With cheap wolf ammo, this plinker will get some range time.
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050811.jpg
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050806.jpg
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050807.jpg

I don't think I've ever seen one with wood furniture.  Awesome!
 

I want one now :(

thanks for the comments guys, I used a AR hammer in the FAL lower so as to alow the lower frame to be moved to the center of the upper. That alowed the use of a cut down AK front sight where as the MPA 971 never had one. The suomi barrel shround was cut down considerably and AKM wood fit to the barrel/reciever assembly. The DSA alloy lower was about 1 lb lighter than a steel lower. Overall this MPA was diced and sliced to finish at 7.75 lbs instead of the original 10.1 lbs (no mag) of the original tank configuration. I enjoy reconfiguring guns like this. The SKS/FAL hybrid was the one befor this one. now Im waiting for Centerfire systems to fill their 9mm back orders. 1000 rounds at $169.99 is still great after shipping & CC charge is added.

Man, that's a great looking gun! I never heard of a 971 before. Nothing beats a carbine with a 71-round drum mag.

Thanks, For certain instances, I tend to agree. In my case, My wife is not a big shooting fan. She does OK but I thought I should have a good home defence gun for her and I think this should be a good choice. 9's are good enough for very close quarters and you dont have to worry about killing your neighbor over in his house with like a 223. I have the trigger pull down to just under 4 lbs so its VERY easy to get a number of rounds off in the same direction. The Suomi drums are tuff millitary hardware from the git go & leaving them stuffed n ready is what they were designed for. A super reliable ,no recoil weapon that will not need reloading. yup, its a good choice for the little woman.

If I buy one how much would you charge to do the modifications to it?

I'd LOVE to own one of those in that configuration, it's at the top of my want list right now. with black plastic 100 furniture!

Theres got to be a good 500 worth of cutting,milling, lathe turning, fabricating, & welding alone. The parts needed are a DSA aluminum lower,  AR hammer and spring, AKM handguard, hanguard lower ferrul, 1917 rear top ferrul, AK front sight, Suomi barrel shroud and all the parts to complete the lower FCG frame. The MPA 971 top end was purchased on GB for about 370. I dont know if I could afford one myself if I had to pay for the work on top of all the parts!  But hey, a nice "one of a kind" can run some $$$.

VERY,VERY nice!

223 doesn't go as far as 9 through drywall according to charts.

You need to get a 50 round coffin mag for that bad boy!

That is awesome, almost looks a tiny bit like a Hyde M2 SMG or some other 1940's "what if" subgun!

I would LOVE to hae seen a detailed build thread on this!

I dont know about a coffin mag, Last I saw I think they were way over a hundred bucks in the AR config. Those 72 rd drums are about the best made drums Iv ever seen (machined steel feed lips) and for 30-40 bucks a pop, you cant beat em cost wise. Only they do wiegh about 2 lbs empty. After a few 100 rounds, Iv started moding the cocking assembly. You see MPA screwed up when they designed the cocking piece. The handle slide does not cover all of the bolt slot. So when you fire a round the bolt blows back, leaving the cocking slot wide open and there for, you get a good puff of blowback on the left side of the face. Its apart right now with about 40 percent of the reciever cocking slot welded up and a handle slide extended 1.5" to completely close up the the remainder of the slot. There is no need to cock the bolt the 1.5" beyond the magazine well. Once modifyed, the cocking action will only move the bolt about 1/8th behind the shells. This will put the blow back out the ejection port were all of it should have been going in the first place.
 I cant believe MPA could have built something like this. A great idea.....but yet way off mark on the details. Detailing all these mods would have been quite a marathon. But I gotta say, If I ever see a 971 for sale under 3 bones, Id be tempted to build another one now that i figured out how to fix all the short comings.

That thing is freakin awesome. Good job.

I'd happily pay you whatever it cost to get a rifle like the one in the OP.

 Well, By about 2015, I should be relocated to TN, retired and have a internet custom gunsmithing busines started. The cornerstone of the biz will be putting FAL style lowers on SKS uppers and a new patented free floating piston drive gas system that will be first available for the AK where the most accuracy improvement can be acheaved. Maybe I'll have an icon at the top of this page some day.... if my health holds out. heres the last hybrid incarnation, QD furniture with VZ58 mags. Style is a large part of the product & the FAL lower has much of that to begin with.

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/Hybrid%20XTM1C/P1050576.jpg

WOW.

Seriously that's innovation right there, true innovation. Not just another rebadged AR-15 with different rails.

I'm watching an MPA carbine on gunbroker right now with the intent of taking it, and attempting to copy what you've done to the front end, but with plastic.


Like I said, I'd happily pay you for a gun like that, maybe you'd be kind enough to let me write a review on one of those pieces when you bring them to market.

I see a pair of 971's on there. Dont ya just hate it when the seller puts on a reserve! Either they want to sell it or just play market games. I never use reserves when I decide to move stuff on GB. Im sure future owners of those SKS/FAL hybrids will be airing their thoughts.
Good luck on the buy. If any of those 971's already have a DSA alloy lower installed, thats $150 bucks right there and nearly 1 lb lighter than a steel lower.

For the prospective modifiers, this is what I had to do to the bolt handle & reciever. I welded a 1.5" extension to the handle slide and welded up the slot in the slide window. I also added a full length alloy top rail to cover the holes up there. They had a big slot cut up on top so the FAL hammer could top out with out hitting the top of the reciever (the AR hammer ended that problem). That slot was covered by their rediculously heavy steel scope rail. The full length alloy that I put there is a fraction of the wieght of the MPA steel one. A test fire resulted in a weapon that is free of blowback on your face. I was taging my 25 yard spiners right regular with it. This thing handles like a sweet hart!!

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050815.jpg

Very nice firearms you have there. Ever thought about a G3/AK hybrid. AK front G3 buttstock.recoil assembly

This is top notch engineering.......Very impressive....any chance you could post a little detal on installing the AR hammer?

Very impressive indeed!  I am loving the looks of the FAL/SKS hybrid. Also the mutt 9mm (if you will excuse the term) is very nice looking as well.

Good luck in you future projects, and keep us updated if you start producing some for sale.

That's pretty slick!

thanks again for all your guy's comments. Its alot of work, but it seems i'm on the same page with most of you with "it should be sorta like" philosopy. Heres the hammer work. The first problem was the FAL hammer pin is too thick so I turned it down and put a AR type retaining groove in the position to hold the hammer all the way to the right. That left a slight space between the hammer and the inner left wall of the lower. You can see a bushing was made to increase the turned pin diam and take up the at hammer space. The AR hammer spring locks the trigger pin in place as the original plate lock did. The hammer needed to be buffered some how in full recoil or else the trigger was getting a serious shock wave from hammer hit since the AR disconnect was not there to buffer it. So I made one up as you can see based off the FAL pin lock lpate. It slows the hammer recoil by transferring it to the new spring that mounts on the safety. The buffer see saws the hit to compress the spring against the bottom of the reciever. This should keep the pin holes from egg shaping.
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050817.jpg
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050821.jpg
Next problem was the hammer / firing pin geometery was not quite right. This shot shows the milling that neded to be done over the back of the bolt so the AR hammer ark would jive with the bolt/pin location.
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050818.jpg
This shot shows the MPA lower attaching mast that was milled in to the right to center the FAL lower under the MAC 11 upper. The right slot shows a washer that was welded in place to take up the slop at the pivot pin area. Also you can see the huge amount of steel milled from the MPA rear so a new aluminum plug can be used to close up the bolt assembly in the reciever. The original MAP lower latching hook was a tiny thing that totaly relied on the lower pivot joint to keep the upper and lower tight. I band sawed that thing off and welded a lug on there that was hand fit the the DSA lower latching pocket. That new full contact lug locks the lower on like they were welded together. That should keep the 9 from loosening the lower from the upper for all eternity. And off course, you can see the rear welding of the abreviated MPA frame adapter to the MAC 11 reciever tube. Like I said, It took some time to get this all to jell, but I think it was a nice challenge and it keeps my 18 year old son smileing for some reason.......
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050822.jpg
One other thing to mention is the original mag latch was an attrocity!  It was made so poorly that it stuck out into the mag well , making a fast mag incertion imposible. You had to pull the mag latch back with one hand , exposing the magazine lug track so the mag could line up and slide in to lock. I redesigned the original lever to function like a AK latch in that you push the lever foward to release the mag rather than rearward or the MPA design. also the lug track is not blocked by the lever at the start of incertion  with my latchlever. Its still hard to believe they put this into production of 500 units with these stupid designs!

This is what I had to work from. Over 13 pounds loaded with a drum to the new "skinny" of 8 plus lbs with a loaded stick mag.
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/MPA971_685fe3875d6eb1d222a8_1.jpg
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu77/xtriggerman/MPA%20971/P1050806-1.jpg

Beautiful
 

I hate you...

Now I have to figure out how to hide a gun (from my wife) that I just bought thanks to this post.

That is sexy!

Thanks guys, im not quite done with it yet. The ak lower wood front ferrul still has the barrel hole in it. I bought a bunch of chinese 20mw green lasers that run on 2.4-4.7 volts. One of em will get fit into the ferrul opening with only the cooling fins body sticking out. Also i have the perfect push buttons to permanantly mount in the wood. It may kill some of the old world asthetics but the hip shooting would be incredible! May be a picture or 2 on the detail of it if interest still holds when i get it done latter this summer.