It was adopted by the militaries of Argentina, Belgium, the Belgian Congo, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Luxembourg, and Venezuela.

While well regarded for its high build quality and reliability in comparison to the rifles of the time, its marketability was limited, as it was not developed in time for use in World War II but later, as many militaries had already begun the switch to selective fire battle rifles.

[6] The FN-49 found itself in direct competition with a number of more modern rifles such as the Heckler & Koch G3 and Fabrique Nationale de Herstal's own FN FAL, resulting in limited sales.

When German armies invaded Poland, these plans were delayed to increase production of bolt-action rifles and machine guns.

Late that year, the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield ordered 50 prototypes (designated "EXP-1" and sometimes referred to as "SLEM-1" or "Self-Loading Experimental Model").

Despite this, Saive (who had returned to Liège shortly after its liberation in September 1944) continued work on the rifle, and finalized the design for the FN-49 in 1947.

[7] Some sources[citation needed] claim pre-production models for demonstration and testing were produced in 1948, making rifle ready for contract orders and mass production.

FN started looking for customers, but the communist states were not an option (as they were required to buy or build Soviet designs).

So FN decided to market to the non-aligned countries, who did not want to commit to Western or Soviet doctrine, which was inevitable when accepting aid.

While initially a small contract delivery, Egypt would eventually purchase 37,602 SAFN 1949 rifles total.

Indonesia, the Belgian Congo, and Colombia would make up the fifth to seventh contracts, all produced in caliber .30-06 Springfield.

[7] A very small yet unknown quantity of commercial rifles chambered in .30-06 were imported to the US and Australia by Browning some time during the 1960s.