Workbook

My neighbor had acquired some FAL parts and asked me to assemble it for him. Never done it

before, and of course, didn’t have the right tools, but he was in no hurry and I was curious, so got that

Israeli FALO put together finally and by golly it worked. My FAL experience may have ended there,

but I was a proud owner of a Springfield Armory M1A bush rifle. Problem was, it was a piece of

crap – was 26” off in elevation at 100 yards (I bought it new). Back to Springfield twice, they

changed the barrel, sights and finally receiver, while adamantly insisting there was nothing wrong

with it. Finally got it working right, but I’d lost confidence in Springfield Armory in general, and

that rifle in particular. I’d already tried the HK 91 and found the excellent quality of manufacture

and reliability did not make up for the poor balance, excessive price, and poor ergonomics, so when

another friend offered to trade an Entre'prise L1A1 for it, I figured I had nothing to lose. I fell in love

with that L1A1.

I guess it was a fortunate coincidence that my new-found passion for FALs occurred at the beginning

of what has become a tidal wave of popularity, coinciding with new US manufacture of receivers and

inexpensive parts kits. That lead to my rudimentary knowledge of the gun still being more than most

knew (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!), and I’ve since worked diligently to keep

up with some really sharp folks out there asking some tough questions. So while I’ll never claim to

be an expert, I've been fortunate to maintain a degree of competency that has led to a good reputation

in a rapidly growing field. I’m sure you also will fall in love with this brilliant piece of firearm

engineering.