I brought this home today. It was sitting at the gun shop for the last two weeks waiting for me.
Anyway, It is an FR-7, I don't know what arsenal yet. Seems there is no receiver crest or any other markings other then FR-7 and the serial number on one side and 7.62 on the other. The rifle is almost new. Pristine bore. Bolt has most of the parkerizing remaining on the body etc, indicating to me that it hasn't seen much attention.
This might sound a bit rambled but here is what i have figured out so far.
So what i have researched so far is that this model rifle was made on a 93 Mauser style (small ring) receiver. The FR-7 were actually re barrelled 1916 rifles. The 1916 Mauser were refurbished in the 1950s to this configuration because of the emerging 7.62 cartridge Spain was developing for what would become the CETME model 58. These bolt action carbines were created to fill the void during the slow transition. They were mostly used for training purposes but some were used by reserve units and police forces. This is why the strange rotating peep sights were added. The Tube under the barrel that gives the rifle an appearance of Semi-auto operation is actually a canister for cleaning gear which is also the bayonet lug. It comes off and has no functional purpose other then that.
To make this confusing there were also FR-8 carbines created from model 1943 short rifles. The 1943 short rifle was chambered in 8x57 Mauser (Large Ring receiver). A more powerful cartridge then the 7mm Mauser used in the 1916 rifles. So the now a days FR-8 are regularly fired with 7.62 NATO rounds. The FR-7 however needs to use reduced power cartridges now named 7.62 CETME. The original chambering used a 113 grain plastic core FMJ bullet with a MV of 2600 FPS. This is a very low pressure round. It is not recommended to fire 7.62 NATO rounds in the FR-7 because of the small ring receiver, the lack of a third safety lug on the bolt and most importantly the pressures the original 1916 rifles were proofed to. There is lots of debate on weather or not this rifle can handle 7.62 NATO rounds. Being a hand loader I have no desire to prove anything. So personally I am going to use 110 or 123 grain bullets at loads well within the original proofing pressure.
Now for what i have found out on the 7.62 CETME cartridge.
Spain was developing its own 7.62 cartridge in the 1950's independently from NATO. They planned on using this cartridge in their new select fire battle rifle. The original NATO cartridge pressures however caused malfunctions... failures to extract spent casings. To overcome this problem, the cartridge was temporarily redesigned to lower pressures. Meanwhile the extraction issue was eventually resolved by fluting the chambers in the new battle rifle. So they were able to eventually bump up to full NATO specs.
On to the bayonet. I was concerned with the smile in the blade when i first handled it. But this is how they all are. I am assuming it has a similar function to a blood grove. So you can pull it back out.
I am also interested in the anchor marking on the blade. I am hoping this means it was a Navy issued one. Although I have been unable to find any information on this so far.
When I eventually get around to it, I will post a range report.
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