ISHAPORE 1A1 information

I am guessing not a lot of info about them out there....I have owned several and consider them an inch pattern copy....a bit crude perhaps but likely quite adequate for a developing 3rd world country....when these 1st came in they sold for 99$ and were restricted.....not sure about parts interchangeablity with inch pattern rifles....the ones I have seen were all very well used and in fair to good condition....the automatic hold open on an empty magazine had been disabled.....my 2 bits....
 
Back in the day, we bought them from Century Arms for a good price. The two I bought were anything but junk. We shot the one a lot, before they were even re-classified to restricted. Cheap ammo, cheap guns were the order of the day.
 
Fair enough from my understanding the Ishapore guns are a bit of a mix of parts, mostly commonwealth inch pattern but some parts like barrels, gas system and wood furniture is their own spec.

Also doesn't help that early guns are basically reverse engineered clones until FN got upset, its not super clear when that change occurred.

Better to ask around the falfiles.com forums they would be able to tell you more.

If its mostly complete and missing a few parts might be worth while but these things tend to be a money pit in the end.
 
Mine shot well enough, a little bit more accurate than I was expecting and reasonable reliability if the moving parts were kept oiled.

I have a British L1A1, too, but I've never been allowed to shoot it, so I can't offer a comparison.
 
IA1 uses the early single angle bolt and carrier from the Ex1 / X8E1 "FAL Canada" it is not compatable with later carriers. But you can drop in a later bolt and carrier but may need to headspace them.

Having said that, the Indians never upgraded so it's probably not a real issue.
 
Eugene L said:
I have one out of country , was wondering if it was worth fixing up ,if they were reliable and accurate or money would be better off put elsewhere ?
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If you have it in the USA keep in mind the requirements the ATF has for the FALs to be considered non-FA. You'll get better info on the US websites of course, but one thing is that the channel for the safety sear must be welded in such a way the sear cannot be installed. If it's not the ATF may confiscate it. The only FAL exempt from this were the famous G-series Belgians. Many FALs in Canada were not up to this standard. I have one here that was registered as CA but I had to re-verify as FA as the conversion was poor and _very_ reversible. I believe this is the major reason all 12.3 transfers now go through the lab for verification.

For anyone else curious, the 1A1 are not exportable to the US from Canada because of their caliber markings being 7.62 and not 308 and not being considered sporting for that reason. They are exportable to europe, but the Indians are the cheapest ones - not much money to be recouped.

If you have the gun already - by all means fix it up, it's just fine if rough around the edges. you can get most parts easily enough. DSA also makes modern upgrades.
 
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I had one way back, bought it from Wolverine. The brought in a bunch of refurbished ones. Maybe all that was done was parkerizing. Not sure. I bought replacement front wood from someone who had recently had his FN-FAL consiscated, so he stripped it and was selling the parts he kept. Late 80's?
 
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