Soft Cover 55 pages
Price $16 (includes 1st Class Postage)
Available from www.GermanManuals.com
Phone: 330-424-9482
If anyone is wondering why I review so many German army gun manuals that have been translated into English the reason is simple.
The Germans have a long standing reputation for listing everything the weapons user will ever need to know, whereas the so-called manuals that accompany most current American made guns seem to be written by lawyers who are only concerned with protecting the company from lawsuits.
I have often waded through page after page of warnings and disclaimers only to find little useful information on the gun itself for the gun’s purchaser. In one memorable example the tiny part about the gun itself along with a drawing of the gun was in such fine print as to be almost illegible. Boy! Talk about your fine print in a contract! But this was SUPPOSED to be an owner’s manual!
As a gun writer I have brought this to the attention of many companies but no one seems interested in talking about the guns, just legal disclaimers to protect from lawsuits. I think they need to send out two books. One to satisfy the company lawyers and one manual with detailed useful information for the gun’s purchaser.
The German Army Manual for the FN FAL, or the StG 58 as it was called in Germany, is pure condensed information designed to cover everything the soldier using the rifle will ever encounter in any and all conditions. That’s my idea of what a gun manual should be. Not a legal brief written by lawyers for lawyers with little attention to the gun or how it works as is so common with the so called “Owner’s manuals” that accompany many of the guns that I review.
See Dickson’s Review of the FN FAL Rifle.
The first part of the manual covers all the parts and their role in the functioning of the gun. Something I don’t ever recall seeing in any manual that comes with a commercial firearm yet it is so basic and important to understanding any individual design.
Loading the magazine and rifle and firing as well as operating the gas regulator are detailed, of course, followed by detailed disassembly and reassembly instructions of the rifle and it’s magazine. Proper maintenance is detailed with precision as is proper handling of the rifle.
One hallmark of German Army gun manuals is the section covering all possible stoppages a soldier may encounter on the battlefield, their cause, and their remedy. This feature has saved countless soldier’s lives over the years. I have NEVER seen such a thing in a commercial gun’s manual. What’s the matter? Do they want to gloss over the fact that malfunctions exist? What’s the customer expected to do when they happen? Go to a gunsmith or die, depending on the situation?
That’s a big reason why FN FAL users need this manual and any other German manual that pertains to a gun that they own. Knowledge is power and where guns are concerned it often translates into the power to survive a bad situation where the lack of that knowledge may mean not surviving.—Jim Dickson
