Ok, my 'smith got in some new DSA FAL's, with the NATO Green furniture, intagrated bipod, the works. Damn are they sweet!!! I really like the carbine, but I have been told the carbines are much much louder than the full sized. I am wondering what I loose when I go with the carbine over the full sized other than 200 FPS? What would ya'll do? Thanks.

Also, what is with DSA's "Authentic" line of FALs? What is the diffrence between the rest, and why are they so much less expensive? Thanks.

The only thing you lose with the carbine is the 200 fps you mentioned.

The "authentic" DSA FAL line are used StG-58 kits assembled on new DSA receivers with sufficient US parts to allow the normal pistol grip / stock configuration.

One member of another board mentioned that the loss of velocity was actually more like 50fps. If so, that's a nice bonus.

Quoted: One member of another board mentioned that the loss of velocity was actually more like 50fps. If so, that's a nice bonus.

That was going down to a 20" barrel.  An FAL is 21" from the start.  If you go with the 18" carbine, you won't lose much more, but the 16.25" carbine loses about 200-250 fps and increases muzzle blast.  They handle real good, though, I'm sure.

I've chrono'd an 18" carbine. Using a mix of RG and DAG surplus, velocity was just a bit over 2700 fps. It's a bit louder, especially with a muzzle brake installed but tolerable with proper hearing protection.

A friend's 16.5" barrelled FrankenFAL chrono'd just over 2550 fps using a mix of Israeli and LC surplus. The 16.5" barrel length includes the muzzle brake so actual rifled length is probably only 15" overall. So an educated guess for an actual 16.5" barrel would be somewhere between 2550 and 2700 fps. 2625 fps perhaps?

Here's a picture of Citadel's Shrubby FrankenFAL which was tested: