Indians For Guns

Greetings!!!

I am an member of FALFiles and was referred to this Forum to see if I could get a couple of my questions answered in regards to my Indian FAL- 1A1.

So, let me dive right in 🥸

Question #1: I have (1) completely assembled Indian 1A1 FAL in my collection. It has an Imbel-Inch Upper Receivr that was StampMarked to resemble an original Indian 1A1 Rifle (all legal of course…looks original)!

ALSO…I have an Indian 1A1 Parts Kit (minus the Upper Receiver) that is now on my shelf for later assembly.

History: During my “Hunter-gather process (regarding the the build of my first Indian 1A1)… I was EXTREMELY fortunate enough to come across a set of “RARE: Original Indian Orange-Bakelight Handguards” .

The question I have always wondered is this: Did India ever manufacture replacement set of “Orange Bakelight Stocks or Pistol Grips”?….(or was the only thing that was produced was the Handguards themselves)?

Question #2. Does anyone happen to have an original Indian 1A1 FAL Manual (PDF)…or maybe other interesting Indian 1A1 PDF documentation…?

If you happen to have answers to these (2) questions…I would be extremely thankful and might have some PDFs that would prove useful in your PDF library 🥸

Thank you in advanced!
Orion the Hunter!!!

Orion the Hunter, welcome to IFG. You are a lot luckier than us to be able to own the FN-FAL, popularly known as SLR in India. I hope our member Cottage Cheese would be able to answer your questions here. Do post the photos of your rifle if that is okay.

Hi...welcome to IFG.... to start with it would simply be called 1A1 or if we were to use our inherited British parlance - 7.62mm Rifle No.1A1 ....no need for FAL or 'L' prefix or suffix...for reasons which I can't fathom, everybody seems to want to invent their own nomenclature for the 1A1 .... including in some books of reasonable repute

RFI made 4 patterns of hand guards (in chronological order)

a) for 1964-65 1A - Wooden FN Model C design with three vent slots.

b) 1965-early 80s nomenclature changed to '1A1' - Wooden Stock with 'commonwealth' two vent slots (Pretty close to Aussie ones). This used to be the most common type, numerically.

c) 80s 1A1 - Glass Fiber-plastic composite slab side with steel ferrule (usually plum brown). To me, this looks the best.

d) 1988 pattern (which is the current pattern) a rather fat hand guard made of some glass fiber resin composite. Dark plum brown base color but overpainted in that horrid 'orange' ....the ordnance spec paint is actually 'Leaf Brown', which in actuality is a nice subtle muted color....but poor quality control with vendors and contractors resulted in that awful orange color. The grooves appear to be loosely inspired by the G1 design.

In the late 90s there was a brief attempt to make the 88 pattern in a deep amber colored, woodchip-plastic composite like the VZ58. But it does not apear to have been adopted and I saw it only once.

There is no official nomenclature for any of the handguards though.

Butt Stocks have remained ferruled Model C all through out .... even in the present Nylon 66 form....in that hideous orange shade.

Pistol grips too have been consistently UK L1A1 all through. Factory technical documents specify 'crocodile' texture on the grip sides.
Pistol grips and butt stocks since 1988 are heat stabilized Nylon66. i am not too sure about those from the 3rd pattern days.


Replacement furniture is definitely made, but only for goverment agencies. But with such a convoluted red-tape saturated supply chain, most agencies (nowadays primarily Police) with an arms workshop elect to fabricate wooden stocks when composite ones give up the ghost.

Apart from the four principal patterns of handguards, there was a slightly shortened 2nd Pattern type for the select fire 1C . This feature a slightly shorter barrel with an exposed piston tube. This required a different collar type ferrule and had only two circular vent holes. Originally meant for mechanized infantry, it came with a detachable muzzle piece that allowed it to lock into the firing ports of BMP troop carriers.

You'll also encounter a curious mix and match of stock types, the usual result of FTRs.

Printed 1A1 manuals, unfortunately, are not issued per-gun but at armourer level. So typically they're not available in the open...and the armourers tend to take the 'Restricted' label to heart. I've gone through it, it it bears nothing that is different or unique. What you'd find in a L1A1 manual would in all likelihood be identical.

Hope this helps!
Cheers!

Fab answer CC.

Excellent information, CC. Cheers.

Wow @ CC - What a treasure of information! It's always informative to read your posts, something I personally look forward to.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Vikram wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 14, 2024 4:03 pm

Excellent information, CC. Cheers.

mundaire wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 28, 2024 9:44 pm

Wow @ CC - What a treasure of information! It's always informative to read your posts, something I personally look forward to.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Rarely are we treated to this degree of detail describing a firearm or this level of expertise. I "third" the motion. Thank you!