Earlier this month I wrote about Argentina’s experiments converting the FN FAL from 7.62mm to 5.56mm. Ronaldo Olive sent me an article he wrote back in the mid-1980s about a FN FAL 5.56mm kit developed in Brazil …

… from the November 1986 issue of the extinct EAGLE magazine, of still-strong Harris Publications, on a 5.56 mm FAL coneversion kit created in Brazil in 1986 by a small Rio de Janeiro-based company called Brasarms Indústria e Comércio S.A. It was the brainchild of local gun wizzard Olympio Vieira de Mello Filho, designer of the Mekanika Uru 9 x 19 mm submachinegun, a short time before his death. Although officially tested and approved by the Brazilian Army at the Marambaia Proving Ground, somehow the clever device never found its way into the market.

The entire article is embedded below. You can also view it at Scribd.com.

Below are some additional photos of FN FAL rifles equipped with the conversion kit …

Brazil ended up adopting the IMBEL MD rifle, locally made FN FAL chambered in 5.56mm NATO.

Many thanks to Ronaldo for the information and photos.