I have been wanting an inch rifle for a while, so when this one popped up in the EE, I figuered I should spend some money on it. This one seems all inch to me (cut for inch mags, had charging handle fold cut, etc.) My question is how can I tell if it is Australian, British, Canadian, or Indian?  Also, the guy I purchaed it from said he has had it 4-5 years and never shot or modified it. I was not aware that Century sold L1A1s in no ban configuration. When did this occur?  




Finally, how can I identify US parts for 922r stuff?  The stock, handguards, and grip are obviously new production and not original, as is the hammer, sear,  and receiver.  However, I can I tell if the barrel (no chrome lined and I don't see any marks on it) and trigger are us made?





 
 

Your rifle was built to look like the British version with the black plastic stocks.  As you already noted the stocks are aftermarket which are clear due to the grain/finish.  

Your lower has an AD sn and was an Australian manufactured rifle at one time.    British ones would be UE (Enfield) or UB (BSA) before their sn.  

Century US made trigger parts used to be stamped with a C on them.  I do not know if they continued the practice.  Most british parts would have some markings on them.  I can't tell by your photos but parts like the rear handguard ring might have a broad arrow mark, the V with a bisecting line in it, is the broad arrow mark.  Parts like the flash hider would have UB or UE and a part number, same with the bolt, bolt carrier and other major parts. The barrel would have a lot of marks like the other big parts as well as extra coding probably referencing barrel steel makers and heat lots, as well as military proofing marks.

ETA- you can also see a mix of parts on genuine full commonwealth rifles.  They supported each other both in supplying replacement parts to each other's militaries and they also sometimes may have used other nations maint. depots in foreign areas where they were both operating.   Ie an Australian unit may have had upper echelon support from a British maint. unit.   parts were interchangeable and it didn't matter what was stamped on them.  Kind of like US military rifles in house,   If the safety broke on your Winchester made M1 or M14, whatever was in the parts box went in it, didn't matter if it was Springfield, Winchester, or HRA or other contracted maker.

The barrel, flash hider, and trigger are all unmarked. I was thinking the trigger may be original surplus because it has some pitting that was parkerized over, but the barrel and flash hider are clean and unmarked. I guess they are us made?


 

Will FAL magazine followers work in L1A1 mags and will a FAL piston work? I'd like to get some more compliance parts so I can swap the furniture. It seems that most compliance parts are made for the FAL and not the L1A1.

Looks good. Does it run?

That is a GREAT question! I have no idea. It will hand cycle even though it has a unibrow feed ramp, so that is promising.

 

That US made furniture set is essentially garbage.

The hand guard will warp and/or melt under sustained firing.

Probably Australian, most of their parts are unmarked.

Remove the hand guard and look just forward of the wrench flats for a letter stamp.

Get out there and run some ammo through that bitch.

Zero markings on the barrel and it is not chrome lined (I'm not sure if that matters).



 

Is the chamber chrome lined?

Did you look underneath the hand guard retaining ring?

Chamber is not chrome lined as far as I can tell. I have looked under the handguard ring. On closer inspection, the flash hider is marked faintly with 960-2270?

 

The flash hider is British.

The barrel is a mystery. Can you post some pics of the sling swivel cut?

 

That's a funky looking barrel. The profile is more like a metric FAL barrel.

Possibly US made by Green Mountain?

The gas block appears to be Australian.

It does have an inch washer though. The sling swivel screw looks to have been added recently.

If you're in DFW and need any help with it, let me know. I'm not an expert but I've put a few together.

Looking at the flash hider it's missing a screw, and likely a key, and it makes me wonder if they barrel is aftermarket and it's missing the key way cut.

The flash hider is screwed on tight with a shim to get it to draw tight in the correct spot.  A key, a half round metal bit drops in the space on the underside of the hider and nestles into the cut on the barrel.  The key is held in place by the screw that's missing.  

Knowing Century they just threaded on the flash hider with loktite and called it good. The MoD would not be approving.

The presence of a timing washer/shim tells us nothing about the origin of the barrel.

I've seen too many garage builds where the builder used a shim on an already modified metric barrel to obtain correct timing.

L1A1 flash hiders don't use a screw. It's missing the retaining washer/key and pin.

Yeah, it would be interesting to see how the builder/previous owner attached the flash hider.

The assembly of this rifle looks questionable to me.

I would definitely check headspace before firing it.

What could possibly go wrong . . .

Is it questionable just because of the flash hider?

The barrel assembly in general leads me to believe some garage hack assembled it.

Just because it has a Century upper receiver does not necessarily mean they assembled it.

I have the original box with inventory label attached from Century, indicating (to me) it left Century as a complete rifle.  Am I incorrect as to that assumption?
 

Century put out some real crap but this is unlike anything I've seen from them.

Hope it works out for you.

Let us know how it runs.

Give me some specifics of the problem you see.



 

One really can't say what issues you may find.
I had a century l1a1 that headspace ok when I got. Later I found my barrel wasn't much more than hand tight. Also my locking shoulder was loose and was walking out. The used ps was also ground on to make it fit.

First I replaced the barrel timing washer to get it to torque right at TDC.   Then I bought a good unused locking shoulder (oversize) to fix the loose locking shoulder.  The locking shoulder has two relative the dimensions. The main one sets the headspace. The second one is the oversize size 1 and 2 that fix the loose engagement in the receiver.  The OS locking shoulders are for guns going through a rebuild. The Brits put some thought into all this.

eTA you're right. I had a kit with an electrical screw jammed in there.  For some reason my mind remembers it as the wrong screw was in there

So he is basically just speculating because it is a Century?



 

I would say so. Fixable issues from Century are never out of the realm of possibility. On Falfiles they refer to century assemblers as the angry monkeys

all in all, the rifle looks clean. Until you take it out to the range (after checking HS of course), you won't know anything more than you do now.

Upper and lower fit isnt right either.........its not locked right in my opinion! Probably a foot issue

What is a foot issue and how is it corrected?  Also just realized my headspace gauges are 300 miles away, so I can't check it for a week or so.





 

foot is on the bottom of the receiver, locks into the lower via the take down lever. The plunger for the take down can be replace and help with the foot fitment issue. It may just be a worn out plunger anyway, but since it's a Century we'll go ahead a doomsday every little thing....

If you need some midweek next week and are near Fort Worth let me know.

Thanks, but I'm nowhere close.





 

My gauges are with my friend in Colorado. See if you can find a shop near you to just check the HS. Once that's determined, when we get together in a few weeks I can give it a good look over and we can do a function check.

The barrel does look aftermarket. Possibly Green mountain as someone stated. I have one on an inch cut Imbel and it works fine. The diameter is too large for the flashider on mine it had to be reduced to thread it. a good machinist could do it so it time correctly without a washer. It is just tightened. I have seen a few done this way. Century put out some stinkers. Everyone likes to point it out even if they never owned one. They heard about a bad one from the neighbors sisters boyfriend father in law so they pass it on. The vast majority work just fine or very little work on the gas tube to get it to cycle.

If guns where blowing up and hurting people they would have been sued into oblivion long ago.

I have that exact same rifle. I can tell you the barrel is US made. The action on mine was gritty enough that it had failures to feed at first; lots of oil and working the action cleared that up fairly quick. It runs fine on inch pattern mags. It came with one inch and one metric mag, on the metric the bolt would ride over the round from time to time.

I modded mine some: put surplus wood on and reactivated the last round bolt hold open. The only thing I don't care for is my gas valve has to be on 3 to run reliably, it'll short stroke on 4 from time to time. I'd like for it to run on a little higher setting as at 3 the vent is about closed completely and doesn't leave much for "adverse" conditions. Overall I can't complain, I traded into it fair cheap and got it as a potential CAI "project" gun; but so far it's actually worked with noting major.

When I used to help a friend of mine build Fals back in the day we had to remove the barrel on my CAI  "L1A1" to replace the shitted up handguard retainer and found the barrel torque was only 80 lbs and had to replace the locking shoulder for the correct headspace.

If you got the box with it, I would assume they built it.  They did/do vary their builds, so it is hard to pinpoint traits.
I have built one [British parts] on a CAI receiver....it is necessary to add a barrel washer to get correct head-space.

This biggest problem you may encounter is a feeding problem caused by the uni-brow feed ramp.

Also, you may have a Rhodie bolt, I see electro-pencil marking on it.  Mine has that along with other markings.

Thank you for some actual specific and experience based feedback.  I do have the original box from Century.  The rifle was still new in the plastic wrap when I got it and there wasn't a mark on it.  I have tested feeding by hand and it seems to cycle fine with the unibrow feed ramp, bu that may change when I shoot it.  My head space gauges aren't at my house, but I should have them by mid week next week.



I hope it ends up being a good shooter.  I did obtain some wood stocks from Centerfire Systems and a wooden pistol grip from another source.  I do need to find some surplus handguards at some point, as the plastic ones are junk.



 

Post pics of the bolt when you get a chance.  I would be interested in seeing if it had more electro-pencil marks.

Include one with the bolt face. I had an odd  problem with mine not feeding.  Turned out to be a worn edge on the bolt face.  

Here is the trigger and sear with a bushing to hold them together.  Is this normal for L1A1s?  I compared the parts to my metric FAL and they are not the same dimensions.
 

Anyone?

 

That C on the sear may be a century part. Is there one on the trigger ?

No and that's the problem. I'd like to buy an L1A1 trigger that's made in the USA, but I want to make sure it's the right hole size. I think It would be ok.

 

I am not current on what is and is not available, but I don't know of a current production US mfg inch trigger.
As you discovered, the metric trigger/sear are not interchangeable.

I went with original trigger group on mine, which meant, changing out different parts to make it 922r compliant.


PS  apparently gunthings.com has sets on their site.

Small update today. I checked the headspace with my .308 GO and NO GO gauges, as well as a 7.62 NATO Field Gauge. It appears to be good to go. I still have not had time to shoot it yet.

That's a century C mark.  It's already a USA part.

And no you can't use any of the metric trigger parts, they're quite different as you've noted. You'd have to change out the entire lower to the metric style.   The whole setup is different especially the trigger return spring.  Look at the stripped trigger housings, both inch and metric, the metric has a yoke for the trigger return spring and the long stud for the grip, the inch has the trigger return spring as part of the grip and the long threaded rod isn't used to retain the grip.   I think the inch has a better trigger pull, not much better, it's still military field grade.  The worst were the Century thumbhole stocks where they re engineered the trigger return setup for their stock and used a F250 front coil spring.

There used to be a lot of discussion of FAL files on the parts count issue.   One side says it's only on the original builder, the other side says you must maintain it that way count wise. No one can say that any individual got jacked up on changing a purchased rifles parts count.   I guess it was a lot more of a concern to guys who indeed were the builders of FALs or AK's in their home shops.  Yours was build by a factory.   Frankly I doubt you'd ever have an issue but that's your call.

I would just run the century trigger and sear, they're cast and a bit grainy compared to the OEM stuff.  If it runs, run it.  You can polish the engagement surfaces ever so slightly to clean up the trigger pull but I mean a light polish, no crazy stoning or filing.   I mean just dressing down their engagement surface grind a bit, like taking off the tops of the ridges in their grind and not making a mirror out of it.  The cast is obviously softer than the forged parts so there is always risk of ruining a part.  Then there is the fact that the Armory parts were very likely in better tolerances than Century parts.  I have seen some C marked parts posted on fal files with the engagement surface grinds not parallel to the pivot.  That usually gives a shit reliability issue when only half your engagement touches.  The good side is if you did have a bad part Century will fix it.  

If the end of the world was here and the rules were out the window, I'd have a Commonwealth part there instead of a Century part just for the expected longevity.

Speaking only as somebody who has gone through two ATF FFL compliance inspections I will say that the guys/gals who come and inventory an FFL's books and guns wouldn't know a compliant gun from a left-handed shovel. Frankly, they don't look at a gun any longer than necessary to confirm that the serial number on the gun matches the number in the book. I realize that compliance inspections are not the only way that the ATF might discover a non-compliant gun but at least in regards to that ATF activity, they couldn't appear to care less about USA parts counts.

That's my belief,  it's a non issue unless you're already getting the free rectal exam for something like an illegal SBR, silencer, or MG or dealing guns to criminals out of a van by the river.  Then it's pile on time.   Just my opinion.

and on used guns bought, how would you know who's changed what once it left the manufacturer?