Help with FAL

[Company Man]

I picked up a FAL and was wondering if anyone could help me learn more about it.
I can take & post pictures if anyone is willing to help.

I did try the FALfiles, site has a lot of information but did not find how to identify what I own.

John

 

[Akajun]

Looks like a ban Century. Mix Match of various parts. Cant tell anything from the far pic. MyTfal may be able to help. What brand is the scope mount top cover.

 

[Company Man]

There are a lot of numbers on these FAL's
Maybe these will help or let me know which numbers mean something to determine origin.

 

[MyTFAL]

What you have is a century assembled L1A1 kit rifle. They started with a British Inch pattern de-milled rifle and assembled it most likely on a Metric Reciever. A picture of the forward section of the Mag well will let you know. Metrics have a crescent cut into the mag well. Inches have a square shape cut into the mag well. Almost all of these era rifles were built on the metric recievers. The good news is metric mags are the most plentiful and the cheapest.
The most important part on a Fal is the reciever. Century has purchased recievers from lots of scources over the years, some good, some not so good, some were marked with the manufacturer some weren't. The unmarked ones can be hard to determine where they came from, but some were Imbel Recievers and VERY good quality, it's kind of hit and miss.
The Bad news is the Century Fals were also hit and miss, some ran great,... others were assembled totally out of spec, there have been sight alignment issues as well as headspace problems. I personally would have the headspace checked if it was a new aquisition before I fired it. If its shooting and running well I would recommend shooting the hell out of it. It's not a collectable per say so load up on ammo and have a ball. It is one of the finest Battle rifles ever devised. If you have problems let me know. I wrote this in another thread for a guy long ago.... "I am familiar with Century FAL's, They left the factory with very little individual tuning, some were good to go from day one, others required tuning or tweaking to get 100% function. Most only required minimal modification. I can not speak for this particular example, but it is a very simple battle rifle, and I haven't met one yet that couldn't be made to run like a raped ape with minor work." That statement is as true today as the day I wrote it let me know if you have problems or questions I'll help if I can. T

 

[Company Man]

I took more pictures of my FAL and based on what I understand, it is "metric" and I see the barrel is marked "made in canada".
Any source of information on how to tear one down and lube it, also how to change out stocks as I have two stocks and may want to swap them.

I uploaded more pictures to my photobucket - take a look and let me know if anything jumps out as out of place or unique.
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/nn54/JohnSmith-01/FAL/

 

[MyTFAL]

It appears to be a pretty standard L1A1 Century build, however the the thumbhole stock gives some concern. If the rifle was originally built with the thumbhole stock it would not be required to to meet 922r rules and regulations governing the importation of military style rifles. When you remove the thumbhole stock and replace it with a pistol grip then you are responsible to insure the rifle has the correct # of compliance (american made) parts. With out the flash hider it would need 6 us made parts to be legal in the eyes of the ATF. If you are unsure I would keep the thumbhole stock on it until I was sure I was in compliance. There are a lot of gray area's on 922R compliance(some say it only affects the person that builds the rifle or removes the butt hole stock) but when in doubt be over cautious. In the end it is your gun you are in possesion of it and THEY will hold YOU accountable. Those are my opinions. Look up 922R compliance on the FAL files there is a TON of info there. T

Edit to add "the finish on the reciever ....appears to resemble the Imbel recievers I've built on in the past"

 

[Company Man]

Great information.
The rifle came with thumbhole stock. I will put it back on just to make sure of the compliance issue.
Any place to learn how to do it? I have never owned one of these and need a crash course on disassembling.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[MyTFAL]

Having a FAL buttstock tool makes it much easier, check on apex for surplus ones.