Total Number of FN made 50.63s Imported?

[57Strat]

Is there any data that indicates the total number of FN made 50.63s that were imported?

[ce]

I used to have one.

Now you have one.

That makes one. Because it's prolly the same one, if there were two, I'd be a fool for thinking that I had the only one.

And I am no fool.

There's only one.

[J. Armstrong]

No, there's two,one for me and one for you,

what a fool believes,

the fool up on the hill,

only a fool would say that.

a fool and his para are soon parted.


But seriously, ladies and germs, it's a good question - I think

[ce]

Yeah I thought I saw some figures that someone found published on Howco and Gunsouth and Steyr Secaucus, as the importers of FNCs and FALs during the 1980s.

I think it was in 1987-88 there was a flurry of them that showed up here in Albuquerque, and they were priced at $1300 to $1400, and I had a 21" and an 18" model, and my buddy Jasper had an 18" and an SAR 48 18", which was an Imbel that sold for about $900.

There were probably six of each, because periodically we'd see another one at the gun store that we didn't know about.

As a wild guess, I bet there's less than 200 50.63s in the country.

[KIT]

I have never seen any importation records which would document the actual number of semi-auto model 50.63 PARA's imported. It is possible however to make some educated assumptions given the limited information available.

All of the semi-auto model 50.63 PARA's that I have seen have a serial number which begins with a "S 159" prefix and includes an additional 4 digits (ex: S 159XXXX). I am fairly certain that there were at least a minimum of 1,290 semi-auto type 3 receivered 50.63 PARA's imported by Gunsouth/Howco. This estimate is only derived from the 50.63's that I have had a degree of personal experience with. The lowest serial numbered 50.63 that I have personally seen is sn: S 1595890 and the highest is S 1597180. Given my experience with the type I would also offer that the serial numbers seem to run sequentially and 'appear' to be uninterupted. That being said, I also feel that there is a high degree of certainty that there are examples which were imported with both higher and lower serial numbers so my estimate is most probably low relative to the total.

Given that the serial numbers of the semi-auto 50.63's seem to run sequentially and 'appear' to run without interuption then expanding the information relative to both the high and low serial numbers of actual examples would help to provide a more accurate estimate the total number of model 50.63 PARA's imported.

-KIT-

[J. Armstrong]

Checked my .63, it falls within Kits' range.

As an aside, I have always presumed that the .61s were most common, the .64s the least Is that a coprrect assumption ?

BTW, thank you to KIT - once again a wealth of information.