Why would you do such a thing?

Any discussion of building a short-barreled rifle in .308 needs to start with some defensive justification. Here's what I've got:

1. My state recently legalized SBRs.
2. I really like FALs.
3. FALs are almost all chambered in .308.
4. SBR FALs are cool.

Pretty devastating, huh? The logic leads inexorably to e-filing a Form 1, waiting the better part of a year for form approval, buying some parts, and immediately plunging into a project that turned out to be more involved than anticipated.

I expected to have to do some tinkering to get an SBR FAL running properly. While some rifle designs have benefitted from decades of engineering and military usage of short barrels, the FAL is not one of them. Still, it came as a surprise to have to make tools even to get started. Tuning the gas system to get it working also turned out to be fairly involved. The entire project also spawned a couple smaller sub-projects to improve ergonomics, which are also documented here.

The outcome was a working SBR FAL set up the way I like it--and this writeup. Although you, the reader, cannot personally enjoy shooting this specific rifle, hopefully the description of how it was made will prove amusing.

Obligatory Disclaimer

I have no idea what I'm doing and am unqualified to work on firearms in any offical manner (and probably also most unofficial manners, too). Details of what I did have been omitted, either for brevity or because I forgot to write them down; some of those details might be important for safety. This writeup is not intended as a guide; at best, it may provide incomplete examples of what not to do. Mostly, though, it's intended as entertainment. (For gunsmiths, it's probably more like a horror story.) Don't try this at home--or any adjacent undeveloped areas, especially if they're protected wetlands.