Well... I went back to the next gunshow and this time I was looking around for a rifle I've wanted for quite some time. The FAL rifles struck me as being a potent and robust rifle I could get my use out of and would make things more interesting since I'd now have both the communist Kalashnikov and the "Free World's Right Arm." I'd been looking at what seemed to be an inch pattern L1A1 for while but it was sold by now and I was sort of lost, going about the show hoping to find a decent deal on a similar rifle. For $600, I ended up with a rather unique piece that I'm pretty excited about, but I'm still yet to take it out and shoot it. I thought I'd look for some friendly advice and/or shared experiences with such rifles since that's what I usually do when I get a new gun that I'm just getting aquainted with.
http://img238.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ithl1a15cl.jpg
Good grief, I look like a bum. Anyways, it's a kit rifle built from what he called a "Steyr parts kit" which I really don't how to determine the manufacture of it's individual components to say that this is true but.. okay. The lower reciever is about identical to that of an STG58 which I've seen in pictures.
http://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?i...allower6eh.jpg
The reciever is by PAWS ( Police Automatic Weapons Service ) based out of Salem Oregon, and I've neither heard nor read very much about them but on close inspect it seems to be a pretty solid steel reciever with pretty clean cuts and the tollerances seem correct ( or at least very close ). There's nothing that catches or binds or shows any of the buldges and sloppy machine work that plague some. I won't brag on it until I've put it into action but it looks like a quality product. At least it's something different than the sea of Imbels, Century Arms, DSA, etc.
Basically it's an inch rifle but it has some metric components mixed in. A FAL collector would probably be dismayed at such, but personally I don't mind so long as everything works. And being that the FAL has had such a long history in so many countries, it seems neat to me to have a gun that brings together the inch and metric components with attributes from both rifles. For instance I like the more slanted and smooth pistol grip on this rifle as opposed to the rather squarish one on many L1A1's. But I do like the finger grooves in the carry handle more than the old style ones. And in general, I like the L1A1 the best which is basically what this rifle is although it has the metric charging handle with a rather odd shiney aluminum knob that looks a bit out of place on a black rifle but... it's character, right? I could always replace that with the more proper folding inch pattern version.
I really just like the FAL with iron sights, though this one does have the QD Pro scope mount that replaces the standard dust cover. I'm probably going to have someone look at my rifle before I make any major changes such as having it finished over to match and such. But I would like to have the standard cover to switch out for the scope mount and perhaps have a rather simple sighting system mounted to it so I can have it as a optional slide-on, slide-off type deal. I'm not too concerned with extremely long range accuracy, but at some point I'll determine what it's capable of.
The muzzle attachment seems to be a military flash hider with the bayonet lug so I'll probably leave that be and get a bayonet for it. It seems like parts for these rifles aren't too pricey, which is sort of surprising since it strikes me as being a "fancy" gun, at least compared to my AK. But, really it's a robust and fairly simple weapon and I'm really impressed with it's design, though with the return spring being in the buttstock, I'm curious as to how they pull off those folding stocks and FAL pistols I've seen. I take it there's a more compact spring mechanism designed to be used inside the reciever.
Oh, and my bolt catch seems to work but I have metric magazines and I guess it requires the correct inch pattern mags to lock back the bolt after the last shot.
Some things I'm curious about, does anyone know any good sights on the FAL? I've only found a handful and sometimes I can't find the parts for sale that I want. I figured out which way the gas plug had to be turned to fire and which way was the grenade position, since it was another one of those things that I couldn't find explained for me. The gas setting goes from 0 to 11and I have it on 6, since from what I read it says they seem to work well between 7 and 5 but I'll just have to see once I shoot it. I know the magazine loads kinda tight so you absolutely must let the bolt slam shut hard on it's own when chambering a round or it'll jam every time, which you should do with any semi-auto ( though there's many guns with which you could get away with riding the bolt forward without but the FAL simply isn't one of them.) It seems like a gun that likes it rough and takes some strength to operate like my M1 Garand. It does a real number on the shell casings it ejects, too.
It's a vicious weapon in a civilized sort of way. Just my kinda girl. :right: