FAL rifle questions

[Penguin]

So I had some questions on the FAL. I wanted one for quite a while and finialy got around to getting one. I did some reaserch before I bought it but I sure don't know a whole lot.

I bought an inch one as I like those over the metric ones. It is built on an enterprise reciver. I don't know if that is good or bad. I am under the impression that there M14 type recivers age good so I am hoping that is a good sign. I don't normally see than many FAL's around here and this was the first inch gun. It has plack plastic furniture which I think my be british but I don't know. It has a long flash supressor that looks similer to the one on an M14 with a bayonet lug. There is only one screw in the but stock though, which I thought though I could be wrong, was a canadian set up. It does not how ever have the canadian rear sight. It just has the standard folding inch sight. The hold open does not engage by itself on an empty mag. The bolt has sand cuts with no finish on it.

Can any one give me a better idea on exactly what it is I bought. Good buy bad buy? Thanks. My best guess is I bought a gun built on a britsh parts kit on an eneterprise reciver.

[circuits]

Entreprise, not Enterprise. They make pretty good receivers.

The parts kit, esp. the bolt carrier (the bolt rides inside the bolt carrier) sounds beat to crap.
The bolt hold open should function, but it's not uncommon to see them broken in an older parts kit - it's not an expensive part to replace, nor is it difficult to do so.

If you were to post some pics, we could give you some more information. Offhand, it sounds like a build on a fair condition L1A1 demil parts kit, with standard long flash suppressor. Good/bad buy will depend on whatcha paid for it, what you got with it besides the bare rifle, and how well it functions.

[deth502]

see if you can engage the hold open manually, without the mag. that should let you know if its actually broken, or if its just a bad mag.

other than general fal trouble shoting, i cant be of too much help as i know the metric guns. and if the buttstock are like those, yes, one screw in hte buttstock, and it is holding in the recoil spring, so be very careful if you try to remove it, as its under a lot of tension.

[mriddick]

The British disabled the hold open on their rifles, you can replace the pin and it will work again. It sounds like an inch kit built on a new lower, just go over the USA parts and check to see if it's on compliance, many of these were home builds and should be gone over to insure not only safe functioning but compliance as well.

[Schuetzenman]

Let's see, the buttstock question has been answered. 1 Bolt to hold on the Recoil pad is totally the way they were, metric or Inch. Never seen one using 2. I've built 24+ kits up for myself and others when I was in business.

I did build one Inch pattern gun and I seem to recall the Bolt hold open worked. But knowing the Brits I could see them disabeling them. In any event as mentioned replacement of the BHO latch / trip should restore it. Sometimes though the spring gets dirty and doesn't allow it free movement. Removal, soaking in a solvent and a good blow out with high pressure air will often fix that problem.

Inch, let's hope you have a metric receiver otherwise good fitting mags well be 3 to 4X the price of a good metric magazine. Inch was only made by the Brits and their aligned countries. Metric is very ubiquetous, (everywhere) and as such the magazines are much more plentiful. Some Inch guns can take a metric magazine, though usually they tend to be more loose fitting. Sometimes the droop too low and the bolt won't pick up the rounds properly. It's always a bit dicy to use metric mags in an inch cut receiver but still some do get away with it.

[Dan44]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/Dan44/DSCN0123.jpg

FYI on the different mags

[Penguin]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I went to go take some pictures of it to post and show, only to find out the batery on my camera is dead. Opps...

So it is charging right now. Hopefully I can post some pictures of it tonight.


Entreprise, not Enterprise. They make pretty good receivers.



Thanks, sorry I can't spell for crap. I should have proabably looked at the reciver as I typed it but it was in my gun safe and I was to lazy to get it out last night. Glad to hear their recivers aren't bad I was slightly worried about that.


The parts kit, esp. the bolt carrier (the bolt rides inside the bolt carrier) sounds beat to crap.



That is kind of what I was fearing. The out side looked beat up fairly bad. I thought way to much money for such a beat up looking rifle the first time I saw it at the gun store. I liked the looks and feel of that FAL better than any of the other I had seen though but, didn't know much about them at the time. I didn't know the diferences between inch and metric just that there were two types. Given the way it looked, particularly the lack of finish on the bolt carrier, I passed. I did some looking on the net and had a much better idea of what it was about 2 months later when I decided to buy it. It is the only inch one I have seen for sale and I wanted an inch so I decided to get it. The inside looks much better than the out side especially after I cleaned it. I have seen some pictures of british L1A1's with out finish on the bolt carrier. One of the reasons I think it my be british.


The bolt hold open should function, but it's not uncommon to see them broken in an older parts kit - it's not an expensive part to replace, nor is it difficult to do so.


see if you can engage the hold open manually, without the mag. that should let you know if its actually broken, or if its just a bad mag.


The British disabled the hold open on their rifles, you can replace the pin and it will work again.

If the british did that that would be one more thing to make me think it is british. From some of the looking I have done one of the things that differed on FAL's was weather or not the bolt hold open locked open on and empty mag. I can manually engage it by pulling the bolt back and pushing it up. It does not lock open on it's own though. From my reaserch I belive that it isn't broke and that is the way it was designed. I plan to fix that some time.


Good/bad buy will depend on whatcha paid for it, what you got with it besides the bare rifle, and how well it functions.

I feel I paid to much for it. It was $999 plus tax. I got the rifle and the one mag that was with it. On the other hand you don't seem to see many FAL's for sale around here and this one was less than any of the others I have seen for sale. It was also the only inch one, which is what I wanted. So on the chance I never saw another inch for sale I figured I should get it. It figured it would be a good spot to start with FAL's as I can always take my time looking for a better one later once I know them much better.


It sounds like an inch kit built on a new lower, just go over the USA parts and check to see if it's on compliance, many of these were home builds and should be gone over to insure not only safe functioning but compliance as well.

Thanks for the tip I will have to do that.


Inch, let's hope you have a metric receiver otherwise good fitting mags well be 3 to 4X the price of a good metric magazine. Inch was only made by the Brits and their aligned countries. Metric is very ubiquetous, (everywhere) and as such the magazines are much more plentiful. Some Inch guns can take a metric magazine, though usually they tend to be more loose fitting. Sometimes the droop too low and the bolt won't pick up the rounds properly. It's always a bit dicy to use metric mags in an inch cut receiver but still some do get away with it.

It is inch of that I am quite certian that or some one monkeyed with it to convert it to inch configuration. I knew that inch mags would be more expensive and harder to find. So I planed for that when I bought it. I had read that inch guns could take both types of mags and not vice versa, one of the reasons I wanted and inch gun.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/Dan44/DSCN0123.jpg

FYI on the different mags

Thanks. The mag I have is an inch. The reciver is cut to take inch mags.

[imanaknut]

I wouldn't worry about the rifle being a kit gun, especially FAL and all their variants. Many so called kit built FALs come out working just fine. I have an STG-58 that is a true Franken-FAL, with no matching part numbers on anything, yet it has been a flawless and very accurate shooter. Mine is built with an Imbel Inch receiver and other inch parts, as well as some parts being Metric version. Yes, a true Franken-FAL!!!

When you take yours out, make sure that if you have feeding or ejection problems that you check the gas port setting first before you go crazy. It is very easy, and sometimes desirable to change the gas port setting to not only alter how far brass it thrown, but to make the rifle a bolt action as I have had to do at crowded ranges.

Enjoy yours, they really are a nice rifle!

[Penguin]

Thanks I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet. Good to know. I have hear that a lot of people get a FAL and don't know how the adjustable gas system works then get mad when their rifles doens't work. Weather or not miince shoots well, that will be the real test. If it shots well, well obviously I did well getting it. I plan to take it out and dial the gas all the way off then slowly incress it untill it will cycle right that way I am not hamering the gun. Least that is the plan.

[awp101]

"UA" or "UE" (IIRC) stamps on the lower (technically the trigger mechanism housing or TMH) indicate British production as I recall.

I have an Entreprise metric receiver that's been good. My initial troubles were related to break in after having it parked and then a bad fcg from FSE. Since then I've had no issues with it even though it hasn't been shot much. It's hard to know I'm throwing 50 cents down range with each trigger pull even using surplus...:pissed::lool:

[Crash]

Just curious as to why they would disable that feature?
To this day I have problems with anything that doesn't have that feature except for my AK's. I'm trying to sell an FS2000 locally because of it, I was offered a PS90 but again no BHO on it.

[Crash]

If your bolt carrier is beat up I may have one I can give you if you pay the postage. I got a bunch from Tapco along with blank firing devices years ago and have no use for them. I think they have the sand cuts in them, if you're interested I'll dig them out of the closet. I'm not sure if they're metric or inch and I'm not sure if I can tell the difference anyhow. LMK,

Crash

[imanaknut]

Just curious as to why they would disable that feature?
To this day I have problems with anything that doesn't have that feature except for my AK's. I'm trying to sell an FS2000 locally because of it, I was offered a PS90 but again no BHO on it.

FYI, even though the PS-90 does not have a last round bolt hold open, there is a manual hold open device hidden in the ejection port.