FAL Buyers Guide

General Firearms Other Semi-Automatic Rifles
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FAL Buyers Guide

Here are some recommendations for new buyers who are interested in adding the Fusil Automatique Léger to their list of battle rifle options. The Browning, Poyer, and Eden rifles have all become too valuable for a new buyer to acquire as a shooter and many kit guns are suspect at best… I would recommend ANY of these factory built rifles over garage built kit guns every time, and here are a few things to look for…

NOTE: All factory FALs will have forged receivers with matching numbers on the upper, lower, bolt, and carrier. Some are also marked on the barrel under the hand guards… Most of these were imported over 20 years ago…

SAR 48 / 4800 (Metric) 50.00 / 50.64

100% Imbel factory production rifle made under license for Springfield Armory… Imbel was licensed by FN in Belgium to make FALs for the Brazilian military… This is a top quality rifle and one of the best values currently on the market… The 4800 marked rifles can often be had for hundreds less than the earlier 48 marked SARs… These rifles are SAR 48s that were caught in customs during the first Bush era ban or imported soon there after… Springfield Armory simply stamped “00” behind the SAR 48 markings, removed the flash hider, and added a thumbhole stock… They also offered an ‘accurizing package’ to restore your new 4800 to factory 48 i.e. 50.00 or 50.64 specs once it had cleared customs…

FMAP DM ROSARIO (Metric) 50.00

FN Licensed production line made by the State arsenal of Argentina. These are also of very high quality and a real value…

S.B.L. (Metric) Israeli light barrel

Imported by Onyx Arms and Armscorp… Made in Israel on another FN licensed production line, this is the Israeli pattern of the FAL complete with wood furniture and forward assist charging handle…

DSA (Metric) Various

The only quality FAL rife curremtly in production, and they are made in the good old US of A… DSA started selling parts kit rifles, mostly 40 year old Austrian STG 58s, rebuilt on new US made forged receivers… As their supply of original parts ran out, they reverse engineered several components and have changed the original design where needed for the ease of manufacture… Today they make a nearly 100% new US manufactured FAL Para type rifle of very high, all be it commercial, quality…

If you are looking at a used kit gun, here are a few reputable FAL kit builders…

AZEX : Arizona Expert Arms
ARS: Arizona Response Systems
CGW: Century Gun Works
SledgeHammer Arms Works
SLR-5000

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Is Coonan Arms a reputable company when it comes to FAL receivers?

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They were hit or miss, with at least some some shooting very low with any barrel. Mine went back for a different reason.

I would go with an earlier Imbel receiver with the Gear Logo first; an unmarked Argentine (no Argentine markings on mine, anyway) - as found on some of the early L1A1 kit thumbhole stocked guns; or a DSA.

Kit guns can be excellent quality if the original parts kit was of good quality and/or new replacement parts were added as needed, but it’s hard to know without knowing the parts history and ability of the builder. Several of mine got NIB G1 lower receivers for instance and I often pulled the best parts from two kits to make one rifle.

Some of the kits were virtually new rifles, btw. “Grade 1” Imbels from Dan’s Ammo for instance and StG kits with SN over ~120,000 with the original gray parkerizing (instead of the black factory rebuild finish).

Kit guns without the required US compliance parts should be avoided for obvious reasons. And headspace should at least be verified (IMO) as falling between SAAMI .308 GO (1.630") and NOGO (1.634"), unless you plan to replace the locking shoulder yourself. [A little above 1.634" would be safe with quality military 7.62x51 ammo, but why start out with a loose chamber to begin with.]

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Thanks for the FAL info!

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It was my understanding that the 1980s FN imports (FN LAR) were Belgian investment cast receivers. Unless of course your statement was specific to the Imbel, Argentine and Izzy imports in which case you would be correct.

And while I agree you have to be careful with “kit guns” I feel they can rate much better than “suspect at best.”

The DSA Stg and Imbel builds were very high quality and I could never get a preban FN import to out perform one in any respect other than finish or pedigree. I actually think the guns built using military parts might be better than the standard SA 58 line.

I also have a “like new” Imbel kit built on a Imbel gear receiver by AZEX which might actually be my best FAL in terms of performance.

But I completely agree the Springfield imports have all been pretty impressive. I really need to own one again.

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Shootist and SteyrAug, thanks a lot for the information. I owned a DSA G1 and had great luck with it. Was hoping to buy a para but the prices are through the roof. I will keep an eye out for the Imbel receiver.

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I’ll go on to say that they can be better than factory built guns. In my particular case, the first FAL that I purchased was a Springfield SAR-4800. Its accuracy was OK I guess, but was not what I expected from a rifle that had “MATCH” written on its side. It would also tear the crap out of spent cases. I actually ended up with a few that showed bright rings (excessive headspace) after being fired. Because of this, I wasn’t too thrilled with the FAL platform. When the wave of FAL kits hit the US, I decided to build an Austrian STG-58. I wanted to buy a DSA receiver, but they wouldn’t match the serial number to my kit, so I bought an Entreprise receiver. I headspaced it and timed the barrel myself. The barrel timing came out so perfect that I didn’t even have to drift the sights one bit. Best of all, the accuracy is significantly better than my SAR-4800. I know the SAR-4800 is suppose to be a better rifle because it was factory built, but this STG-58 kit build would just put it to shame. As an added bonus for a reloader like me, the spent cases come out of it in perfect condition. People have told me that the Entreprise receivers are junk. Perhaps I just don’t shoot enough for the quality differences to show. At any rate, I sold the SAR-4800 because it simply could not compete with my STG-58 kit build.

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Buck left out the Joe Poyer L1A1s…

http://fnfal.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240611

:smiley:

Seriously though… this isn’t really what I’d call a “Buyer’s Guide” since it’s too easy to just tell someone to procure an FN licensed product.

There are good builds out there and there are bad ones. Most can be fixed up pretty easily.