Getting a FAL. Need advice

Dangerous T

Hi, folks. I see here, on Gunbroker, quite a few FAL rifles. Planning to get one. Any advice as to what should I avoid? I know to stay away from Hesse Arms receivers. Any other advice?
BTW, how good are Enterprise Arms?
I recently missed an IMBEL based FAL by Century Arms. Dearly regret it. It went for under 700 bucks.
What should I watch out for? Thank you very much for you knowledge and help

ern98

Kit built fals are only as good as the smith who built them. Century has had problems with many of their offerings over the years and I'm not sure if their fals were one, but I'd be cautious. I had a L1A1 kit built over at Enterprise by their in house smith, on their receiver, some years back and it has been great. Several of my friends after shooting mine got STG58 kits and did the same thing and have been happy. But, when buying off the net you need to find out who built the kit, not just on what components where used. If money isn't a big deal I'd recomend the firm that is making them up in many configurations, DSA, but they are pricy. My only problem with the fal platform is that the top cover isn't really fit for scope mounting and would then recomend the HK 91 and clones instead if scoped accuracy is what is wanted in the end. Good luck.....

Mossbergboogie

DSA makes a good product check them out.

Wehrmacht_45

DSA and Enterprise are good. Century Arms models with Imbel marked receivers are also good. Also any that are marked "made in Argentina" are usually pretty good as well. They might need a bit of low cost tweaking or polishing. My FAL is a Century Imbel marked and has never had one issue.

richbug

quote:Originally posted by Wehrmacht_45
DSA and Enterprise are good. Century Arms models with Imbel marked receivers are also good. Also any that are marked "made in Argentina" are usually pretty good as well. They might need a bit of low cost tweaking or polishing. My FAL is a Century Imbel marked and has never had one issue.


Many if not all the Century receivers from Argentina are marked
"made in Canada". Never seen a Century Argie marked "Argentina." This was away to get around an import restriction IIRC.

Good Receivers; IMBEL- Brazil, FMAP-Argentina, Coonan-USA, DSA-USA, FN-Belgium. As well as the occasional Israeli, British or Australian that might have made its way in.

Hit or Miss receivers, Century-USA, Entreprise

Avoid at all cost; Hesse-Vulcan-Blackthorne, Williams "Alum-a-bomb" Combat elite


Beyond this the quality of the gun and its reliability is function of who built it. I would rather have a quality home built gun than one built by Century, Entre, or Hesse.

Nothing wrong with a topcover scope mount in an FAL.

p3skyking

If you are reasonably experienced with firearms and using tools, build one yourself. It is not THAT difficult. A barrel vise and action wrench can be bought or fabricated. Locking shoulders, various sizes, would need to be procurred for headspacing.
My experience is that the Sturmgewehr 58 kits are the easiest and best available although I have not encountered any South American kits to date.

Remember, you can screw it up just as good as anyone else!

rawhide54

I've had a M444 FAL from Pacific Arms based on an Imbel reciever for several years and have had very good luck with it. I upgraded it with some DSA parts and the folks as DSA told me I had one of the few good FALs that are on the market other than theirs.

dcs shooters

I've had my Enterprise L1A1 for about 12 years or so now. Very pleased with it.