Fancy new FAL grip stick

[Lima]

Even though I am not a renactor, one of my objectives in assembling my BRP MG42 receiver kit is to try and maintain the original exterior cosmetics as much as possible while remaining in legal compliance. This includes a functional ejector dust cover, functional original safety, no extra pins or attachments visible from the outside and decent looking grip stick.

All of the grip sticks I had seen previously were not up to my standards of originality because they ..
- had an ugly hook out the front through the ejector port (BRP)
- had a chunky section added to the front for FCG for s fat FAL or AR system
- were a completely non-original looking profile
- had fat chunks sticking out of the front for attachment
- non-original trigger profile

With harder hitting, silky smooth action and a thin profile, I like the FAL FCG better than the AR and thought I could make it work.

After a fair bit of study and measuring of my FAL parts and the original grip stick and concluded I could engineer a design that would make it all fit in the original grip stick with some interior and FCG modifications.

I knew the grip stick was not wide enough so the first order of business was to carefully remove the extra sheet metal on both sides that acts as a doubler. Since I did not want pins visible on the outside, I knew I would need a cage to fit inside like a CETME or G3. The cage design I came up with is open on one side to fit the hammer spring tube and is held in place with the trigger pin at the front and the safety at the rear. The front grip retainer bushing can provide some support but it really does not need it at all with the trigger pin and safety holding things together.

The safety uses the original button and is basically the same bar extension and slot design some other clever person came up with. It works very well and solidly with zero play then engaged on safe. Trigger is a welded hybrid of the original and part of the FAL trigger. Hammer was milled down thinner in a few places to fit the new cage which is .460 wide inside.

To hold the grip to the receiver at the front, a wide shelf/bushing was fabricated from a 1" square piece of 4130 and fits inside the shelled out grip stick with a hidden plug weld at the front . This shelf/bushing hugs the semi cutout in the trigger slot very firmly yet can be removed easily. It also has clearance to allow a MG3 or MG42 ejector dust cover latch to engage.

Assemble is pretty easy but a short pin is used for the trigger so that when the cage and parts are assembled in the grip stick, you push out the short pin with the longer one to secure the cage in the grip stick. The safety is installed normally with the trigger depressed. The spring assembly is installed last after the cage and safety are installed.

To make sure the grip stick can't fit FA components, I am going to make the original FA FCG pin bushing holes oversized and useless. DSA sells the USA made trigger sear hammer sets for the FAL if anyone is looking.

I have not assembled the front and rear sections but if the reach from the hammer to the firing pin is a bit too short, I can fabricate a slightly longer firing pin to make it work.

It’s taken a very large amount of time to get this thing designed and done but the next one should go quicker… Here are some pictures...

[Bil]

Very nice!!! Just make sure that the FE grip cannot be fitted-I know you addressed that in the tutorial,but does the receiver itself need to be modified to be legal/ I am unclear.Anyway,nice engineering. ---bil

[Lima]

I am using a BRP approved semi-auto receiver front and rear sections that arrived addembled as an FFL item. I milled a slot in the receiver and welded in the semi bolt blocker bar provided by BRP.

The front of the grip slot where had the FA grip would mount was removed by BRP before I got it to meet BATF requirements. The shape of my front retainer piece does a great job of grabbing what little metal is left between the trigger slot and ejector slot.

To prevent FA parts from working in the grip frame without my FAL cage, the holes will be reamed oversize, filled or removed to prevent FA parts from being installed in the modified grip frame.

[Bil]

Excellant!! Would you mind if I made this thread a 'sticky' so it would be easier to find? Nice to see something new.I look forward to a range report.Thanks. ---bil

[Lima]

After learning so much from the knowlegable folks on this site, I would be honored to contribute with a sticky...

[Michael J]

I'm glad you got this working Lima! Haha, it was real exciting when you had first mentioned it, i figured it possible, but one heck of a job to do! You did an amazing job at keeping the exterior fairly visually preserved !

[1919WILD]

Damn that is nice!! if you make any more i'd buy one!

[Lima]

Michaelj - The only thing I touched on the outside was a plug weld in the front. It has since been completely ground flush and invisble. The circles you see on the outside are the sharpie marks I made to hilight the spot welds at the factory to help when milling out the original support doublers from the factory.

This one was built on a G3 grip frame. I also have a Yugo grip frame shelled out. To use the cage in my Yugo grip, I would need to adjust the half moon cut out on the bottom of the trigger to allow for the different plastic grip mounting geometry on the Yugo. (grips are differnet and not interchangeable)

[12thWaffenSS]

Looks great. I'll take one too please.

[42rocker]

Thanks for sharing this idea with us. Please keep us posted on your next one and how things are working out.

Thanks

Later 42rocker

[IMBLITZVT]

Looks really nice. How much? I want three!

[mp40guy]

Have you put any on the market yet? I would like one

[waffendude]

wow---thats very cool---looks orig. to me--great work and thanks for the pictures---they answer a buch of questions
waffen

[rhw1225]

Excellent piece of work.
Is there any possibility you will be able to produce these for sell? I want three myself.

[Lima]

Excellent piece of work.
Is there any possibility you will be able to produce these for sell? I want three myself.

While I would love to punch a bunch of these out, with my hobby equipment they are currently quite time intensive to cobble out and work (thankfully) keep me fully employed at the moment.

Seems people dig this design. It would be great to find someone with real CNC manufacturing equipment that could make a small production run of the FAL FCG cages viable.

[CRUSADER]

Lima - you still out there? Please check your PM's.

Also, could you tell us how this grip has been working for you?

Can you tell us about the bolt and bolt carrier mods you made?

[42rocker]

Looks like a great grip

Later 42rocker

[jamesob]

Has anyone experimented with a hk33 trigger pack in the original grip stick housing?

[88comm]

Answering the question mentioned above, the HK trigger groups for the G3, Hk 33,93 and 91 are all .905" wide. The grip stick, at its widest inside is .625"

While the sear, hammer, trigger sear spring and hammer spring from the HK's might be used in the MG42, I have yet to hear of someone spending the funds to put HK parts into this build. There is potential here though, as the job might be done without butchering the HK parts (not exactly cheap items). The idea has its merits.

[42rocker]

remember
"""I knew the grip stick was not wide enough so the first order of business was to carefully remove the extra sheet metal on both sides that acts as a doubler. """" how is the inside width then?

Later 42 rocker