Anybody know about FAL rifles and what this old optic might be? - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Anybody know about FAL rifles and what this old optic might be? (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 12/6/2017 4:50:46 PM EST

[#1]

you have a Rhodesian lower (RAXXXX)

Posted: 12/6/2017 4:53:09 PM EST

[#2]

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you have a Rhodesian lower (RAXXXX)

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Good eye

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:00:30 PM EST

[#3]

Be careful, that scope doesn't roll on Shabbos.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:03:23 PM EST

[#4]

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Lol. I never heard that. What were they chewing up?

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They earned their nickname on the FalFiles for a reason, “The Angry Beavers”..

Lol. I never heard that. What were they chewing up?

They had the mentality of “If it don’t fit, grind on it ‘til it does”, as the supply of good parts ran low. Force-matching inch and metric parts sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. As a consequence, over or under-tightened barrels, impossible-to-align sights, ‘uni-brow’ feed ramps, and other glitches were commonplace on a lot of Century rifles.

Their early CETME rifles were even worse.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:18:30 PM EST

[#5]

haha that mount will probably work about as well as any other crappy dust cover mount.

you should put a periscopic eye piece on it, and the heaviest quad rail you can find, go full bubba.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:21:46 PM EST

[#6]

It looks to have a metric rear sight that's probably not going to jive with an inch front.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:23:45 PM EST

[#7]

The earliest CAI FALs were usually great. These were the ban era rifals built with almost virgin Brit or Aussie kits on slightly modded Imbel uppers. Instead of properly removing the evil flash hider, they just cut them off right through the keyway slot. They cut off the evil pistol grip stud, and installed their big ugly thumbhole stock.

Re-thread the barrel, replace the grip stud on the lower, install proper L1A1 fh, pg, and butt, and you can have a damned good L1A1 shooter. But contrary to what some gunbroker idiots claim, they will never be more than a shooter because you can’t hide that type III metric upper.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:31:24 PM EST

[#8]

Got a SUIT sight around here somewhere....should look for an Israeli mount for it....then get some new tritium installed.

Posted: 12/6/2017 5:47:02 PM EST

[#9]

I have always liked the retro look of SUITs. As far as an optic goes it is antiquated, archaic, and kind of unwieldy but it looks the part on my rifle so it stays

Posted: 12/6/2017 9:05:07 PM EST

[#10]

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The tritium vials are super easy to replace in SUIT scopes. At the base of the knob on top there is a small snap ring, remove it, then pull the knob straight up. On one side will be like a white clay that holds the dead vial. Go to Falfiles and there is an on going thread there on where to get new vials. They can be had in many colors, red, green, blue, etc. Red is what they originally had in them. Now clean out the old white clay with a knife, replace it with a dab of white caulking and press the new vial into it. You should be good for 5-10 years now.

Here's Trilux SUIT on my L1A1 that I replaced the tritium vial in. The one above it is an HK with an HK NV scope (Hensoldt scope in front of it) and CETME over that.

http://imgdump4.novarata.net/image.uploads/06-12-2017/original-d68e492883f71ecae1a23086a4e44c45.jpg

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Very cool, thanks for sharing.

Posted: 12/6/2017 11:59:58 PM EST

[#11]

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They had the mentality of “If it don’t fit, grind on it ‘til it does”, as the supply of good parts ran low. Force-matching inch and metric parts sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. As a consequence, over or under-tightened barrels, impossible-to-align sights, ‘uni-brow’ feed ramps, and other glitches were commonplace on a lot of Century rifles.

Their early CETME rifles were even worse.

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Quoted:

Quoted:

They earned their nickname on the FalFiles for a reason, “The Angry Beavers”..

Lol. I never heard that. What were they chewing up?

They had the mentality of “If it don’t fit, grind on it ‘til it does”, as the supply of good parts ran low. Force-matching inch and metric parts sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. As a consequence, over or under-tightened barrels, impossible-to-align sights, ‘uni-brow’ feed ramps, and other glitches were commonplace on a lot of Century rifles.

Their early CETME rifles were even worse.

I'm surprised nobody ever died or was seriously injured from CAI's improper headspaced rifles and sued them out of existence. I've never seen a CAI G3 with a proper bolt gap whether it be a CETME, HK91, or HK33 build. I saw a couple of their AKs that had over pressed barrels that they'd correct by shaving the bolt face down. I only saw a few, but it makes me wonder how many of the thousands of AKs they produced had that same headspace job. And I don't know why, but everything they made had that same disgusting gray parkerized finish.

Posted: 12/7/2017 12:14:38 AM EST

[#12]

South African lower mated to a century upper and L1A1 barrel and FH. handguard is SA also. STG 58 mag pouches. check the headspace before you shoot it . lots of kit builds with wrond headspace. worth 850 on a good day

Posted: 12/9/2017 8:02:33 AM EST

[#13]

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Do you remember what the difference between the good ones and the bad ones were? I don't recall...

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Some . Mine is a mix of domestic and parts from an stg kit on a imbel receiver. Flawless mixmaster.

Do you remember what the difference between the good ones and the bad ones were? I don't recall...

I really don’t recall. Mine might have been a ban era build. It has an 18” non threaded bbl, but came with a std. buttstock. It also came with the original STG58 bbl attached to the cut off receiver stub and a set of wood furniture and a box of spare parts. 550.00 back in 2001.

Posted: 12/9/2017 8:07:00 AM EST

[#14]

Yep, brit.

Posted: 12/9/2017 8:35:23 AM EST

[#15]

I like them, very much.

I've bought a couple over the years and have them on AR15's. One has the electric/battery conversion to light the tip of the pointer in low light conditions and the other has replacement tritium tubes to light the tip/end of the pointer. They work well.

My first one was bought for a FAL. The rivets that hold the mount to the dust cover would stretch/work loose. I tightened them up twice and they'd still work loose. I was going to have them spot welded and the guy was afraid he'd burn through the dust cover and didn't want to do it. I then moved it to an AR15 carbine and liked it well enough to buy another one a year or so later.

Posted: 12/9/2017 11:48:32 PM EST

[#16]

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Quoted:
The earliest CAI FALs were usually great. These were the ban era rifals built with almost virgin Brit or Aussie kits on slightly modded Imbel uppers. Instead of properly removing the evil flash hider, they just cut them off right through the keyway slot. They cut off the evil pistol grip stud, and installed their big ugly thumbhole stock.

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This is what you are talking about. The photo was taken just before I swapped all but the receiver for a Tapco Aussie L1A1 kit. Sept 14, 2004!

I was fortunate that the locking shoulder was still correct.

Posted: 12/9/2017 11:52:46 PM EST

[#17]

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They had the mentality of “If it don’t fit, grind on it ‘til it does”, as the supply of good parts ran low. Force-matching inch and metric parts sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. As a consequence, over or under-tightened barrels, impossible-to-align sights, ‘uni-brow’ feed ramps, and other glitches were commonplace on a lot of Century rifles.

Their early CETME rifles were even worse.

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