This'll probably put me in the doghouse, but...

[calavera]

...I'm thinking of building my first FAL.

I thought, as did my wife, that my current cruffler stage would be enough for awhile, but a buddy of mine just finished building a poodle-shooter last week. Fulton Armory "Predator II" upper with a Harris bipod and 6-24x scope on an Olympic Arms lower. HEAVY trigger pull but I still managed to dump 10 rounds of South African surplus into a 3" circle at 100 yards.

I liked it, but the caliber left me wanting. I'd already been kicking around the idea of buying a US-made FAL upper (so I can get a jump on the foreign parts count), so it's not really a snap decision. Right now I'm leaning towards the DS Arms upper.

Anyway, as a FAL newbie, I naturally have a few questions:

:skull: Any real fundamental differences among receiver types, or is it just a matter of cosmetics with the lightening cuts (or lack thereof) and carry handle?

:skull: Any other US-made receivers I should be looking at? I've heard good things about Coonan, but not-so-good about Entreprise (QC), Century (crapshoot), and Hesse (lousy customer service).

This is going to be a slow build. We have a seven-month-old at home (our first) so I don't really have a lot of extra cash. Once I get it done I'm going to have to hook up with all those other NM FALaholics who've crawled out of the woodwork lately.

T.J. from Las Cruces

[gunsmith_tony]

I'd STRONGLY recomend getting a parts kit FIRST. They are getting somewhat scarce. The receiver isn't a problem

[justashooter]

will haev a few nice british L1A1 parts kits in a week or so, if you are interested.

[Christenson]

Find out how many you want them get enough kits for them firts right away cool. Now the FAC receiver is getting great veiws but I like forged receivers my self so DSA and Imbel are what I choose. Other athn that the receiver types are the same to me I guess the type III would stronger than the others and i guess you could say the non carry Handle is stronger too. BTW I had a DSA on a type I(has the most lightening cuts)that had over 11000 rounds and was still the same as new. But I had to sell it with the others to pay bills:cry:

[calavera]

Taking gunsmith_tony's advice, I just ordered a Grade 3 Imbel parts kit from falparts.com. Damn, but the price was right. I guess I've been pricing AR-15 buildups too much lately.

:skull: I take it that if I buy a US-made upper later on, that I'll still need to replace at least six parts from the parts kit with US-made components in order to ensure compliance with good ol' 922(r)?

I get the strange feeling that I just opened a big bag of potato chips with the promise to eat just one... :uhoh:

[ar15junkie]

I think it depends on whether you use the flash hider/muzzle brake or not.

If you remove or cover the threads properly the number is 6. If you want a barrel attachment it must be 7.

[ce]

Get an Imbel for your Imbel.
Then you'll need an Imbel.
One can never have too many Imbels.
Let us know when you're ready to assemble, we have a good arrangement of pipe wrenches and claw hammers, masking tape and loktite, all the stuff those boys back east are skeered ta use.

See, ya just clamp it to yer bumper, and pound that sucker in...

[Forrester]

Agree with those who said buy a kit or two and go with an Imbel on the first go. So far I have built the Imbel kit from the Files group buy on an imbel reciever.

By the way JEN, et al. I had an awesome experience with the group buy. Sort of like a first time heroin user, thanks for the addiction. I remeber how my life was changewd the day the box came to my office with the flash hider sticking out and the receptionist announcing my machine gun had arrived, oops... Since then I have met and been helped by some great people, and yes all the other kits come to the house. Mom, my kids mom, then gets to announce the same thing here at home. But it is a little safer - my wife isn't a lefty like the receptionist.

Also, I have a DSA refinished G-1 (GREAT DEAL!)on another Imbel reciever. Truthfully the G-! went together easier, but it was my second.

I highly recommend wasting. . .err, spending quality time here, as much as you can. You will learn a great deal. In fact, you could do a twenty day search on all posts that mention WESCOG and you would probably know more than you will ever need.

Lastly get yourself the proper basic tools for building it yourself and a copy of a factory manual and GUNPLUMBER's GUIDE and video. Watch it, boring as hell, but when it is over you know the rifle.

[justashooter]

Originally posted by ce
Get an Imbel for your Imbel.
Then you'll need an Imbel.
One can never have too many Imbels.
Let us know when you're ready to assemble, we have a good arrangement of pipe wrenches and claw hammers, masking tape and loktite, all the stuff those boys back east are skeered ta use.

See, ya just clamp it to yer bumper, and pound that sucker in...

absolutely. i don't have too many imbels. don't ask me how many is too many imbels, cause i could never have too many imbels. even the ones that aren't imbels. gotta get more imbels, anybody have a spare imbel?

east coasters have lotsa duck tape and klaw hammers. we have bumbers, too. in addition, we have the three point on the farm tractor to seat the locking shoulder, and use the tv tower to check the timing. run it thru the cornbinder to get that "just back from the bush" look. nothing like ferguson grey camo. anybody got a spare imbel?

[P806]

Originally posted by Forrester
Lastly get yourself the proper basic tools for building it yourself and a copy of a factory manual and GUNPLUMBER's GUIDE and video. Watch it, boring as hell, but when it is over you know the rifle.

Oh, I beg to differ sir. I've seen the vid all the way through 3 times and have skipped to the good parts dozens of times. It's settin right next to Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, and Band of Brothers.
:tongue:

[gunsmith_tony]

Originally posted by calavera
I get the strange feeling that I just opened a big bag of potato chips with the promise to eat just one... :uhoh:

Welcome to the bag...fellow chip.
And no. One will NOT be enough.

[McDobber]

Hey Calavera,

I bought my first FAL. I have learned so much about the care and servicing of that rifle. Century did a half way decent job building the R3 kit on an Imbel receiver. Still, I have stripped it down and cleaned it because wasn't loved by the previous owner. :love: I really like it, especialy since I am waiting on a new locking shoulder for my G1 that I built. I got lucky.

I uses a Coonan for my first build I had a good experience with it. I put a few hundred rounds through it, then decided to rebarrel it. It had overtimed a litte, so I added a .002" shim and it timed perfect and I was able to apply well over 100 ft/lb of torque when I put the barrel back on.
I hear DSA makes a GREAT produce. I will have to wait for another group buy to get one of those muy bonita Type II receivers.

If you build the gun without a muzzle device, then you need 6 U.S. compliant parts. If you have a muzzle device, you need to have 7 U.S. compliant parts, one of them needs to be an approved muzzle break.

Careful of that evil muzzle device that is on the kit. It needs to be a muzzle break, not a flash hider/bayonet lug/grenade launcher that is frowned upon by the ATF. If you buy an Imbel, you will need to remove it or replace it with a muzzle break that is pinned or silver soldered into place.

Nice to know Southern NM is represented on the board. Hope to meet you and the other NM FALers int he future.

McDobber

[shootist87122]

Originally posted by calavera
...I'm thinking of building my first FAL.

T.J. from Las Cruces

YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIMILATED, RESISTANCE IF FUTILE!

An Imbel is a Type 3 receiver and so makes the most sense for a Type 3 kit build.

You won't go wrong with DSA either - they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for, IMO.

P.S. I never use duct tape – that stuff is just too expensive.:p