Century Arms FAL

[Duncan]

I am looking at a Century AR\rms FAL and would like anyone who owns one to fill me in on how well these are built - function - and hold up to real shooting, not just occasional plinking.

Thanks!

Duncan

[us019255]

The quality of Century Arms stuff varies from rotten, to ugly but functional. If the price is right, and you can fire a few hundred rounds before committing to purchase, go for it. Be aware that since it is probably a mixmaster of various vintages and countries, it will not have collector value.

[Planning]

The quality of Century Arms stuff varies from rotten, to ugly but functional. If the price is right, and you can fire a few hundred rounds before committing to purchase, go for it. Be aware that since it is probably a mixmaster of various vintages and countries, it will not have collector value.

"The quality of Century Arms stuff varies from rotten, to ugly but functional."

you base this knowledge on what kind of data or is it personal experence. i will use the same type of knowledge to say that the majority of the century guns function just fine and look just fine. we usually only hear of the ones that don't.

over the years i have owned several hundreds of century rifles and have been very happy with the quality for the price i paid for them. i don't find them ugly. so far i have only sent 1 rifle back ( it was a recall galil) they sent me another gail that looked as new.
most/some of the military style rifles now days are built are made from kits, which may have been build from a mixmaster of parts, that is not unique with century.

i still own a few century fal rifles and a few others brands and i like the way they shoot.
would i buy a century rifle and save $300-$400 over the purchase of another fal, you bet i would. you can buy ammo with the savings.

as long as people bad mouth the century stuff it keeps the prices down, that is good, so go for it.:icon_biggrin:

IMHO
ron

[cwo4uscgret]

I have to agree with Ron. Although I've not owned quite as many guns as he, I've only had one turkey, returned for refund; as they didn't have any to replace. It was a G3 with torqued rails, too far out of spec to be fixed.

My Galil came with the recall work already done; it is a great shooting AK action.

[HKILLER]

I had a Cai cetme and that gun did everything good, but the finish was soso, I saw a Cai fal at the gun show and it look very nice.

[ElDestructo]

I am looking at a Century AR\rms FAL and would like anyone who owns one to fill me in on how well these are built - function - and hold up to real shooting, not just occasional plinking.

Thanks!

Duncan

It's really easy to talk down a good product...and people seem to remember the Bad over the Good....I am here to sat that besides a slightly small Gas Port....my FAL is one fine Battle Rifle....if there is one thing that I would change on it though....it's the cheapo Plastic Furniture....since I drilled out the Gas Port....this Gun has been flawlessly functioning...I would not be afraid to spend my hard earned Money on another one...in fact I have a CETME,...and a PSL 54 on the way....

[hansellhd]

I am looking at a Century AR\rms FAL and would like anyone who owns one to fill me in on how well these are built - function - and hold up to real shooting, not just occasional plinking.

Thanks!

Duncan

Have you looked at the DSA STG58 or their Imbel FAL rifles, I own two DSA FAL's and they are excellent rifles for the money. They are priced higher then the Century product but I think they are worth it from a quality standpoint.

Next gun show you go to check one out.

http://www.dsarms.com/Imbel-FAL-Standard-Rifle-308-Cal-21-Original-Imbel-Barrel---IMBEL58/productinfo/IMBEL58/
http://www.dsarms.com/STG58--Austrian-FAL-Standard-Rifle-308-Cal-----STG58STD/productinfo/STG58STD/
HDH.

[yellowhand]

I have two.
One long and one short barrel, 16 and 20 plus FH.
They shoot good, they look good, (for an ugly ass battle rifles) and they do what they are supposed to do, send lead down range on target out to about 600 yards.
I prefer the longer one, less recoil and far less muzzle blast, which is fierce with the 16 inch model.
2 or 2.5 K thru the long version, never a problem.
1K or so thru the short one.
I'm old enough to remember when "Taurus" was a bad name in handguns, got two I use as CC carry and sadly for other reasons, they are as good or better than Smiths.
Years ago, got a Colt Goldcup, the thing sucked so bad, Colt could not fix it and replaced it with a new one.
In the end, you pay your $$$ and we all take our chances.
good luck...

[LorDiego]

I've owned both a Century Fal and a Century Cetme.

I sold off both to buy a DSA Fal, and I never looked back. It wasn't that there much wrong with the Century rifles, it was more of the right dsa-fal for me, becoming available at the right time.

And while I agree with Planning, I never looked back.

[Arkane]

I had exactly the opposite experience. Most of the DSAs I have seen in the last year have had issues, and their customer service has gotten horrible (almost Taurus horrible). One rifle required three trips back and each time it was returned dirty and with damage to the furniture above and beyond what was incurred in shipping. @ least with century you know there's the possibility it may have issues. And it won't cost you two grand to find out.

[DaCapster]

Century monkeys are ill fed and have parkinsons..........

[chili]

I am looking at a Century AR\rms FAL and would like anyone who owns one to fill me in on how well these are built - function - and hold up to real shooting, not just occasional plinking.

Thanks!

Duncan

I had two of their FAL's. Both had lower than spec feed ramps. The first one I had I traded before I knew that was the problem. Still got the 2nd one and had the feed ramps welded up some. After some delicate dremel work it functions fine.

[okie shooter]

The general thought was there are many century receiver variants, the us made unibrow, the imbels, the canadian made one. THe last two are useally better than a unibrow(the widdows brow is the feed ramp weather there is one single ramp or the proper two ones. Thus uni vs widdows) the better is a widdows, the best IMHO is a century marked IMBEL receiver which I have one and two canadian made ones. THe least desireable but still servicable ones would be the unibrow us made receivers. THat said I imagine century built far better rifles, and did have others make them. My canadian c1a1 was built in canada and imported. I also have a stg-58 built on a imbel receiver, than a extra c1a1 canadian receiver. All are good with the imbel being considered the best( I got the rifle just for the receiver, as it was less than a kit and a imbel receiver). They do not have the luxury of the cetme of grinding parts, they build the rifle, time the barrel, then headspace with the locking peice. If its done well then you may have kinks to work out but the rifle should be serviceable. My choice is as follows for receivers from century, 1st the IMBEL, then the canadian, then the us made.

Do some reading on the web, try the fal boards and you will get more stuff to ingest and sort thru. Some may agree with me, others may not. Caviet emptor, I got my first fal out the door for less than 400, long ago, the second for 540 two years ago right before the election, the reciever was stripped for 105 again a while back for sure.

[drine]

The CPT RON Special is built on a Century receiver. The only thing that anyone could say negative about it is that they stamped their name on it. It runs perfect and I haven't even tinkered with smoothing the rails or polishing the feed ramps yet. (widows peak). I've been lurking around the FAL site since I got it and DSA has been having trouble lately.
My advice: GO to the FAL site and buy one that one of those guys built. IMBEL on IMBEL, etc. and you'll have a good shooter no doubt. You will come out just about as cheap as buying a NEW Century gun.

[chili]

There were some Century marked (one they had produced under their name) FALs that actually work without tweaking. I am glad you have one. As someone mentioned, the Imbel and Canadian made FALs were imported by century already assembled (a la M91/30's and stamps thier name on the gun as the importer) or built from kits on imported receivers from Imbel and Canada like they build an AK on a DCI receiver from a kit.

[MAK2263]

I have a CAI L1A1 built on an Imbel reciever that has run over 6,000 rds without any problems.I would buy another in a heartbeat.

[Deadheadmatt]

I am looking at a Century AR\rms FAL and would like anyone who owns one to fill me in on how well these are built - function - and hold up to real shooting, not just occasional plinking.

Thanks!

Duncan

Can you give us some more details regarding the rifle you are looking at? If possible, what type of receiver and any markings on the receiver, lower and barrel. That will give us a better idea of the quality of the rifle.

Also, the price might make a difference. The mere parts might be worth more than the rifle depending on how much they are asking.

Matt

[Milsurp]

"The quality of Century Arms stuff varies from rotten, to ugly but functional."

you base this knowledge on what kind of data or is it personal experence. i will use the same type of knowledge to say that the majority of the century guns function just fine and look just fine. we usually only hear of the ones that don't.

over the years i have owned several hundreds of century rifles and have been very happy with the quality for the price i paid for them. i don't find them ugly. so far i have only sent 1 rifle back ( it was a recall galil) they sent me another gail that looked as new.
most/some of the military style rifles now days are built are made from kits, which may have been build from a mixmaster of parts, that is not unique with century.

i still own a few century fal rifles and a few others brands and i like the way they shoot.
would i buy a century rifle and save $300-$400 over the purchase of another fal, you bet i would. you can buy ammo with the savings.

as long as people bad mouth the century stuff it keeps the prices down, that is good, so go for it.:icon_biggrin:

IMHO
ron


I agree with the Capt on this one. I have owned many firearms from Century and all have functioned properly. Some had some issues that they took care of but all worked out of the box. Second, if some of the other manufactuers even came close to the amount of firearms that Century builds and ships I'm sure there would be many more complaints about the weapons (crap) they build. Is quanity an excuse for letting quality slip NO but it happens. Look at any manufactuer and you"ll see the same thing. Didn't industry leading on quality control Toyota just recall millions of cars for safety issues????

[Steve68]

I have a L1A1 on an Imbel receiver and it has been a lot of fun. I just had the finish redone in black oxide, and I ordered new inch furniture from Colorado gun sales. About 2000 rounds and no problems. ARMS 2000 top cover with rail and a super sniper scope. For the price you can't beat it. The only issue is trying to find good inch pattern parts...but, like anything else it can be done if you search hard enough.

[cz777]

Century monkeys are ill fed and have parkinsons..........

i had one cia imported fal which was British pattern -Canadian nice one ...but now i one to repair for a friend its a STG barrel /izzy lower and the worst receiver a hesse ......fucugle to the max!!

[Evilblackgunsrfun]

just like the Cetme's coming from them, it depends on which batch of monkeys built it.

[thedave8]

love mine.....had for probobly 10 years..inch aussie i believe.. shoots great, never a hickup.....have bought cai stuff for years and been happy.....my c93 is the only one i have had to return......hmm...wonder how its doing....
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj134/thedave8/picofR1A1andcar015.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj134/thedave8/picofR1A1andcar018.jpg
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http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj134/thedave8/picofR1A1andcar016.jpg
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