon would rise significantly higher when you shoot. Same about the bipods, I went to my old pictures to check, but almost all of us removed them (if we were allowed) as anyway if you prone, you'll use your backpack as a support. At 28:50, the trigger guard rotation is to actually allow to shoot grenades vertically, that you can't with the commercial version of course as the features designed for it are missing. But to rotate the trigger guard was to prevent you to get you finger caught in if you weapon was slipping due to the recoil (that was quite wild when shooting grenades). I had the opportunity to train and shoot with other rifles, including AR-15 likes, and in fact the trigger on the FAMAS, especially compared to the latter, is dog poo. While in operation, sand or dust would make it even tougher (you could literally hear the trigger linkage scratch). But the fact that you have a fairly light rifle, compact (76cm), easy to carry with one arm thanks to the weight repartition, such a smooth recoil, and great velocity and precision thanks to the 488mm barrel, for me it was a winner. But as you said, when you shoot and sleep with a weapon for so much time, you naturally tend to be biased. So sad that you couldn't put your hands on a FELIN version, while being the same platform, the optic mount make it a completly different weapon. You should actually contact the special forces PR and why not the french ambassy in the US to ask to get your hands on one, with the things happening here in europe I'm sure they would send you a rifle and an operator to show you how things are done. Qui ose gagne. Thanks for the video guys, I enjoyed it.

When you compare all the guns from the time period it has been developped in, that gun was completely crazy for it's time.

Hi, another french military here. Some of my fellow wine drinkers already commented on your video, but I'd like to point out that most of the "odd" designs of this legend of a rifle are from the fact that it was designed in the 70'. Body armors weren't that frequent by then. And most shooters were standing more sideway than they are now to reduce the width of their body facing the enemy while getting a stable stance for accurate shooting. Like this, the head was naturally more foward and fall perfectly into the gap between the handguard carry handle and the bump on the stock. This bump was not that much of a flaw by this time. With body armor, you want to expose this protection toward the enemy, insteadd of your less protected side and therefore face it with your torso. You also seem to adopt a modern hand positionning with the thumb on top rather than the whole hand underneath supporting the rifle. It's a stance that I, honestly, haven't seen until the last decade and that I would assume comes from the AR thin barrel and the encumbrance of body armor. But with the hand under the barrel like we used to do, your fingers should never be on the cocking handle's way. Your weak hand is also well placed to operate the safety. Last words that you don't really mention in your video, but I get that it was not really the point, is that this gun was sooooo easy to disassemble and clean. When I finally had my hands on a modern gaz operated machine gun, I've come to hate these gaz pistons. To clean the famas, you remove two pins, and have immediate access to the very very few pieces to clean. I love that rifle, even though I found the sights a bit hard to acquire for fast aiming. Awesome video, keep up the good work!

I can hear Ian McCullum smiling

Only 86 of these were imported into the US back in the 80s. If one comes up for sale it'll go for as much as a transferable MG There is ZERO aftermarket for it, NO OEM spare parts. She's a rare bird in the US.

I am a french soldier and I watch your videos for more than 2 years now, so I HAD TO WATCH this one obviously ...

I was in the military from the years 2018 to 2023, and always will be happy yet melancolic knowing that I am among the last frenchmen to use a locally engineered service rifle. Now the centuries-old chain is broken.

Sacre bleu, le Garand Pouce vient de poster. Magnifique!

Our FAMAS F1 were all re-barreled during the 2010's with different twist rate so we were able to shoot heavier bullets. Only the Marine had the G2 version wich could accept stanag mags. FAMAS worked very well with brass cased ammo, i used to shoot israeli, brasilian and US ammo without any issues. Very accurate rifle with a 19.5" barrel (which has the overall length of a 10.3 MK18...) and low recoil. Reliabilty was great. Carrying handle were improved to low profile picatinny top ones with ambidextrous horizontal charging handle palm. In Afgha back in 2010 we had an optic mounting capable carrying handle with AIMPOINT COMP M2. Regarding your gassy issues never experienced it but never shot it suppressed neither....We were teached to manipulate the safety/selector only with weak hand... Served us very well in combat and did the job great, and would take the upgraded one over an HK416 anytime. Thanks for the vid bro 🤙🤙

Famas : Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne, lit. 'Assault rifle from the Saint-Étienne Weapon Factory .

Je suis impressionné par le nombre de français qui regardent cette chaîne ! Le fusil d'assaut préféré des français c'est sûr! Le HK416 à ses avantages, mais sans blagues, le FAMAS te fait sentir français, il à ses défauts et ses qualités mais il est français! 🇨🇵 💪🏻

As a french guy, thanks you Garand to talk about our mythic weapon. It's sad that we don't make them anymore, it's such a good rifle.

Nothing like Garand Thumb on a Sunday morning

As a French soldier : on été tous vraiment triste de voir notre famas partir à la retraite. Un fusil avec des défauts mais beaucoup de qualités qui compensaient. C'est un symbole français qui s'envole...

I'm the proudest french man rn! Thx (btw you are the only Americans who make jokes about french but are actually funny and not angrying) Godspeed

Thx for reviewing the Famas Fierté Française !! 🇫🇷🇫🇷

It's funnier when you realize Garand Thumb is named after the M1 Garand, which is named after Jean Garand, a French-Canadian! Awesome video for awesome hardware. The FAMAS F1 will always have that unique cool factor of a design. Great to see you love it!

Thanks for this tribute to our beloved Famas. You've pointed out so well weaknesses and strength of this eighties rifle, a part of our military story now. Looks like you had fun to use it, as we had. Anyway at his time this old guy was freaking deadly and accurate. Cheers

As a french, it's beautiful to see this fella in action.