Abominable No-Man
Member
Well, I'm currently up in NE Wisconsin on Christmas leave. My dad, who has always been extremely old-fashioned when it comes to guns and shooting, surprised me with the recent acquisition of a FAL.
To be more precise it is a Century International Arms inch-pattern model, recent manufacture. Very nice fit and finish. Trigger is surprisingly crisp for an old British elephant gun. It came with one inch-pattern 20-round magazine. The muzzle brake is fitted very well, and if you look hard you can see the pin on the underside of the brake; it's blended very well. The furniture is American made polymer, which is a BIG switch for Dad, who is a firm believer in wood. The only thing on the rifle which does not match the very smooth finish, is the selector switch, which looks like an unissued out of the wrap switch.
The day after Christmas, we went out to the woods and fired about 80 rounds through it. It functioned flawlessly, and while we were only doing some offhand shooting and a little informal-rest (i.e., tree branch) shooting, it was quite easy to peg some respectably-small targets- some chunks of wood, some dirt clods about head-size, etc.- at "combat
distances", figure about 150 yards, maybe a little longer. The ammo we were shooting was a little bit of everything. We had a full box and a half of 147-grain American eagle stuff, some soft-nose hunting ammo of unknown
origin (I didn't think to look at the case head), and some surplus crap that Dad had laying around for a while.
All in all, I was quite impressed with this rifle, especially after reading some of the spotty accounts of Century's QC. I am now kind of kicking myself, too, because it wasn't too long ago that I was looking very hard at an identical rifle, a Century R1A1, and I let it pass.
Well. I guess the moral of this story is......even old guys brought up on wood and steel and belted magnums and bolt-action Springfields can learn to like new technology. Dad is quite pleased with this gun, too.
Huh. A while back I had to reluctantly part with my M14.
Perhaps I have found a replacement.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, High Road!
ANM
To be more precise it is a Century International Arms inch-pattern model, recent manufacture. Very nice fit and finish. Trigger is surprisingly crisp for an old British elephant gun. It came with one inch-pattern 20-round magazine. The muzzle brake is fitted very well, and if you look hard you can see the pin on the underside of the brake; it's blended very well. The furniture is American made polymer, which is a BIG switch for Dad, who is a firm believer in wood. The only thing on the rifle which does not match the very smooth finish, is the selector switch, which looks like an unissued out of the wrap switch.
The day after Christmas, we went out to the woods and fired about 80 rounds through it. It functioned flawlessly, and while we were only doing some offhand shooting and a little informal-rest (i.e., tree branch) shooting, it was quite easy to peg some respectably-small targets- some chunks of wood, some dirt clods about head-size, etc.- at "combat
distances", figure about 150 yards, maybe a little longer. The ammo we were shooting was a little bit of everything. We had a full box and a half of 147-grain American eagle stuff, some soft-nose hunting ammo of unknown
origin (I didn't think to look at the case head), and some surplus crap that Dad had laying around for a while.
All in all, I was quite impressed with this rifle, especially after reading some of the spotty accounts of Century's QC. I am now kind of kicking myself, too, because it wasn't too long ago that I was looking very hard at an identical rifle, a Century R1A1, and I let it pass.
Well. I guess the moral of this story is......even old guys brought up on wood and steel and belted magnums and bolt-action Springfields can learn to like new technology. Dad is quite pleased with this gun, too.
Huh. A while back I had to reluctantly part with my M14.
Perhaps I have found a replacement.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, High Road!
ANM
