~ FAL Know-Nothing Seeks Random Information on Newly Acquired Item

[FugWit2]

Congratulations on your purchase. I've had a bipod-equipped metric FAL for a long time & am still finding it my favourite rifle.
I'll try to answer all the questions you posed, so this may be a bit long.

Ammuntiton: The FAL will happily run with most commercial .308Winchester as well as 7.62mmNATO ammunition, with a few exemptiions.
Keep bullet weights above 115 Gr & below 180gr. This has nothing to do with the 308/762 argument, it's just that the rifling twist is optimized for these weights. Avoid both the poorer quality "7.62mm rounds" from dubious sources, and special purpose commercial loads like "Light Magnum" or "Managed Recoil" types, & you'll be just fine.

If you have an Imbel recievered build you may even find that one half of the split reciever says 7.62mm & the other .308, that should indicate something!

The metal handguards & bipod were designed for a spoecific application of the rifle. Firing from entrenched positions against a numerically overwhelming force. For this reason the rifle was slanted in it's design features for medium/long range fire from the prone position with the bipod assisting in fully automatic fire.

You don't have the fully automatic option, & this effects how the rifle will be used, particularly the bipod.

IFyou just drop the bipod, lay behind the rifle (especially with the bipod legs on a hard surface, such as concrete or asphalt), it will destroy your grouping ability. This is because tyhe bipod is directly attached to a thin barrel & will wrench on that barrel.

With the correct technique, designed to minimize this twisting effects you'll find the bipod a very usefull accessory, bt you do need to learn, & practice those techniques to get the most effectivenes from the unit.

The muzzle device, known as as "long stolle" is actually one of the accuracy enhancing features of this rifle, whatever else you use it for. For some reason the FAL type rifles frequently shoot more accurately with long muzzle devices, such as the Stolle. If you decide to think of an alternate try firing for group with & without it attached, you'll know for sure after that test.

The metal hangurads could easily be replaced, if you chose to do so, with a set of the DSA-made "Belgian bipod-cut ones. These would give a different "feel" to the rifle & not retain heat as rapidly. Swapping them requires removing & replacing one screw at the front of the handguards & unsnapping from the rear only. Easily removable if you don't like the new handguards.

The Imbel recievers will say "Imbel, Itajuba, Brazil" whereas the Century recievers will say "Century.