The CETME's bolt-action buddy: The Spanish FR8 rifle (VIDEOS)

Built during the Cold War to help train Spanish troops, the FR8 bolt-action rifle is a classic Mauser action in 7.62x51mm NATO. Tim Harmsen with the Military Arms Channel covers the basics on the gun in a very cold (weather) 25-minute installment, above.

The FR8, which has been described as something of a “Franken-Mauser” by collectors, stemmed from Spain’s long love affair with the aforementioned bolt gun. Introduced when the country was adopting the CETME battle rifle in the 1950s, the FR8 (Fusil Reformado= converted rifle) was a development from the domestically-made M43 Mauser but with a number of cosmetic differences to make it more akin to the new 7.62x51mm roller-locked rifle.

Complete with a mount for 22mm rifle grenades and a muzzle-based wire cutter, the FR8 remained in service with the Spanish in one degree or another well into the 1980s for secondary use by reserves and police units, after which they were sold for surplus.

For more information on the neat-o Franco-era throwback from the Iberian Peninsula, Ian McCollum with Forgotten Weapons shows off one below.

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