I am quite a fan of the FN-49, chambered in the original 7.92mm. Mine is Egyptian surplus and had a highly corroded bore, so I rebarreled it with a NOS mil spec and had it spaced accurately and re-parkerized. Because of the highly corrosive ammo it had been fed, several other parts that are exposed to gasses were also repalced and the original military hard wood was bleached, stained, filled and polycoated in satin. I believe it to be a thing of beauty. The only drawback I can see to the FN-49 was the weight. I wouldn't want to carry it long distances across the Egyptian desert.

When it comes to an obstruction in the barrel, by all means take it to a qualified gunsmith. And best of luck on finding a good one. My estimation is that for every good smith you find, there will be 3 fellows that you have to suffer thru. These are the guys who shouldn't work on farm tools let alone firearms.

One guy was training his 22 year old son, (who still lived at home), how to be a gunsmith so he let him install the scope on a 7mm sniper rifle I was building. He got the scope canted off of bore centerline - sadly, I sold the rifle at a gun show and kicked myself for trusting an unknown.

I had another 'smith' do a blue job on a rifle that I had highly modified. When I went to pick it up, I was stroking my hand up and down the barrel admiring the new blueing when my hand found a rough spot at the end of the barrel. It was so rough that a cotton cloth would leave small threads when rubbed across it. I asked what happened, and he said, after it came out of the hot blue tank, it fell over against a concrete block wall. He said he'd polish it up me and cold-blue the spot. I was so ****ed, I just stormed home an did it myself.

Ok, enough complaining for tonight.