Mechanical milling and subsequent annealing have been applied in order to obtain FeRh compound, as an alternative to bulk sample preparation methods (plasma jet- and arc-melting, induction, etc). Structural and magnetic characterization of the as-milled sample show that heat treatment at the proper temperature is necessary in order to obtain the equilibrium ordered &agr;′-bcc phase, in which a first order ferro–antiferromagnetic transition accompanied by a large magnetovolume effect takes place. In order to study the magnetoelastic behavior of the mechanically alloyed FeRh compound, magnetostriction measurements were performed using high pulsed magnetic fields up to 14.2 T within the temperature range 4–450 K. The large magnetostriction observed in the room temperature range has been related to the field instability of the rhodium magnetic moment within the bcc ordered phase. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.