Will's FAL Project


FINISHED!

finished FAL

posed on the table... sexy!

finished FAL

right side view

finished FAL, left side

left side view...I'd say it came out pretty close to the the pic I photoshopped together:

The parts that went into it:

I ordered the parts for the rifle one by one between August 2003 and March 2004. They came from pretty much every vendor out there, and lots of them were purchased from members of the FALfiles... wherever I could find a good deal on the part I needed. I ended up spending way more than I had planned, but did pretty well considering the parts I got. Here's the list:

DSA STG-58 kit (the unused parts will probably wind up on ebay)
DSA Type I FAL Receiver w/o carry handle slot
Penguin Premium Lightweight Buttstock
DSA Stripper Clip Top Cover (which proved unuseable and has been replaced with a similar Canadian military part)
Tapco SAW grip
Tapco AK-style charging handle
FSE Hammer, Trigger, Sear group
Tapco T48 Handguards
Israeli mag release
DSA Aluminum Lower Receiver
Replica T48 Alloy Triggerguard
VOW Para A2 Rear Sight
L1A1 style Selector

The "Before" Pics


FAL parts kit
The DSA STG-58 kit I bought in a FALFILES group buy. Before this I'd tried buying a Zimbabwe Imbel kit from Gunthings

DSA Type I receiver right hand side
The receiver. It's a DSA Type I, the lightest one they make. It's forged like the originals on machinery purchased from Steyr, not cast like the Imbel and FAC receivers, so it's much stronger.

DSA Type I receiver left hand side
Left side of the DSA Type I receiver. The thing is flawless. No rough surfaces, no tool marks, nice finish.


The build


Based on his prices and the reviews he's gotten, I sent my kit to Rich at Century Gun Works, for assembly on April 8th, 2004. It came back on June 18th. As I'd asked, he shortened the barrel to 18" carbine length (with target crown), assembled it, testfired it, zeroed the sights, and refinished everything in black Duracoat for $270, with the package he was offering. With the light-weight Type I receiver, the aluminum lower, the lightweight furniture, and the short barrel, it is much lighter than my M1A, more like my AK. The one issue I had was that I unknowingly sent Rich a short gas tube, which is visible through the open-topped T48 handguards, which looks pretty poor:
view of the exposed piston through the handguards

Given that replacing the gas tube would require massive reconstruction of the gas system, I think I'll just buy a cheap set of handguards to throw over the short tube for now. The Century handguards I'm thinking about are supposed to be light, too, so it should ever so slightly help bring the balance back from the front end.

A few interesting articles on FAL configurations:
The "Ultimate" FAL, Barrel Length vs. Velocity, FAL weaknesses, .308 for CQB, FAL Carbine vs. M1A Scout, point by point comparison between FAL/L1A1, M1A/M14, and HK91/G3, Mag Releases and Charging Handles.

My LJ posts on the project thus far, feel free to leave some comments:
Start of the Project, Pics of the FAL Kit, Upgrades