Are there material or functional differences between Type I, II, and III recievers?
There are no real functional differences between the receiver types for a semi-auto. The changes were made for ease of manufacturing and high round full auto life span.
Which sellers have the best deals and least BS; i.e., what they sell matches what they advertise.
DSA (
www.dsarms.com ) is well thought of as a manufacturer. They have both a completely new, made in U.S.A. rifle – the SA58 -- for around $1500.00 and a rifle made with like new Austrian surplus parts (Steyr), a new DSA receiver and the requisite number of U.S. parts for the rifle to legally use foreign magazines without switching out floorplates and followers – the STG58 -- for about $1000.00.
The best of the parts built guns, built by top-flight smiths like Derek at Arizona Expert Arms (
www.azexarms.com) and Mark at ARS (
www.arizonaresponsesystems.com ) are the equal to any FAL built anywhere, by anyone and between the top of the line DSA and the DSA parts gun in price. Using some surplus parts is fine if they are of good quality, and some of the surplus parts on the market are brand new and made by manufacturers such as Steyr and FN. Most of the best builders use either DSA receivers or Imbel – a FN licensed manufacturer in Brazil.
What do I avoid?
Century is hit or miss – mostly miss. They do not have enough US parts to use foreign magazines legally and the US parts they use are of questionable quality. Add in the abysmal workmanship of the assemblers and you get a rifle that may work, or may not, and if it doesn’t work you may be able to get it brought up to acceptable, then again you may not.