[Abominable No-Man]

My wife, God bless her, actually ran across one of these things at one of our local gun stores-pawn shop actually, but this is NIB.

First impressions- nice finish, feels solid, surprisingly good trigger, retails for about $400.

Thinking about picking it up- any thoughts?

ANM

[SodaPop]

If it has an IMBEL receiver then you most likely have a sturdy rifle. If yo have any problems with it you might need to take it to a smith for some work.

I would make sure it looks like its in good condition and then take it to the range.

I'm personally liking the L1A1 more than the STG variants.

[JShirley]

See if it'll take a metric mag. Also check receiver make, as suggested.

John

[JohnKSa]

I've seen these rifles referred to as NIB in other places, and that is absolutely NOT true.

The receiver is new as are a few parts which must be U.S. made to comply with law.

The rest of the gun is used.

The original gun was torch cut to BATF specs and disassembled into a "kit."

Century imports the kits, buys a new receiver (various makes, some of which are pure garbage--others of which are very good) and assembles the kit with the appropriate U.S. made parts into a rifle.

You MUST find out the receiver type before you purchase, IMO. Imbel is good. Hesse is not. I'd be wary of one that wasn't marked.

[standingbear]

400..nib????get it.the inch mags are alil more expens than the metric but hey...its a fal.the dsa gas piston was the first thing i had to replace on my fal,the next one-my current one...already was built that way.:Dthe receiver is the big deal..if its a hesse..put it back and dont look back.imbel very good.century arms assembled gun?as long as the receiver is imbel,the gun can be fixed if theres a problem -usually just a dsa piston.

[iamkris]

Remember this is the same L1A1 SOG and FAC have (had?) on their website for $389.

My buddy has a Century built FrankenFAL (Imbel receiver, most parts are STG but handguards aren't, has L1A1 flip up rear sight). It ain't pretty, the gas tube was severely rusted (when new!) but once he worked out the bugs it is an adequate shooter.

I've seen several posts from people that claim their Century FAL is OK. My only experience with them is with a G3. It isn't pretty either but shoots OK.

[SodaPop]

See if it'll take a metric mag. Also check receiver make, as suggested


JShirley- why do you suggest that?

[cslinger]

I'm no FAL nut but I believe it is because the metric magazines are much more pletiful and much cheaper than the inch counterparts.

Chris.

[Lawyerman]

Metric mags are about $5 apiece whereas inch mags run 3x that and are harder to find. There are a few cheap inch mags out there but availability long term strongly favors metric parts.

[Abominable No-Man]

Got a few updates on this:

Emailed Century Arms technical support guys, and according to them it is a U.S. receiver casting finished by them in Vermont. (Is that good or bad?).
Either way, it's not a Hesse receiver....

The receiver DOES accept metric mags, along with inch mags. BTW, I forgot to mention this before, but this is coming as a package deal with 5 inch-
pattern mags. Apparently someone ordered it a while ago, and then decided that he didn't want it after all and returned it unfired. Of course that's what THEY say, but it looked unfired to me. After looking at the inch mags versus the metric ones, I like the inch better, they look a lot sturdier to me. But you can use either one.

TAPCO has about a BAZILLION accessories and parts available for the L1A1-actually, the one I'm looking at is an R1A1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the R1A1 South African?

ANM

[Sunray]

Century doesn't know the meaning of QC. They think nothing of building guns out of parts bins with zero regard for safety. Whether it'll even work or not is a toss up. Mind you, they've always been like that. When they were in Montreal, they built and sold thousands of outright dangerous No 4's with no thought to whether or not they were safe to shoot. Thousands of rifles with extremely bad head space. I wouldn't touch any firearm built by Century. No matter what the price is.

[JShirley]

Soda-

Cost of mags. I'm a believer in lots of mags for military-style arms.

[BusMaster007]

I sold my L1A1 Century IMBEL 'Klinton Sporter', replete with the thumbhole stock...to help finance the AR10.

The gun was my first 'real' rifle in a major centerfire caliber and served its purpose as a combination hunter/protection rifle.
I loved playing with it and fixing it up.

It was NEVER a 100% shooter, though.
Maybe I didn't dote enough attention to it.

Nevertheless, it's gone and the AR10 is its replacement.
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?s=&postid=323007

[keederdag]

All Inch. Pattern receivers take both metric and Inch, mag's . I thought everyone knew that? Another of the thousands of reason's that a GENTLEMAN prefers Inch. Easy mantra.....sing along....inch is good, met-ric's bad.....dooh- dah, dooh-dah.:D

[SodaPop]

I just got a little confused when you said "if" because I thought they all should take metric mags.:)

[JohnKSa]

R1A1 is not the same thing as L1A1.

The fact that Century won't tell you who makes it is worrisome to me, the fact that is cast is more worrisome.

[keederdag]

R1A1.... What? where did that come from?:confused:

[standingbear]

cast is definatly a bad sign.the one i bought from century was an imbel.id pass on it,there are still good imbel receiver'd franken fals for sale.the receiver is definatly the heart of the gun.

[hksw]

Hmmm. My R1A1 (SA) parts/Imbel receivered/Century imported beater FAL is all meteric.

[Pumpkinheaver]

I've got an Imbel L1A1/R1A1 and it fires and functions fine. It is an inch kit built on a metric upper receiver, takes metric mags. Cai guns catch a lot of bad press but mine has always worked no questions asked.

[keederdag]

So I'm guess'in R1A1 is what Century call's theyre Hybrid halfbreed sporters?:confused:

[Pumpkinheaver]

Yup