*FAL Butt Stock Removal Tool*
By serger

Save your teeth, build the tool

After I bought my FAL kit (STG-58) and before I installed it and made a rifle I decided to clean and check out the parts for wear and to replace the 40 year old spring sets in it. Part of that tear down process was removing the Butt Stock Screw to get at the Inner and Outer Return Springs. I knew it would be under compression from the 2 recoil springs the FAL had. So As I unscrewed the nut I had my old piece of blanket over the stock to dampen the force of the thing becoming unscrewed and to prevent any pieces from becoming missile hazards.

The springs were quite energetic and tried to get me but I prevailed.

Once I had removed the crystallized grease from the Return Spring Tube and replaced the old springs I had to get them back inside where they did not want to go. In the mean time I had removed the Pistol Grip and noticed the screw slots on it matched the slots on the Butt Stock Screw. I decided to make a tool to hold the springs captive and do double duty of removing the butt stock and pistol grip.

Taking an old ½ inch 6-point socket I laboriously filed the sides down and made two teeth on the thick web of the socket to mate with the slots in the screws. Once the socket was modified I needed a rod to hold the springs.

I dug around in my junk metal bin and found a basin valve rod that had been part of a basin hardware set for the bathroom sink. The rod fit the hole in the Butt Stock Screw. I took my thread pitch gage and determined it had a pitch of 24 teeth per inch and would fit a 12-24 tap. I then took a ½ inch bolt and cut the head off it. I drilled and tapped the bolt head to 12-24 and screwed the basin valve rod onto the bolt head.

NOTE: for you metric types out there, I’m sure a 13mm socket and nut would work fine.

This took the better part of a Saturday morning but when I was done I had a stock removal tool. I assembled my FAL lower Receiver and went down the road. That was over 2 years ago.

Ok, so now about the time I was researching useful links on the net for the series of articles about the FAL I went to fnfal.com and they had an article from a guy who had done almost the same thing I had done but he’d done it a lot easier and faster. Talk about doing it the hard way. I guess all roads really lead to Rome but mine was a four-wheel drive Jeep trail and he used the Autobahn. Anyway they both work. Here’s his link. FAL stock removal tool (I do think my idea of using a socket the diameter of the nut which I did is a better thought but on the whole This was a lot easier)

If you have a rifle with the large nut on the pistol grip, you can remove it and use it as a guide for the teeth of the removal tool. That way when you unscrew the Butt Stock Screw you can do it in a controlled manner and not in the exciting way I initially did. Remember safety first.

serger


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