Century Arms L1a1 Serial Numbers
Description: L1A1 Sporter, FAL type rifle, built on Imbel (Brazil) receiver and imported by Century Arms. Caliber is.308. Serial number is UB68A18471. This rifle is in very good used condition. It has a 4-groove barrel with an excellent bore. It has a 4-9X variable Tasco “Golden Antler” scope.
I recently bought a used Century R1A1 and have a few questions. From what I can tell it is a metric kit with the lower both stamped and electro penciled RA1041 and the bolt having an RA number on it also. The grenade launcher sight is marked in yards instead of meters which throws me a little. The only other ones I have ever seen were in meters.
The receiver just says Century Arms, R1A1 Sporter cal.308 with their Georgia, VT address and made in the USA. Serial number is CA323XX and doesn't have the unibrow feed ramp. The barrel is threaded with an original flash hider (short belgian style.) Furniture is american black plastic. Oblicovka fasadov kassetami uzli dwg.
Is this a South African kit? Was it used Rhodesia? Who did Century have make the receiver and when do you think they made it? I've tried to do the research but it is hard to tell. It appears to be a well used rifle still in good shape. I hope to shoot it this weekend.
Thanks for your help. Last edited by lpcullen; at 10:37 AM. The last Century Arms FAL I held had a receiver that was a dead ringer for a Coonan. It was marked Century Arms, but definitely had the contours of a Type III Coonan. I've had Century L1A1s made in Canada, with Imbel gear marked receivers, with receivers marked made by Imbel without the gear logo, etc.
Also with a mix of Canadian, UK and Australian inch parts along with select metric parts from who knows where. And US parts they didn't bother to put any marks on, and other US parts with just a C stamped on them. Anything is possible. Just my 2 cents, but Century Arms would have had to put the country of origin on imported receivers. The chance of a Century rifle with an unmarked Imbel receiver, in my opinion, is pretty low.
Century Arms Inc. L1A1 Sporter Semi-Automatic Rifle with Extra MagazineSerial number on left receiver with '120233' stamped on right. Receiver made my Imbel. Complete with canvas sling and two magazines. This is the model Century Arms Manufactured from surplus British and Australian L1A1 / L1A1-A Military issue rifle for California State Law compliance. This examples serial number is C2630. This rifle is New with no Box. Please E-mail or call Tommy at 760-912-3761.
Century Arms R1a1 Serial Number
I see a lot of ads on the various auction sites claiming they have a Century rifle with an unmarked Imbel receiver. Sure, they do. Century bought out Federal Arms Corp back around 2005, so who knows what receivers they got in that deal. Maybe some Hesse receivers!
I wouldn't be upset if I had a Coonan receiver. Nothing wrong with those. The inch pattern rifles I've bought from Century all worked with metric mags too.
DS Arms often has 30rd 7.62 BREN mags in both inch and metric (ground down the inch front lug). Heavy, but a lot of fun. DS also has some parts too. The good ole days of FAL parts being plentiful and dirt cheap didn't last long. Glad to hear it shot well. I've owned many Century FALs over the years and the only one I ever had problems with was from their first batch of Canadian rifles.
Century Arms Fal Serial Numbers
After waiting nearly a year for delivery, we soon discovered the barrel wasn't indexed/timed correctly and it shot way off to side with open sights. The rifle was rediculously accurate and reliable, so I just put a Trilux scope on it and got on with life. Century has a bad reputation for assembly problems, but I remember my days working in a gunshop ordering custom built M1s and M1As from some of the best builders in the country. And still getting rifles that wouldn't function or shoot 3 feet to the left or shoot straight into the ground. These cats never built a faulty rifle; just ask them; it was always our fault; we weren't using it right. So, I cut Century some slack. Some FAL parts are hard to come by now days.
Century Arms L1a1 Serial Numbers
I've had to go trolling over at gunbroker, find someone selling FAL parts, then see what else they are selling. Often they have the parts misidentified so they won't show up when you use the search function.