I really didn't elaborate as much as I should have.
Neither did I...
The FEG is IMO a fair buy for the Dollar but - I did not from day one treat it as other than a clone. I cannot believe metallurgy is up to a high enough standard and so do not put huge volumes of ammo thru. Mine is accurate enough - and functions flawlessly - tho I daresay if it had use such as The Fumegator's might have had - it may be a different story.
Mine was a good deal at $200 dollars. The two good things about it were that I wasn't so emotionally attached to it as I was my Browning, and that I wasn't afraid to detail strip/replace parts/tinker.
While I wouldn't say that my round count through it is excessive (probably about 3,000 to 4,000 rounds), I have no way of knowing how many rounds the previous owner put through it. The biggest problem that I've got is that the frame was being battered... the metal in the FEG is evidently softer than the Browning. I'm now running a heavier weight recoil spring, which I believe helps some.
The Browning has a similar round count (almost 3,000 rounds) with nothing more than very slight finish wear on the rails.
Even with all of that crap, the FEG is still very reliable. I have had about 6 Failures To Extract with it, and that is all. The issue in my case is not necessarily reliability (even though the Browning is still superior in that aspect as well -- the only malfunction so far was a dud round) it is longevity.
You may pay twice as much for a Browning, but I'm willing to bet that it'll last more than twice as long as the clone.
I don't want to sound like I'm raggin' on the FEG (I do like the gun after all), but if you want a good indicator of what the design is really capable of, get a MkIII FN/Browning.
Just my opinion, of course.
Wes