At $429 bucks can one go wrong? Isn't it worth a chance? Anyone stung?

Century FALs are supposed to be a crap shoot.  I have one, and experienced a serious malfunction after 20 rounds; the piston broke.

Now, I let it sit in subzero temps for an hour before shooting it, so maybe that was a factor.  But a lot of people experience problems like the bolt being stuck in the pull position, bent pistons, etc.

Once I replaced the piston, I have had absolutely no problems with mine.

I've shot better FALs, and the feel of the more expensive Imbel FALs is just far superior to the Century Hesse.  You can find Imbel FALs for around $750 or $800, and I would recommend those over a Century FAL with Hesse receiver hands down.  The bitterness of low quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

According to the [url]www.aimsurplus.com[/url] site, their Century Arms L1A1s are built around the Imbel receiver.

Thanks Raven. These rifles are the ones offered at gunsnammo.com. I sent the folks an e-mail asking who built them and they told me Century and were built in metric Imbel receivers! They list them as excellent condition. Thats why I'm asking? I wonder if I could get lucky in the crap shoot here. I also know about your last sentence too. [:\] Thanks for your input.

At 429 there will be nothing wrong with it that you can't fix and still be cheaper than trying to build the rifle yourself.  FAL's are pretty simple check out the FAL board for more information.  There are a few FAL snobs out there that feel that an FAL must cost 1000.00 to be considered "good", ignore them, I did and never looked back.

do not do it. unless you have a ffl and pay nothing other than shipping. quite a few of those rifles need to be repaired right out of the box. bad piston, real bad trigger group, alot of times the timeing is lousy. if you had 4 or 5 of them in front of you to chose from. you could pick the one (if you were lucky) that had the sights on the front in alignment (meaning bad timeing)they do not test fire them after they are put together by low wage earners that seem to not care enough to get it right. go to the fal files and check out what they have to say. you may get lucky but I did not on one of there later one's. just spend the $799 and get a dsa low end rifle and you will not have any problems and in the end you would have a rifle with some resale value because once a cia always a cia.  it would be almost like buying a hesse ar. good luck.

I posted this a while back---


Anyone with experience with this model? I've got the IMBEL model and it works fine...
                    I was appalled at the stated refinish of the unit. I could scrape off the finish with my fingernail. SO--

                    I cleaned and painted it Rustoleum BBQ HighTemp black after carefully taping off the Thumbhole
stock. I even painted the wooden
                    handguards and cured them in the oven (stunk up the house...)

                    I added a Hogue HandAll grip to the stock by carefully slicing and gluing it on where my hand fit it.
Underneath that I used some
                    Permatex 2B gasket maker to cover the gap where the stock and grip mated.

                    I filed and sanded a notch in the left side handguard to access the cocking handle better.

                    I picked up a dust cover with a Weaver rail welded on it and mounted a Redfield 6X Tracker in
Kwik-Site medium rings and Butler
                    Creek flip-ups.

                    I added the "comp" to the bbl.

                    It shot fine with the gas ring set at 5. About 3" or less at 100-yds. with or without the scope...no
malfunctions.

                    Ripped off a full 20-round magazine once and the grease and paint were SMOKIN'! Cured the paint
nicely.
                    I like this rifle and trust it, regardless of it's necessarily PC style.
                    I wasn't specific enough in my original post, so this edited version might be a little more
informative------ I'll try posting pictures
                    someday.
 

                    For those of you that have one:
                    Did it shoot well as far a functioning?
                    What ammo worked best in yours?
                    What was the accuracy level at 100-yds.?
                    Did you scope it and what did you use?
                    Tell us about your experience with this rifle...

I have a Hessa reciver R1A1 built by century, and guess I won the crap shoot, only problem I have ever had has been with cheap surplus ammo that does not want to fire with a full primer hit.
Rew

Deadeye, this is my frankenFal from century L1A1 w/Imbel reciever. It's like a tank out the box, shoots everything I put threw it & does it on every setting from 3 on up. yes the finish could be better but it has nice features like folding cocking handle. Well worth the money, just haven't really tried to group it yet.
[img]http://www.zing.com/picture/p147d157b800aaf30a81fb6ec0ae76cf5/fe8b525a.jpg.orig.jpg[/img]

there are a few smiths over on the fal files that have prices on the cia rifle repairs and also becarefull of their parts count and get a written in writting from them that they only have the 10 foreign parts in them.
ask which 6 parts are u.s made. if you want a century rifle that shoots put a want on the fal board . have you thought about a kit rifle or the imi 444 as its around $699
I believe and it sounds like a good rifle also. just think about it real good before you buy one. heard of one guys sending his back three times and they just replaced it. also do you really know what you are buying as I have also heard lately that quite a few of the one's coming out now are a mix of inch and metric on a metric imbel receiver.
think about how they can sell them so cheap? lets see a fantastic l1a1 kit cost around $250 to $300 and that metric imbel receiver thats another $200 plus those 6 or 7 us parts thats another $200 or if you get their's around $100. thats about what you would have in a good gun.

ask them if the parts count includes the mag spring and follower plus the mag base plate and if it is included in the us parts count that means you can not us the cheap mags or you would have to replace some parts in the weapon in order to use the $6 mags . but if you do and those mag parts  are in the count expect to buy a dsa piston and another part also. cost upwards of $100 for a piston and lets say a charging handle or to change the stock.

NYSHOOTER
    it does look good. what kind of furniture is on your rifle ? its hard to tell by your picture but is that the standard pebble grain l1a1 furniture and it almost looks like the front handguards are metric bipod cut but it could just be the photo.
century if they use the british pistol grip they always cut the nut plate down that goes into the lower part of the receiver and by doing this you have to tighten up the pistol grip as it has a tendency to move and come loose.
if you get one before you fire it check out the piston and see if its a one piece or two piece piston and roll it on a table top to see if its bent. also look down the sights and see if the front sights are off center and last of all take the gas plug out and then remove the piston spring and see if the piston slides easly into the reciever without haveing to be drove in by the piston spring and if it does all of this you most likely will have a good rifle.
just a few things to check before buying to save you some headaches. also NYSHOOTER does the bolt, carrier, lower receiver and any other ser #'s match or is it a mixed parts rifle as most of their guns are put together from a pile of parts?

I have a R1A1 on a Hesse reciever.It was also called a Centurion I believe.Mine has all Steyr parts.Including a brand new Steyr barrel.
Mine works great.The serial numbers dont match.The finish is not as good as my STG58 .But it was about a third of the price.Groups run around 2" at 100 yards with open sights.I did replace the rear with the para sight.Never have had a malfunction.It runs with the gas system opened all the way up,but they just dribble out.I was going to sell it when I recieved my DSA but I'll think Ill keep it now.

Been there, done that, and couldn't agree more.  My first one was a Century L1a1 with an Imbel receiver.  Works fine, gets about 3 MOA accuracy no matter what quality ammo you put in it.  The next one was built from a parts kit, and works fine also. Haven't tested it for accuracy yet, but the bore looked brand new. Didn't spend more than $525 on either of them. They are easy for the shade tree gunsmith to work on.  

Has anyone bought the L1A1 Sporter Rifle with the muzzle brake and british style handguards from Federal Arms Corporation's catalog?  Is it worth the $427? Any problems?

I managed to get a photo on my Webshot account, but it was a total bitch!  I had to rename my desktop file and really screw around with the scanner to get the photo lightened up to make it work.  I've got a lot to learn in the photo posting arena.  As you can see, the little version didn't make it.
Here goes with what I've managed so far...it's frikken HUMUNGOUS!!![img]http://community.webshots.comXXXXs/editPhotos.fcgi?action=showMyPhoto&albumID=13244882&photoID=15063438&security=UVqXMWwMSM[/img]
[img]http://wsphotofews.excite.com/023/gZ/zz/kg/Ba54033.jpg[/img]