FAL and cast

[offshore44]

I've been messing about with dummy rounds in my FAL and have a question for the hive...

When a round is cycled from the magazine into the chamber, the nose is damaged by the feed ramp. Not a huge thing, just a portion of the nose next to the meplat flattened out a bit. I am guessing that this is going to effect accuracy. Would going to a harder alloy help; how hard would it need to be? Could the feed lips on the magazines be massaged to give the round a straighter shot into the chamber?

Any ideas are welcome!

[BruceB]

I would NOT alter the feed lips. They are rather subtly shaped, and it would be easy to ruin a good magazine.

Many studies over the years have proven that it's BASE irregularities that affect accuracy, much more than nose flaws. If no metal is actually being removed from the noses, I'd try the loads and see what happens.

What bullet design are you using? Another design with a different nose profile might feed perfectly. All my autoloaders work fine with water-dropped wheelweight alloy, incidentally.

One more thing on accuracy.... consider that the dings on ALL the bullet noses will be at the same orientation in the chamber, not randomly scattered around the circumference. (meaning: if round #1 has the ding at 2:00 in the chamber, so will rounds #1, #7, #15 etc. etc). This fact will tend to minimize any accuracy effects.

I would try another bullet design, maybe one with a smaller meplat.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

My FAL is VERY abusive to the nose of the bullet. The angle for feeding from magazine to chamber is very abrupt. I've not tried cast bullets, but it can mess up any soft point. I'm not sure I'll keep this rifle.

[historicfirearms]

I had a century fal that needed modification to the feed rails in the frame to get it to feed better. Before the mod, I believe the right side fed round was getting the nose bashed. Go to Falfiles and look up the feed rail modification. Basically you insert an empty mag with the top cover up. Logo to see if any of your feed rail is overhanging the magazine. Trim where it is overhanging the mag.

In my opinion, this is one of the major factors affecting fal accuracy.

[offshore44]

I would NOT alter the feed lips. They are rather subtly shaped, and it would be easy to ruin a good magazine.

Many studies over the years have proven that it's BASE irregularities that affect accuracy, much more than nose flaws. If no metal is actually being removed from the noses, I'd try the loads and see what happens.

What bullet design are you using? Another design with a different nose profile might feed perfectly. All my autoloaders work fine with water-dropped wheelweight alloy, incidentally.

One more thing on accuracy.... consider that the dings on ALL the bullet noses will be at the same orientation in the chamber, not randomly scattered around the circumference. (meaning: if round #1 has the ding at 2:00 in the chamber, so will rounds #1, #7, #15 etc. etc). This fact will tend to minimize any accuracy effects.

I would try another bullet design, maybe one with a smaller meplat.

I had that feeling about mag geometry, that's why I asked. I'm using the RCBS 30-165-SIL, sizing to 0.301", and paper patching it. After a little diddling around, the bolt gun is shooting these things pretty well. Well enough that I'm looking into another bolt gun with greater inherent accuracy anyway. Great round to paper patch or load for generally. Thanks for the tip on the alloy. i just might go there instead.


My FAL is VERY abusive to the nose of the bullet. The angle for feeding from magazine to chamber is very abrupt. I've not tried cast bullets, but it can mess up any soft point. I'm not sure I'll keep this rifle.

The load cycle on a FAL can be abusive. I like mine, and would shoot it more if I can cut the cost of ammo down.


I had a century fal that needed modification to the feed rails in the frame to get it to feed better. Before the mod, I believe the right side fed round was getting the nose bashed. Go to Falfiles and look up the feed rail modification. Basically you insert an empty mag with the top cover up. Logo to see if any of your feed rail is overhanging the magazine. Trim where it is overhanging the mag.

In my opinion, this is one of the major factors affecting fal accuracy.

I'm a member over there, so I'll do that. Thinking it over some, you may be onto something there, even with fmj's. The cartridge assembly hits that feed ramp hard enough, the bullet isn't aligned with the case any longer.

Hmmm... Thanks guys! Lots of good food for thought and avenues to explore...

There's just something about a 165 grn home grown boolit going about 2700 fps out of an autoloader that has my interest right now. I know the first one will exit the barrel, hitting the target and repeating the performance is the question. ;-):lol:

[missionary5155]

Greetings
About 10 years back purchased my first Fal. Cleaned out the barrel and proceeded to load up 100 rounds with the RCBS 180 grain FNGC . This is my favorite cast caliber .30 boolit so I figured as it worked in my Garands and M1A there was no reason it should not also work in the worlds most popular caliber .30 battle rifle.
Shoots near as well as the common 145 bulk grainers in that Fal and another purchased 3 years ago. Yes the noses get a bit wacked but at 200 yards they will hit a 10 inch square gong every time if I shoot slow fire.
I have not run a study on how badly each nose may get deformed. But they shoot well and I was not looking for bolt rifle accuracy. The boolit the OP mentioned I have not tried. Possibly a pointy nose may shoot better. All I know for sure I have never had any feed or cycle problems with the RCBS 180 FNGC in any of the three types Mil Slurp auto feed rifles I have owned.
Mike in Peru

[MtGun44]

Like BruceB said, front is nealy irrelevant, base is the steering end. NRA
did a big test years ago with 6.5 Swede and HUGE grider damage to
the noses of mil FMJs did not affect groups but a slight hit with a file
one base opened up the groups a lot.

Shoot some and see, probably be fine.

Bill