Black Blade
28th November 2010, 02:04 AM
Century R1A1 FAL Sporter
I have been looking to acquire a FAL rifle for a while now and since I really didn't want to put out for an expensive rifle right now I too the plunge on a Century R1A1 FAL rifle. It isn't on par with a high end Belgian or other after market build but I have seen others get a fair FAL rifle from Century and after a bit of work ended up with a decent rifle.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/86f36da11b15d7078b498b01931e31b619178312.pjpg
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/73c266a1d1d3983882193f38596ba749337c6860.pjpg
I took mine out for a quick trial at the gun range before the brutal Wyoming winter set in last week. I had just recieved an order of German NATO 7.62x51 (.308) battle packs and though pressed for time I managed to put some rounds down range.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/73b36a961e90d6658c088cf7943d36b8efd388a6.pjpg
German NATO ammo
I had a couple Vortex 6-24x50 Crossfire Rifle Scopes and scope mounts on order from swfa.com but it did not arrive in time so I went to the club and shot with open sights.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/68816f1ede808d9a3d5d63f4b1a3b0508cfba632.pjpg
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/48d36e781a94dd778960800d955e38f5b6b19d70.pjpg
At 100 yards they shot low and to the left although they grouped fine considering. I believe that the sights may be a little off.However, with a scope they should groups closer and on target. Century builds are notorious for often being canted among other problems.
The rifle operated fine but could definitely use a trigger job. I had just the one magazine that came with the rifle - which I bought through J&G Sales. The Fit is okay but just doesn't "slap" in quite as smoothly as I would expect for an FAL rifle. I do plan to take it out when I can (most likely this coming spring) and sight it in with the scope. I still may track down a DSA or Entreprise FAL or if I am lucky, try to grab a Belgian FN FAL rifle at some point. Considering it's a Century I suppose that I did well to get one that functioned "out of the box" as it were. Some people get very decent Century builds and some don't. I have had mixed results myself but often find myself taking a chance and even then I am working them over to make them fair shooters. I found another detailed Century FAL review (below):
- Black Blade
My experience so far with my Century L1A1 FAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello folks. I am new here, never posted. But I am posting this review I wrote about my Century FAL because when I was in the market searching I did not find any FAL posts that were about rifles that were not several years old. Since Century claims their quality has gotten better, I wish to post an up to date review. I hope this helps someone looking to buy an FAL make a wise decision.
I've had my rifle for about 3 weeks by now. I was really impressed when I got it. It appeared well assembled. The bolt release doesn't work worth a crap, but from what I have seen that is the case with all FAL rifles. Your have to pull the bolt back a little to get the bolt to drop after it is caught. This is with all FAL rifles, and is a nuisance to someone who is used to the M-16 platform such as me. I am sure DSA has fixed this issue. My bolt catch is also worn, so I will be replacing it with a DSA unit. I have 300 rounds through it so far, 200 of which after working on the receiver without a jam – which brings me to my next segment.
The finish on the Century is pretty tough. I found out just how tough. I was having failures to feed from the left hand side of the mag regardless of ammo used or gas setting. I handloaded some dummy rounds so that I could safely observe the mechanical function of the rifle with the receiver cover off. I noticed that the action was extremely choppy and moved in three stages. I completely degreased the rifle and worked the action many times with no lubricant. I then disassembled it again and looked for wear marks. There were hardly any at all. But I could see that the very coarse and porous protective finish on the inside of the receiver was preventing smooth movement of the bolt carrier. So I polished the absolute hell out of it, beginning with 100 grit sand paper needed just to break the finish to get to the metal. Holy smoke, that is an awesome finish on that receiver. What a pain in the backside to wear through. But finally when I got to the metal I used progressively finer grades of sandpaper until it felt like glass and reflected like a mirror. The rifle now runs like a sewing machine on all gas settings except the highest.
That is one seriously tough finish on the receiver. I don't know if it is some kind of two part epoxy like a more coarse Duracoat or what, but that stuff is nearly indestructible. I am never going to be worried about the receiver rusting. The parts that are numbered do not match, but they are all made by Fabrique Nationale-Herstal. The parts that were part of the supply rifles that went into the kit appear to be in great shape, with the exception of the bolt catch. It feels loose and the individual parts seem like they are loose and they wobble quite a bit. However, function is not impeded and the rifle never fails to lock open on the last round. The original rifle kit parts are parkerized very nicely, as should be expected from any quality firearm from a reputable company like FN. I guess I got lucky with every part except for the bolt catch because these parts all look virtually new. The only part that shows significant wear is the rear aperture sight, but just from adjustment. I am just thankful that it doesn’t rattle like I have heard some of them do when they get older. It is tight as a drum, and actually takes some effort to adjust. The brand new barrel and appears to have a moly coating, as it looks precisely like the finish on my M-4 that I know is moly coated. I can’t attest to it’s hardiness yet but in time I have hope that it will prove durable. Modern finishes are cheap, so I can assume its good stuff.
Now we get into the unfortunate stuff. The malfunctions were annoying and had me concerned about my investment. But that proved fairly easy to fix. As happy as I am with the finish on the receiver, I don’t know how anyone in his right mind would have thought that machine would have functioned with that thick, porous, coarse stuff all over the receiver rails and feed ramp. The friction created by heat and the eventual loss of oil through spray from function would make even one that ran great new fail to feed. Even a mentally handicapped person would have known that rifle would not have functioned. This has lead me to believe that the famous trained monkeys at century still just don’t give a crap, regardless of their recent image whitewash. First of all, if my rifle was test fired at all they would have known that the thing did not function. This simply was not done. I received it with traces of cosmoline inside the rifle and with metal dust from their shop all inside of it. Sorry will the moron be that does not clean this new rifle before he shoots it, as most average Joes don’t. To be honest, I think I just got lucky and got a great rifle. Maybe it was hand picked by the guys at Centerfiresystems.com because I was super polite when I called them, as is the custom where I am from in the South and lead to a friendly but brief conversation. My FFL dealer, also my boss, was just as polite and pleasant when he called to make the final arrangements. Or maybe perhaps I just got lucky that day and they picked a great rifle. I doubt, given the lack of attention to the assembly, that every one of their rifles looks as nice as mine or contains as many pristine parts. One more thing that annoys me is a gap in-between the receiver cover and the upper receiver where they come together. It is as if the upper receiver was cut for a different measurement that was different from the FN spec shape of the receiver cover. This leaves a small, crescent moon shaped gap in-between the upper receiver and the receiver cover. I am buying a UTG picatinny rail receiver and if it does not fit and leaves a gap I am going to add some metal on with my welder, fit it and grind it smooth, and Duracoat it black.
Another thing that I was very disappointed about is the handguards and the buttstock. How cheap are they? You are not going to believe this. Imagine the steel FAL handguards, about 2mm thick steel, right? Well, imagine 2mm thick plastic handguards made to look like the steel ones. Lamentably worthless. Woefully pathetic, even. I can squeeze the handguards and watch them cave in. The best I can describe it is the plastic that is on one of those small portable bottles of hand sanitizer. Yes, it’s that soft. That is cheapness to the point of negligence, in my opinion. The buttstock is a little more robust, but not much. I think it is stronger mainly because the oval shape lends it more able to withstand pressure. If you buy this rifle you WILL have to replace the handguards and buttstock. I am replacing that garbage with OD green furniture from Tapco and am currently awaiting its arrival. It will also have handguard and the SAW buttstock and pistol grip, also awaiting arrival. I can’t wait because it is going to look so deliciously evil. I would not give the original handguards an estimated life of more than 500 rounds as a gun safe decorator and as a real working field rifle not very long at all. You just have to feel these things to understand how cheap and worthless they are.
Range results were surprising. With crappy Winchester 7.62mm white box NATO stamped brass reloads and Barnaul softpoint I managed to get about 2.5 inch grouping out of my best 5 round string at an outdoor range at a known distance of 100m. I had no high dollar rounds or handloads available. To be honest I don’t care what it shoots with them because I don’t know anyone who has a head smaller than 2.5 inches. I am not one of these mall ninjas or tacticows obsessed with sub MOA accuracy. You aren’t going to shoot that well under stress any way. And what are you going to shoot at beyond about 300m any way? If you can’t be satisfied with accuracy fair enough to fit in someone’s skull at 300m then you are probably somewhere you shouldn’t be. So I am very happy with the accuracy of this rifle. It does shoot 2 inches low at 100m with the front sight adjusted all of the way to the lowest setting. I did not have a file on hand, but next trip to the range I am bringing one to wear the sight down until I am hitting bulls-eye. I will perform this task carefully and conservatively. It is easy to take metal off, but a huge pain to add it.
In closing if you were considering getting a 7.62 rifle and you chose FAL platform I would suggest you buy a DSA STG-58. I called them when I was shopping around and asked them how much that rifle was. The cost, $945 shipped. This would have been my only cost because FFL transfers are free for me. However, they warned me of a 5 month build time. Right…no thanks, or so I reasoned then. Hearing all of the white washing hype about Century lead me to decide to trust them. When you consider that the new furniture cost me $120 plus $10 for the buttstock tool I could have spent $70 more and got a DSA STG-58. And of course that $70 could easily have been spent accounting for my time in fixing what should have been a working rifle out of the box. Then again, my Century runs quite well now. And now it is going to look exactly the way I want it to. To outfit the DSA would have cost even more. So my synopsis is buy a DSA, honestly. Or an Entreprise. They offer Tapco furniture already on their rifle out of the box. To be honest, I gave up on Entreprise because they are completely uncooperative with speaking to you about prices, even when you can get someone on the phone. They encourage you on their website to just purchase online, and pay the full ridiculously inflated price. Do not buy a Century unless you want to work on your rifle to get it running. And I can almost guarantee you that if will not look as nice or shoot as straight as mine out of the box given the sorry craftsmanship. My FAL is very nice and so far pretty reliable, but only after considerable extra money invested and time spent fixing it.
Good luck,
Levi
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=514347
I have been looking to acquire a FAL rifle for a while now and since I really didn't want to put out for an expensive rifle right now I too the plunge on a Century R1A1 FAL rifle. It isn't on par with a high end Belgian or other after market build but I have seen others get a fair FAL rifle from Century and after a bit of work ended up with a decent rifle.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/86f36da11b15d7078b498b01931e31b619178312.pjpg
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/73c266a1d1d3983882193f38596ba749337c6860.pjpg
I took mine out for a quick trial at the gun range before the brutal Wyoming winter set in last week. I had just recieved an order of German NATO 7.62x51 (.308) battle packs and though pressed for time I managed to put some rounds down range.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/73b36a961e90d6658c088cf7943d36b8efd388a6.pjpg
German NATO ammo
I had a couple Vortex 6-24x50 Crossfire Rifle Scopes and scope mounts on order from swfa.com but it did not arrive in time so I went to the club and shot with open sights.
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/68816f1ede808d9a3d5d63f4b1a3b0508cfba632.pjpg
http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/48d36e781a94dd778960800d955e38f5b6b19d70.pjpg
At 100 yards they shot low and to the left although they grouped fine considering. I believe that the sights may be a little off.However, with a scope they should groups closer and on target. Century builds are notorious for often being canted among other problems.
The rifle operated fine but could definitely use a trigger job. I had just the one magazine that came with the rifle - which I bought through J&G Sales. The Fit is okay but just doesn't "slap" in quite as smoothly as I would expect for an FAL rifle. I do plan to take it out when I can (most likely this coming spring) and sight it in with the scope. I still may track down a DSA or Entreprise FAL or if I am lucky, try to grab a Belgian FN FAL rifle at some point. Considering it's a Century I suppose that I did well to get one that functioned "out of the box" as it were. Some people get very decent Century builds and some don't. I have had mixed results myself but often find myself taking a chance and even then I am working them over to make them fair shooters. I found another detailed Century FAL review (below):
- Black Blade
My experience so far with my Century L1A1 FAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello folks. I am new here, never posted. But I am posting this review I wrote about my Century FAL because when I was in the market searching I did not find any FAL posts that were about rifles that were not several years old. Since Century claims their quality has gotten better, I wish to post an up to date review. I hope this helps someone looking to buy an FAL make a wise decision.
I've had my rifle for about 3 weeks by now. I was really impressed when I got it. It appeared well assembled. The bolt release doesn't work worth a crap, but from what I have seen that is the case with all FAL rifles. Your have to pull the bolt back a little to get the bolt to drop after it is caught. This is with all FAL rifles, and is a nuisance to someone who is used to the M-16 platform such as me. I am sure DSA has fixed this issue. My bolt catch is also worn, so I will be replacing it with a DSA unit. I have 300 rounds through it so far, 200 of which after working on the receiver without a jam – which brings me to my next segment.
The finish on the Century is pretty tough. I found out just how tough. I was having failures to feed from the left hand side of the mag regardless of ammo used or gas setting. I handloaded some dummy rounds so that I could safely observe the mechanical function of the rifle with the receiver cover off. I noticed that the action was extremely choppy and moved in three stages. I completely degreased the rifle and worked the action many times with no lubricant. I then disassembled it again and looked for wear marks. There were hardly any at all. But I could see that the very coarse and porous protective finish on the inside of the receiver was preventing smooth movement of the bolt carrier. So I polished the absolute hell out of it, beginning with 100 grit sand paper needed just to break the finish to get to the metal. Holy smoke, that is an awesome finish on that receiver. What a pain in the backside to wear through. But finally when I got to the metal I used progressively finer grades of sandpaper until it felt like glass and reflected like a mirror. The rifle now runs like a sewing machine on all gas settings except the highest.
That is one seriously tough finish on the receiver. I don't know if it is some kind of two part epoxy like a more coarse Duracoat or what, but that stuff is nearly indestructible. I am never going to be worried about the receiver rusting. The parts that are numbered do not match, but they are all made by Fabrique Nationale-Herstal. The parts that were part of the supply rifles that went into the kit appear to be in great shape, with the exception of the bolt catch. It feels loose and the individual parts seem like they are loose and they wobble quite a bit. However, function is not impeded and the rifle never fails to lock open on the last round. The original rifle kit parts are parkerized very nicely, as should be expected from any quality firearm from a reputable company like FN. I guess I got lucky with every part except for the bolt catch because these parts all look virtually new. The only part that shows significant wear is the rear aperture sight, but just from adjustment. I am just thankful that it doesn’t rattle like I have heard some of them do when they get older. It is tight as a drum, and actually takes some effort to adjust. The brand new barrel and appears to have a moly coating, as it looks precisely like the finish on my M-4 that I know is moly coated. I can’t attest to it’s hardiness yet but in time I have hope that it will prove durable. Modern finishes are cheap, so I can assume its good stuff.
Now we get into the unfortunate stuff. The malfunctions were annoying and had me concerned about my investment. But that proved fairly easy to fix. As happy as I am with the finish on the receiver, I don’t know how anyone in his right mind would have thought that machine would have functioned with that thick, porous, coarse stuff all over the receiver rails and feed ramp. The friction created by heat and the eventual loss of oil through spray from function would make even one that ran great new fail to feed. Even a mentally handicapped person would have known that rifle would not have functioned. This has lead me to believe that the famous trained monkeys at century still just don’t give a crap, regardless of their recent image whitewash. First of all, if my rifle was test fired at all they would have known that the thing did not function. This simply was not done. I received it with traces of cosmoline inside the rifle and with metal dust from their shop all inside of it. Sorry will the moron be that does not clean this new rifle before he shoots it, as most average Joes don’t. To be honest, I think I just got lucky and got a great rifle. Maybe it was hand picked by the guys at Centerfiresystems.com because I was super polite when I called them, as is the custom where I am from in the South and lead to a friendly but brief conversation. My FFL dealer, also my boss, was just as polite and pleasant when he called to make the final arrangements. Or maybe perhaps I just got lucky that day and they picked a great rifle. I doubt, given the lack of attention to the assembly, that every one of their rifles looks as nice as mine or contains as many pristine parts. One more thing that annoys me is a gap in-between the receiver cover and the upper receiver where they come together. It is as if the upper receiver was cut for a different measurement that was different from the FN spec shape of the receiver cover. This leaves a small, crescent moon shaped gap in-between the upper receiver and the receiver cover. I am buying a UTG picatinny rail receiver and if it does not fit and leaves a gap I am going to add some metal on with my welder, fit it and grind it smooth, and Duracoat it black.
Another thing that I was very disappointed about is the handguards and the buttstock. How cheap are they? You are not going to believe this. Imagine the steel FAL handguards, about 2mm thick steel, right? Well, imagine 2mm thick plastic handguards made to look like the steel ones. Lamentably worthless. Woefully pathetic, even. I can squeeze the handguards and watch them cave in. The best I can describe it is the plastic that is on one of those small portable bottles of hand sanitizer. Yes, it’s that soft. That is cheapness to the point of negligence, in my opinion. The buttstock is a little more robust, but not much. I think it is stronger mainly because the oval shape lends it more able to withstand pressure. If you buy this rifle you WILL have to replace the handguards and buttstock. I am replacing that garbage with OD green furniture from Tapco and am currently awaiting its arrival. It will also have handguard and the SAW buttstock and pistol grip, also awaiting arrival. I can’t wait because it is going to look so deliciously evil. I would not give the original handguards an estimated life of more than 500 rounds as a gun safe decorator and as a real working field rifle not very long at all. You just have to feel these things to understand how cheap and worthless they are.
Range results were surprising. With crappy Winchester 7.62mm white box NATO stamped brass reloads and Barnaul softpoint I managed to get about 2.5 inch grouping out of my best 5 round string at an outdoor range at a known distance of 100m. I had no high dollar rounds or handloads available. To be honest I don’t care what it shoots with them because I don’t know anyone who has a head smaller than 2.5 inches. I am not one of these mall ninjas or tacticows obsessed with sub MOA accuracy. You aren’t going to shoot that well under stress any way. And what are you going to shoot at beyond about 300m any way? If you can’t be satisfied with accuracy fair enough to fit in someone’s skull at 300m then you are probably somewhere you shouldn’t be. So I am very happy with the accuracy of this rifle. It does shoot 2 inches low at 100m with the front sight adjusted all of the way to the lowest setting. I did not have a file on hand, but next trip to the range I am bringing one to wear the sight down until I am hitting bulls-eye. I will perform this task carefully and conservatively. It is easy to take metal off, but a huge pain to add it.
In closing if you were considering getting a 7.62 rifle and you chose FAL platform I would suggest you buy a DSA STG-58. I called them when I was shopping around and asked them how much that rifle was. The cost, $945 shipped. This would have been my only cost because FFL transfers are free for me. However, they warned me of a 5 month build time. Right…no thanks, or so I reasoned then. Hearing all of the white washing hype about Century lead me to decide to trust them. When you consider that the new furniture cost me $120 plus $10 for the buttstock tool I could have spent $70 more and got a DSA STG-58. And of course that $70 could easily have been spent accounting for my time in fixing what should have been a working rifle out of the box. Then again, my Century runs quite well now. And now it is going to look exactly the way I want it to. To outfit the DSA would have cost even more. So my synopsis is buy a DSA, honestly. Or an Entreprise. They offer Tapco furniture already on their rifle out of the box. To be honest, I gave up on Entreprise because they are completely uncooperative with speaking to you about prices, even when you can get someone on the phone. They encourage you on their website to just purchase online, and pay the full ridiculously inflated price. Do not buy a Century unless you want to work on your rifle to get it running. And I can almost guarantee you that if will not look as nice or shoot as straight as mine out of the box given the sorry craftsmanship. My FAL is very nice and so far pretty reliable, but only after considerable extra money invested and time spent fixing it.
Good luck,
Levi
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=514347