Want a Galil just like mine? Cheap? Here's how.

[White Israelite]

Ok guys, anyone who's interested in buying a Galil I am going to walk you through this.

First of all there are several ways to own a Galil, you can either.

A) Shell out $3000.00 for an original IMI made Galil, these are no longer importable hence the demand is climbing.

B) Purchase a clone, two ways of doing this, you can buy one built by Century for about $780.00 (link: http://www.aimsurplus.com/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2faimsurplus%2ecom%2f&WD=galil&PN=Galil_Sporter_%2e223_Rifle%2ehtml%23a1587#a1587), you can buy one by Elite Firearms http://www.elitefirearms.net/ , or you can buy Vulcan/Hesse clone (which I don't suggest/recommend!)

C) Build your own/buy parts and get it built by a professional builder.

I chose option C. First of all I'm going to go through the facts regarding the Galil and it's clones.

First of all a short description in regards to the Galil

The Galil is a family of Israeli small arms designed by I. Galili and Y. Lior, produced by Israel Military Industries Ltd. The weapon system consists of a 5.56 mm line chambered for the intermediate 5.56x45mm NATO caliber with either M193 or SS109 ball ammunition and several 7.62 mm models designed for use with the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge.

The Galil’s design is based on the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle. It was selected as the winner of a competitive bid for the Israeli Army that included many other designs and was formally introduced into service in 1972. Depending on the barrel length, magazine capacity and accessories the Galil is available in the following configurations: a carbine variant known as the SAR (short assault rifle), a compact MAR (micro assault rifle) version, standard-length AR (assault rifle) and an ARM (assault rifle and machine gun) light machine gun.

Option A

Getting an original Galil, this is probably your best option but expect to be dishing out a lot of money. Galils were exported to the United States in limited numbers before they were banned for import thanks to the import ban on "non sporting firearms", there were several attempts to get around this. Importers added a fixed wood stock, added a 10 round magazine, removed the bayonet lugs and put on a fixed barrel with no threading. This was known as the Galil Sporter. These command less money than a pre ban however after the assault weapon ban expired, many people replaced the stock and got the barrels threaded and sold them online.

Expect to pay anywhere from $2,300 to $3,500 depending on if it's a preban or afterban. Some people get lucky and can get it for a little below $2000 but don't count on it. Original IMI will be the best quality.

If you've got the money, go for an original, you won't be disappointed.

Option B

Purchasing a clone, you will need to be careful about this. First of all, there are only two known manufacturers  of Galil clones. Ohio Rapid Fire builds a Galil receiver which is made in the US. These are currently the most common receivers used for clones, Century uses ORF receivers and assembles guns on parts kits, same with a few other companies who sell the Galil clones. The only other clone is sold by Vulcan/Hesse. I would personally avoid anything built by Vulcan or Hesse as it looks like their receiver was built by a bunch of retards in a metal scrap yard. They are also known to have problems, there are nightmares on forums in regards to a certain product sold by Hesse or Vulcan to kaboom/blowup due to poor manufacturing. Vulcan and Hesse are the same company and they offer no warranty on their products. Ohio Rapid Fire also sells pre assembled Galil clones but these are a bit more pricey than the Century ones though you will probably get better quality overall.

It's really down to what the end user wants. Watch certain issues with Galil clones such as headspacing (if your gun starts blowing primers or ripping casings apart, call the manufacturer and do not continue to shoot), send your receiver out to make sure it's heat treated properly, etc. Basically just watch for anything abnormal. Century has a bad reputation but apparently people are satisfied with the Century Galil clones and they will replace the gun if it's defective. Please keep in mind that these are clones built on beat up milsurplus kits that have been refinished and put on a new American receiver with American parts to comply with 922 (r) compliance of less than 10 imported parts to be legal in the United States. They also do not have the original chrome lined hammer forged IMI barrels, rather an American non chrome lined barrel, and most do not have bayonet lugs.

Option C

This is the option I chose. I didn't build my own Galil but what I did was purchase the receiver, parts kit, and barrel from Ohio Rapid Fire and shipped it out to a builder to get my gun built. The receiver costs about $350.00

I did the following

I purchased an Ohio Rapid Fire Galil receiver, you can get these online from ORF's online web store. They make a few different versions, you can choose from the original receiver which has ORF's logo on the side, you can choose a bare sided receiver (like I did) and get it engraved custom, you can purchase a Hebrew engraved receiver which is identical to the military Galil receiver in use by the IDF, or you can purchase a Micro Galil receiver. You an also choose in different calibers, either .223 or .308 at the moment. You can find the receivers here.

.223 bare slided receiver (one I have) http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*fD6Be4&p_id=02132&xm=on&ppinc=big

.308 receiver http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*da86f0&p_id=02138&xm=on&ppinc=big

Micro galil receiver 5.56 http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*Rn4Sf8&p_id=02039&xm=on&ppinc=big

Hebrew engraved receiver http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*Mm5hQ2&p_id=02156&xm=on&ppinc=big

heres a picture of the receiver





Engraved ORF receiver:


What you will need next is a parts kit, there are several ways you can go about with this, you can purchase a new parts kit. For a basic new kit it will be about $700.00.
http://akpartskits.com/store/index.php?cPath=10_13&osCsid=0f8ce93836219f47638d767157296b72

Or you can take the route I did, I purchased a used military surplus parts kit from Ohio Rapid Fire for $250.00

The quality varies, most of the parts kits came from guns that were heavily used in the jungles of South America and are probably beat up. Some parts are practically scrap metal, others are usable. I was lucky and got a pretty decent/average parts kit however I did have to replace the handguard which was wood as the original retainers had shrunk, that was a $40.00 part I had to replace.

You can buy a used parts kit here
http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*Jl8Nj7&p_id=02152&xm=on&ppinc=big

Comes with everything except the barrel.

Here is a picture of my parts kit to give you an idea how it looked before my gun was put together. It was packed in cosmoline.









Keep in mind you will need a barrel, you can choose from the following, you can use an original IMI barrel but it will have to be reamed because it is chrome lined therefore some builders may not be able to do it. The IMI barrel is the highest quality however and chrome lined is a little better due to the fact you will not have to clean it as often (though you should). Your other option is a non chrome lined American made Green mountain barrel. No idea how these perform but apparently they are accurate. They are also cheaper, about $110.00. Something you should consider is the barrel is a compliance part therefore make sure you have enough American parts in the gun before you buy an IMI barrel since it is Israeli made. You can buy a Green mountain barrel here

http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*ix5id4&p_id=02153&xm=on&ppinc=big

If you already have the money, you can buy the receiver, parts kit, and barrel along with compliance parts for about $700.00 and save money on just buying individual parts direct from Ohio Rapid Fire

http://rapidfire.targetweb.net/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi/agora.cgi?cart_id=2282565.26757*JM7vZ6&p_id=02172&xm=on&ppinc=big

That'll leave you to just the fee getting it built by someone.

Compliance Parts

For your rifle to be legal, you will need a certain amount of parts to be legal. I believe the legal count is 5.

The receiver is American made, that counts as 1 part so you need 4 more parts. I used an American made barrel by Green mountain and a Tapco double hook AK47 fire control group which is 3 parts, that's 5 parts.

You can get the Tapco doublehook trigger here for $29

http://dpharms.com/tapco-g2-double-hook-trigger-group-p-40.html


From here, you can either build the rifle yourself if you have the knowledge, there is a guide how to built it available here.

http://arizonaresponsesystems.com/notes/galilbuild/pagegalilbuild.htm

I sent my barrel, receiver, parts kit, and compliance parts out to a builder in Colorado. You can find builders online, mine was able to drill the barrel, assemble it, refinish, and test fire and then shipped back to me. He had to make a few changes to the receiver but everything appears to be in working order.

build cost me $250.00.

Hope this helps for anyone looking to buy a cost effective Galil.