Local shop has a FA91 with wide handguard and bipod for $500.

The internet consensus is these are junk guns, but is it worth more than $500 in parts (especially with the wide handguard and bipod)?

I wasn't permitted to confirm parts manufacturer. Were all of these Portuguese FMP parts guns?

I have one.  It was one of the very first roller-locked guns I bought it in the late 90s to early 2000s during the middle of the ban years.

If memory serves correctly the guts one mine were mostly 60s era german parts (barrel, bolt, and carrier) and were marked as such.

I dont recall what the fire control group parts were or the furniture was but it came with a slimline handguard.

Pretty much everything was pulled off of mine for other projects over the years and I have the barreled action/receiver combo stored somewhere.

Mine always went bang, was reasonably accurate, but was pretty ugly with the big aluminum receiver.

It got used as an alternate hog hunting gun with a scope for a couple years due to the integral scope mount on the receiver.

I would be hard pressed to spend $500 on one nowadays, especially not knowing what parts may be inside it and/or if you could even reuse the barrel.  I think the trunnion are usually not reusable as they were glued and pinned in as there was no way to weld a steel trunnion to an aluminum receiver.

Thanks. Sound like I should probably pass on it as a parts gun. I thought maybe they were all newer FMP parts guns. Also didn't know about the trunnion being unusable.

I went and dug up the old FA91 receiver and the trunnion is definitely suspect as there are two vertical pins drilled through it on the left and right side to "pin" the trunnion the the aluminum receiver.  Maybe you could reuse it....but there is going to be a ~1/8" vertical hole running underneath your trunion to receiver plug weld on both side.  Seems like a good spot for a future trunnion weld failure if you ask me.

I double-checked the barrel and it is FMP but the bolt head was still paired up with the receiver and was a German HK (68) unit. The carrier has long since found a new home but I am 99% sure it was HK german as well and date code matched the bolt head.

The cocking tube and sight triple frame are also jacked.  Since FA/Century couldn't weld the cocking tube to the receiver (same steel to aluminum issue as the trunnion) they instead welded the cocking tube to the sight triple frame which is pinned to the barrel.  It looks like you could cut them apart and grind the welds off the parts but the cocking tube and sight triple frame are never going to be "normal".

Thanks for all the info. I do recall that this one had the pin configuration you described.