Yep, DSA were never licenced by FN, they did buy a great chunk of the Austrian suplus parts and some of the drawings I believe, that said they have screwed up plenty of the machining work in the mean time. Even I remember the $199 Imbel T3 receivers (cheaper in bulk). I am sure plenty wish they had bought few more of those.

I persnally have always preferred the lines of the Commonwealth rifles... but that is just me... A few weeks ago I was toying with and original 50:00 and a new L1A1 at the same time. I would not say no to either... The best of the breed (I probably already said it in this thread ) would be an L1A1F1 with Brit/Kiwi plastics and a Hythe sight. Add light optics on a Williams OD Pro mount and it would be almost perfect to me...

I have, back in the day, put lots of rounds downrage out of L1A1s with the L2 switch fitted, it is good for turning perfectly good ammunition into spent brass and making noise... beyond that, not much. That said the SASR contact drills in RVN were always interetsing, using chopped SLRs with L2 switches that would dump the fist 20 or 30 round magazine on FA in a hail of flame and noise and start to peel away.... After that first dump, it was back to aimed SA fire.

Now that sounds like fun, Andy.

I got bit by the FAL aftermarket bug. I asked Ed if his free-float tubes will work with a fch. He said he's never had anyone ask him to do it, and he acted like it wouldn't work, no room for it. That's a shame because I've grown attached to the fch. His tubes seem to be the strongest true free-floating tubes out there.

I found the Vltor CASV-FAL and they claim it to be free floating, but it mounts in both front and back, so I don't see how that's free floating. It looks like it might work with a fch, but I'm not positive it will and I haven't been able to find any pics online of one mounted to a rifle outfitted with a fch. In any case the Vltor is $300. I imagine Ed's would be about the same after installation. I need to decide how I'm going to proceed. I might have to ditch the fch.

You FAL purists are going to hate me when I'm done.

Gun dog, I like those ARAK uppers. Recoil magazine did an article on them several months ago and I'm intrigued. Not real excited about the huge billboard on the side of them, though.

You can get it changed. I almost took a job there.
The product seems solid as I saw every piece in the machining process.
And the finished product is BA. I want to get a billet lower to put one on.

I remember you telling us about the tour. Curious why you would go billet. Some of them do look slick.

I like how tough a good machined and finished billet is.
I like the fit and finish of a good machines billet.
And I'm a machinest so I'm partial to machined vs forged...

I do agree that a billet receiver looks and fits better than forged, but I have to give the strength/toughness award to forged.

Aren't forged receivers also machined?

Well yes there is machining in both. One machined from a forging and the other from a solid piece of aluminum stock.

Why do you say a forged is stronger than billet?

I thought billet was stronger, until I actually looked into it. I'm no metallurgist, but there is tons of information out there explaining why forged is stronger than billet.

Billet is more than strong enough to get the job done. But I figured I could get greater strength, less weight, for less money in a forged receiver. That is just my preference.

Ok I will have to look into it. I was under the impression that a billet was better...

Billet may be better for whatever your needs are. They look better and can match up almost perfectly with the upper, especially if they are a matched set. That doesn't have any effect on accuracy, though.