Please identify and estimate this FAL.

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Retro

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So I acquired a Century L1A1 .308 made from a century receiver and a part kit.

Can anyone identify which part kit is it?

Imbel STG58, british metric kit, etc?

How much does this rifle worth?

Could someone also direct me to a website that sells flashhider for this un-threaded barrel.

Pictures are posted here:

http://www.pbase.com/fallll/inbox

Thanks.
 
it "looks" like a few parts kits, like a hodepodge of diffrent countrys. And Tapco furniture.
Just thread the barrel, its not hard. or you can use any clamp on flash hider/brake.
 
Type 3 upper receiver, T48 handguards and SAW-style stock. Imbel do make receivers without the gear-logo, though - but I can't quite make out the manufacturer's name - if it says Vulcan, Hesse or Entreprise, run away (unless it actually shoots straight and is reliable).

Ah, just re-read and saw you said Century receiver - they used to be complete crap, but nowadays they're putting out decent stuff. They made receivers with two kinds of feedramps - "widow's peak" and "unibrow". Widow's peak is the good one - looks like two little semi-circular feedramps joined together like two joined letter U's so the rounds feed reliably from both the left and right side of the magazine. The Unibrow is a single, flat feedramp - takes a bit more work to get it running reliably and is valued less than the widow's peak style.

The pistol-grip, selector/safety, folding cocking-handle, paddle-style mag-release, sand-cuts in the bolt-carrier and open ears on the front sight all seem to indicate an "inch" pattern rifle (Brit, Aussie, NZ, etc). You'd need to check the barrel for proofing-marks and report what you find for a more conclusive identification as to its origin.

Spare parts: GunPartsGuy - the most highly respected FAL-parts vendor on falfiles.com for friendliness, customer-service and good prices.
 
I took my FAL to the range today, and fired 80 rounds through it... only one mis-feed. With iron sight, the accuracy is a bit off, around 10 inch at 50 yards but I have not sighted it in yet, and I have a hard time adjust the rear sight because I don't have the proper tools to adjust it. I will mount a scope on it, and then sight it in with scope.

Oh, the lower receiver has the trigger plunger/ trigger spring box built in the pistol-grip unlike the Imbel parts (which is mounted on the lower receiver frame). That explains why the Tapco pistol grip was not installed on this rifle despite other Tapco furnitures.

About the feed ramp, it looked like two Us, with the larger Upper U containing a square box indentation on it, and the lower U with two half-moon cuts on it, and the two Us does not meet together at all, then merge with the chamber but does not touch each other. So I guess it is the widow's version.

I actually like the ergonomics of the FAL a lot more than my M1A, which was harder to manuevur. FAL felt natural in my hands, and the recoil was not bad at all... actually, the FAL recoil is better than M1A even though I used identical ammo (lake city 7.62 NATO). Of course, M1A is more accurate but I have a scope mounted on the M1A.
 
Ha, I found it! My FAL is made from a British L1A1 part kit with Type III Century receiver.

Here is a deactivated version of the British L1A1.

http://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/detail/1961_slr.htm

Now, please estimate the value of this rifle for me.

British L1A1 Part kit are over $300 I heard. The Tapco furnitures is around $150 to $200. And I don't know how much is the going rate for Type III widow's peak Century Arms FAL receiver.

What is the estimate on this rifle?
 
To give an accurate price we'd need to know how the barrel is inside. Is there any pitting or frosting? how are the lands and grooves? Also can you document the compliance parts, ie are they marked USA and which ones are they. For that rifle you need 6 us parts because of the nuetered barrel and I see 3: Reciever, Butt Stock, Hand Guards. The key areas to check for other US parts would be the hammer, trigger, sear, the mag follower, mag baseplate, and the gas piston. With all that unknown the gun could range in value between 700 and 1000 depending on included mags and the answers to the questions above.

thomas
 
Oh, the barrel is shiny (no pitting with sharp rifling) and looks new... that may be a US-made barrel. Sorry that I could not remove the Tapco furniture to look at the markings because I could not disassembly it... the furniture was too tightly installed that I could not get it off without a second person to hold the rifle down. The gas pistol is chromed with no markings on it. Trigger has "B60" marked on it. Sear/hammer has no markings on them. Bolt and bolt carrier are british inch patterns. Magazine has no marking on it but clearly is a metric magazine (because inch mag did not fit).

The gun was $550 + tax. And when I bought it, I did not know that its trigger did not cycle, and I fixed it after realizing that the trigger plunger was bent. So now the trigger functions well.

So I guess $600 for everything was a good price for this gun?
 
Barrel is not US made. That cut along the bottom near the muzzle marks it as a nuetered british one. I'm gonna lowball the price on this one because I think it needs 3 additional US parts to be sure the ATF is happy. 600 would be fair, if the mag well was a setup for inch pattern mags it would be worth more. Though 700 would not be unheard of.
 
Thanks, Thomas. I was wondering what that little cut near the crown of the barrel was for... ;)

All right... I guess I paid just enough. There was a FN FAL in the store that was going for $2000, and I opted for the cheaper of the two.

I saw a CETME for $700... I liked FAL better.
 
There is a chance that 2000 dollar fal is not a kit gun by a vintage gun. I fondled a very nice para fal import at Elk Castle about a month ago that was 2800 dollars. The quality was way above a parts kit gun, especially with regards to the reciever. I am currently looking into a lead on a transferrable viet nam era FAL that is a registered machine gun. Kinda got hung up on a PS90 though and put the fal on the backburner.

Thomas
 
The quality was way above a parts kit gun, especially with regards to the reciever.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a sweeping statement....

Retro, you paid market price for your rifle. You mentioned less than stellar accuracy, is it shooting significantly one direction or the other. One of the problems with FAL quality control is properly timing the barrel. Century's reputation for quality control is not the greatest. Give it a real accuracy test and let us know how it works.
 
Kfranz, I was referring to the fact it was an original FN reciever as opposed to a century reverse engineered reciever. If memory serves it was a Halco imported rifle from the 70's.
 
Kfranz, it still shoots slightly to the upper L (about 3-5 inch off to the upper L at 50 yards) but I have already maxed out moving the rear sight towards the right. I have a feeling that the century receiver totally messed up the calibration of the rear sight since I zero-ed at 50 yards with the rear sight elevated to the 600 (6) yard mark.

I ordered a railmount dust cover so that I could get a scope on it.

What type of scope do you recommend for this type of FAL? I certainly won't need the type of high power simmons scope I mounted on my M1A. :eek:
 
"If it shoots right, it's too tight - if it shoots left, it needs more heft" is the mnemonic used by FALers. This ditty refers to the barrel timing and it would appear that your barrel has been overtimed - in other words, screwed too tightly into the receiver.

Good news is that it's pretty easy to fix if you have the right tools (or even better, access to someone else who does and knows their way around the FAL) - if you want to DIY, I'd suggest you check out www.falfiles.com and look in the Gunsmithing/Build it Yourself section - lotta good info there and a lotta pics.
 
AndyC got it right, except that it sound to me like they didn't tighten it up quite enough. Your barrel needs just a bit more umph to get it to top dead center, at which time it'll do a better job of shooting where you point it.
 
My bad - kfranz knows more about the FAL than I ever will, so listen to him
Click to expand...

I SERIOUSLY doubt that. Really. Just so happens I had a similar situation with a similar rifle, so for once my pie hole was good for something other than eating pie...:)
 
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