Comments on the DSA SA58 FAL

I love the FAL, and I'm not selling mine. That having been said, I can't do you better than relate what was told to me a few days ago.

There was a fellow shooter, working hard. His rifle for as many years as I've been married to the M14 is a FAL. By his estimate, he's put 25,000 rounds down the barrels (two barrels, that's cumulative over both). He fires that rifle WELL. Never has scored expert with it though.

One of our mutual friends has 'lovingly coaxed' him to try an M14 several times. This last weekend, it finally worked. The FAL shooter said that he felt like he was betraying his FAL, but opted to use our friend's M14. All he was told was "just do what you've been doing". He hit expert RIGHT THEN.

I love the FAL, but in my mind it's always been closer to a battle rifle than a Rifleman's Rifle. Can one make hits at 600 and out with a FAL? If one is REALLY good, knows his ammo, and knows his rifle as well as himself. Elsewise, there are more forgiving platforms. The '14 is one of those.

All this aside, I'm seriously contemplating buying one of those DSA lowers that includes a M16A2 rear sight, and even half-considering a para conversion.

Indeed Mickey, indeed!

The '14 is best loaded with Varget, H4895, IMR4895, IMR4064, AA2520, or Vihta N135. That's with the lighter bullets. If your intent is to push the heavies, move the Vihta to N140. If you're attempting to run the heavies at velocity (I want the Sierra 175 matchkings to run at 2685 fps so that they track on my bullet drop compensator) then Varget is the real ticket.

Some powders in the loading manuals for 308 applications will damage the oprod if loaded stiff - and I'm not talking about chamber pressures, I'm talking about gas port pressures.

Can powders slower or faster than the ones I mentioned work? Sure - but you're in the position of loading lighter than nominal with the slower powders to lessen the action battering, or lighter than nominal with the faster powders to lessen the chamber pressures.

Is the FAL superior in this way? Without question. The FAL regulator is one of the brightest ideas to come along since rifled barrels.

I'll reiterate what Mickey said - for a battle rifle, the FAL is tremendous. When I was selling off rifles (I had it in my head for some silly reason that I needed to weed everything down to ONE rifle) years ago, the first out the door was the HK91. It was a long and hard run to decide between the FAL and the '14 - eventually I went with the '14. Of course, years later, I had to buy another FAL and another HK91

I have carried a FAL clone and an HK 91 clone on the road at one time or another and we have tested the latest SOCOM. Keep in mind I have never engaged anything past 400 yards with any of the platforms.

The HK had cool factor and was very accurate but that was about it. It was heavy and did not feel lively in hand.

The FAL and the SOCOM both balanced nicely at the shoulder and were very snappy. The SOCOM felt much smaller than it actually was. I thought it was M4 sized while handling it. Both my FAL and the SOCOM had 16 inch barrels so it was a pretty fair comparison.

The SOCOM was a wonderfully built gun but I didn't like the ergo's on it as well as the FAL. My FAL never let me down and a DSA would have to be better than my Hess Clone. I did switch to the para style rear sight with the A2 flip aperture. This was a big improvement over the factory sight, although I really had to get a tight cheek weld with the fixed stock.

Overall, from my experience, either the M14 or FAL will do a great job. It will most likely come down to personal preference.

Here's mine.

Here's a couple more. This was essentially a Para Congo that I added the extreme duty extended scope mount and rail interface handguard to. I also had the factory NP3 coating on the internals. Everything including the scope mount and rail interface are duracoat black with the NP3 coated pins showing up silvery gray.

The FAL is my absolute favorite gun. Go to the FAL forums and check out "Ole Dirty" thrown in the mud, soaked for half hour, never cleaned, and 14,500 she is still goin strong.

I can only do 2.5" groups @100 yards with Federal GMM. For reference, with the same ammo my M1A can do sub MOA. FAL (at least mine) is not the most accurate weapon I have, but when the SHTF, I am grabbing my FAL.... Will go bang everytime and no spare parts kit needed... cleaning optional

XCR on top, FAL on the bottom.


Specs on my FAL:
DSA SA58 Para
18" Barrel (but now 17" do to swapping out the old FH with an A2 type)
DSA Para Extended top railed cover
DSA railed handguards
SAW pistol Grip
ITC Cheekpad
KMC Single point sling
UTG foregrip
Falcon Rail covers
King Arms scope mount ($50 )
Millet DMS-1