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Posted: 11/11/2004 4:50:56 AM EDT
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I'm really new to fals so bare with me... FALs are really awesome rifles but the price of a DSA rifle seems a little steep for me... The kits that are at gunthings.com... what exactly do you get? What do you still need? What is the total cost of a FAL WITH A RAILED FLATTOP if you go the cheap route... now when i say cheap... i still mean decent quality... i basicly looking for a light as possible, accurate 18-20in barrel... i want to use it to hunt with mainly... thanks for any links for more info you can offer! |
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You'll need to buy a reciever either a Coonan, an Imbel or a DSA. You'll also need some compliance parts to get you no more than 10 imported parts. I believe you'll need 6 us parts or 7 if you have a muzzle device. Say a buttstock, pistol grip, and handguard, hammer, trigger, sear, and a gas piston gets you seven. Other potential US parts are a Coonan or DSA reciever, the charging handle (or operating handle in BATF parlance), a new barrel or mag parts (baseplate, follower etc). Then you'll neeed a set of HS gauges a receiver wrench and a barrel vise and a bolt dissassembly tool (the last is not absoulutely necessary but highly recommended) and a means to verify proper indexing of the barrel and sights. You can look up the prices of these things yourself. falfiles.com is an excellant resource. |
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If DSA still has the StG 58 kits, GET ONE! The StG58 is the gold standard for F A L rifles. With that said, with the exception of the Indian made F A L/S L R, all of the surplus kits are of good quality. Even the well worn South African kits will yield a good quality F A L. The least expensive F A L receivers are the Century receivers. I have built 3 F A Ls on these receivers, however, I would not recommend them for home builders that do not have access to a machine shop. If I had not had access, I would not have been able to get the Century receivers to work. |
| The tools you might be able to rent or barrow, the compliance parts will run you about $150.00-$250.00, this doesn't include reciver. If you use a DAN COONAN recieverthis will count as one compliant part. Your parts set will run from $160.00-$400.00 unless you get lucky and pick one up on the really cheap like me, $45.00 for an inch kit. If you do all the wrok yourself, on your first gun you will probably be into it about $400.00-$650.00 this is much cheaper then most .308 auto loading military rifles. DSA are the cream of the crop, and I'm sure custom guys like ARS can do one better then that. |
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coonan receivers run about 200.00 wholesale.(1 US part) Ammunitionstore.com has R1 kits(south african) for about 200.00. US compliant parts(the way I would go are): dsaarms.com HTS set 65.00 (3 US parts) penguin furniture :butt stock, pistol grip, handguards. Note they are blems 30.00 (3 US parts) A couple venders at the FAL files have them assembly tools about 100.00 if you need them. Rail assemblies for FALS are pricy in excess of 250.00. But for the basic rifle here you are looking at about 6 maybe 7 hundred. If you use the basic kit and no tools other than what is in your garage it can be done for about 500.00 The thing with FAL kit guns is the parts kits have about dried up commercially and the only kits we are seeing are the onesies and twosies folks bought up when they were plentiful. |
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"Complete" parts kits come with everything except the upper receiver. You need this as well as 7 US parts (6 if you don't use the flashhider). Oh, and you might need a different size locking shoulder for headspacing. I agree for the most part with serger. If you're looking for the absolute cheapest though: Imbel receiver $180 Parts kit $180 (there's probably one a day put up for sale on falfiles.com at or around this price) US compliant parts(cheapest): dsaarms.com HTS set 65.00 (3 US parts) penguin butt stock, pistol grip, handguards: $30 US mag floorplate: $1 each (allows you to keep the flashhider) Tapco rail top cover: $40 DSA version is $68 So you're in for $500 for all your parts (plus shipping) and then you've got to put it all together. Again, the cheapest way would be to find someone local who has the tools you need to barrel the receiver and headspace it. Cost: 6 pack? Or send everything off to one of the many gunsmiths around the country to do this for you. Cost: $50 + shipping x2 |
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