Can you look this century FAL R1A1 over for me?

[Fruler]

What do you guys think of the century R1a1? There's on for sale in my area for around $750 I think. I believe this is a ban era FAL... There's no flash hider.

Can you please look over these photos and see if you can notice anything wrong?

Some questions I have... That maybe you guys could answer.
1.) Is the barrel on this FAL correct mil spec diameter? It looks heavy to me, but I could be wrong.

2.) Is the barrel when installed to the rifle surplus of newly made? I'm not sure if century used surplus barrels... Hopefully not.

3.) Any complaints at all about the century R1A1?

4.) What would you pay for a rifle in this condition, knowing that you would have to get the barrel threaded for a flash hider? What would be a reasonable offer?

Thanks guys.
I appreciate any help I can get... The guy selling lives 45 minutes away from me... I want to be sure it's worth my times driving that far. Thanks again.

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[tr63]

Has the barrel a lug on it ? If it has it is G1 barrel and it was never threaded in the first Place . You need to take some side pictures of the end of the barrel and post them . The receiver is made by Century and considered by many not the best . If it operates and you can get 2 to 3 inch groups at 100 yards that's normal .

[Paul S.]

My memory of events Century Arms is that they used surplus rifle kits on their receivers to build the rifles. The biggest difference was the cuts for the safety sear that US BATF deemed made the rifle a full auto. Flash-hiders were sawn off and the barrels re-crowned. That was to meet some individual US state requirements. The barrels were the same ones that came with the kits. Initially, there were feeding problems with receivers used with the ex-Commonwealth L1A1 kits. This was resolved when Century changed suppliers. My memory is that the chronological order of production was Australian and British kits first, followed by the Austrians, and then South Africans. Last up were some Indian kits, but that didn't go well.

Quite honestly, I personally miss the entrepreneurial adventurism that was the life and soul of Century Arms.

ADDED COMMENT: I had one for their rifles built early on with a British kit. I never had a problem with it. I passed it on to one of my sons, and he still has it, and loves it.

[Fruler]

There is no lug on the barrel. Being a ban era weapon it shouldn't have one, if memory serves me right.

[tr63]

The parts used look to be metric not Brit. or Austrian .The Century made receiver devalues the rifle . If it operates with out any issues any the bore is very good or better the value maybe $650.00 to $800.00 . To add a treaded flash hider may run you $150.00 or more . You can pick up a DSA built FAL. rather than mess around with this one unless you can buy it for $500.00 or less .

[Sunray]

The issue with Century assembled FAL's is their use of parts bins with zero QC(just like the thousands of Lee-Enfields they assembled that had bad headspace.). Century FAL's are known for being assembled with a mixture of 'inch' and 'metric' parts that came out of said parts bins. That was the cause of a lot of the feeding issues. The parts didn't fit. Nobody can tell the difference from a picture.
Personally, I would not touch any firearm Century had anything to do with.
"...US BATF deemed made the rifle a..." They decided, without benefit of legislation, that "Once an MG, always an MG'. Then they exported that nonsense.

[P51Mustang]

I agree with what others have said. What I remember hearing was a lot of QC issues and I would see how she runs. Once you see if she runs correctly and accurately you can better gauge a value.

[Fruler]

Thanks everyone who replied. I was on the fence, leaning more towards a no go... The seller ultimately wouldn't go down in price below $700. I called 3 LGS that do threading (there are more than 3 stores that would do it but I did all the calling I wanted.) and the average quoted price to get it threaded, was around $150-$200... That would put me near the $1000 dollar mark with tax, so I decided not to get it.

The seller claims it's reliable but I've been lied to in the past from people I've bought rifles from. If the rifle didn't run right it may cost me just as much as a new DSA would, just trying to get it to run lol.

Honestly, I just want a semi auto 308... Be it a PTR 91, DSA FAL, or a Springfield M1A. It's taken me around 2 years to decide between those three rifles as to what I really want. I do like the longer barrels but a PTR 91 with an 18 inch barrel isn't too short... But I'd prefer the 21-22 inch barrels of the FAL or M1A to get the most out of the cartridge... I know 100 fps isn't a huge difference but there are many other reason why I prefer longer barrels.

Thanks guys for you help, I do appreciate it.

[bigduke6]

Any decent machine shop could thread a barrel in in seconds..... you can do it yourself with a die nut as long as you have a lathe etc (you don't need the lathe but helps tp keep things square.)

For the initial price and if we could have just semi auto full bore, (we can have .22 RF in semi auto) I'd walk to pick it up..........

[browningautorifle]

Honestly, I just want a semi auto 308

Why not just pull the trigger on a good M1A? You can probably find one reasonable and with some sort of proof that it shoots. Parts are available at Brownell's.