Looking for an FAL with 18” barrel and folding stock. Anybody have them in stock online?

You may luck out. More than likely every one being built all ready has a buyer. You might look at the market place on falfiles.

So should I just order one from DSA?

Yeah your best bet is to probably just order one through DSA's website.  DSA's are kind of tough to find on regular dealer sites.  Gunbroker is probably your best option for a new one without waiting, but they're starting to dry up on there as well.

Maybe try Atlantic Firearms to see if they have any coming.

Check the EE of GB a lot.

Direct order or EE...

Belgian 50.63 30 years ago.

FALfiles

Dsa

DSA

I’m personally biding my time and going to spend a stupid amount of money on an Imbel para kit when that proverbial hen’s tooth crops up on GB or FALFiles

An older DSA para would be good to go.

Or of course an FN if you can swing the $$$$$.

My personal preference is an Springfield Armory SAR48 Para if you can stumble across one
on Gunbroker.

We have two SAR48s in the family and the fit/finish of those rifles is superior to
an actual FN in my opinion.

The SAR is an imported Imbel,the SAR is bad ass and more collectable. If I was looking for a para I would go DSA though. Probably a 3 month wait.

DSA told me it’s a 4-5 month wait. That was back in March or early April.

hit me up.  I may want to move one I have extra.

My son decided on a new DSA Para last year.

Ordered it directly from DSA.
Took 6 months to get it.

I was with him when he picked it up at the FFL.

The quality of this rifle was horrible.
The barrel wasn't timed right, so much so that the gas piston was binding in the receiver.
There were blemishes all over the finish probably because they didn't let it cure fully before
they started building it.

It went directly back to DSA for a refund.
Their QC is complete shit.

Now he has an SAR48 Para and it's wonderful.

The DSA rifles built in the early 2000's are really nice but I wouldn't buy a new one.

I recently put together an 18" Para from parts ordered from DSA and ARS.  The hardest part to find at the time was the bolt, which I got from someone on the FALfiles. Total time to get parts was less than two weeks (I did have to send the barrel back to DSA because they failed to cut the medium contour barrel down to 18", but that's a different story).

I put the rifle together myself (my fourth FAL build), headspaced it, ordered a locking shoulder from ARS, then had the rifle completed a week later. F waiting 4-6 months.

Also, all of the parts I got from DSA (and ARS) were high quality and worked well. The major DSA parts are upper, lower, barrel, para stock system, and various smaller parts.

So far the rifle appears to be a solid shooter with about 1.2 MOA with federal M80 and sub MOA with 150 grain FMJ hand loads.

If you can build an AR I recommend looking into building your own FAL.

Using new mfg DSA parts is fine if you build it yourself.

One of mine is like that and I'm very pleased with it.

Of course you could round up all the parts and send them to Mark Graham at
Arizona Response Systems and have an FAL as good as a factory built FN or Imbel.

He built an L1A1 for me years ago and it was a work of art.

My FALO arrived in 2.5, so there's that. The rifle is gorgeous and functions great. Same with my 2016 50.61 Para.

Yeah, DSA isn't the same company from the late 90s/early 2000s, but they still build good rifles, IMHO.  I know that they had issues with their "cast" receivers a few years ago, but I think they moved away from them.

I bought one of their StG-58 rifles back around 2007.  It was built using some surplus/US parts and a US barrel, which was a bummer, but no issues with it.  I also bought 18" Para model around the same time and never had any issues with them.

I own a Pre Ban FN FAL with a 20" barrel, which I believe is a 1982/1983 rifle.  Honestly, my DSA rifles has both a better fit and finish than my original FN FAL rifle and I'm pretty happy with DSA FAL rifles, plus if you should ever have an issue(s), they will fix it for free.

I also bought four of their stripped "milled" receivers back in 2006/2008.  One was a "British Inch Pattern, L1A1" receiver and one was marked with "German G1" markings, in the correct locations.  Both receivers were built into complete rifles back around 2011, using a British L1A1 and a German G1 parts kits WITH excellent original barrels... The L1A1 barrel was a virgin barrel.  I can't remember who built them, but both are keepers!!  As for the other two receivers, they were Type III Metric receivers, made during a special run back in 2010/2011, which at the time, wasn't one of the stock receivers.

I just had one of the Type III receivers built into a complete rifle by DSA, using all DSA parts to build a late 1970s/early 1980s Belgian FAL.  It took DSA roughly 2 months to build it.  I sent in the DSA receiver and all the DSA parts in mid March 2021 and I got the completed rifle back in mid May of this year.  

If you want a FAL Para model w/a 18" barrel, pre-pay for one now since I honestly don't see anything, other than ARs, going back down in prices.

IHMO, you can't go wrong with a DSA rifle, in today's market.   I see, from time to time Imbel parts kits w/US barrels going for much more than what they're worth.  I'm still sitting on two Imbel parts kits w/original Imbel barrels, which I'll end up selling in the next few months.  If given a choice, I would go with DSA parts over a well used Imbel kit.  BUT!!!!  If you find a Austrian or German parts kit, I would jump on it.

I remember those SAR-48 rifles from the mid 1980s, which were built by Imbel, in Brazil and imported by Springfield Armory.  Back then, you couldn't beat the price!!  Well, I was looking at the SAR-48 and an Argentina FM-FAL rifle back in early 1989, but ended up buying a HK-93A3 to go with my HK-91A2 rifle...  Well, in the Summer of 1989, Pres. Bush signed a EO banning any FALs from coming into the country...  Being a young Army sergeant, I couldn't afford the $1,500.00 plus price on a SAR-48 or the $2,500.00 plus for a FN FAL.

Renaissance Firearms in Barrington, NH has an Imbel in stock if you want to call for pics/info. I think it was the 18" folder, but no flash hider...Ban era maybe? I dunno.

I just got a 16" para off GB. If you dont want to wait there or Falfiles are about the only way to go

I'm also looking for an 18 inch Para Fal with folder. Local stores are out so I am diligently looking and biding my time

Attached File

This maybe will wet your taste buds

Yep, cool. Details? What’s your rear sight setup?

I got the rear sight from GunThings.  This is the short version for the para

Didn't Atlantic just get some in last week?

Probably sold out in an hour but you could call them.

They did, I got the email and I called once I seen then email which was about 3 hours after it was sent out and they didn’t have any.

I keep wanting to like the para FAL but the accuracy that many get their models from the OG Belgium ones to the Imbel SAR48 versions to the current DSA models.

The accuracy has been so so.....


They sure look neat though.

From 0 to 200 yards they are accurate enough.

You got to think of the FAL like a more powerful and slightly more accurate
Western AK.

Expecting an FAL of any flavor to be a precision rifle is a fool's errand.

Buying one because it's an awesome piece of history, in addition to being a dependable rifle capable of decent accuracy? Thumbs up, there ya go. With handloads, my FNs get 2.25-2.5 MOA with loads that shoot under MOA with a PTR-91 or R700. I can still hit steel IDPA plates reliably at 800m with the FNs, and that's good enough for me.

Attached File

Honestly my para isn't even my favorite FAL to shoot, looks wise its beautiful but actual trigger time I'll take a solid stock FAL any day, especially when ripping through rounds in the prone.
Attached File

This beast is a joy to shoot, I'd take it over the para any day.
Also the LOP on my para is a bit short.

And that my friend is why I am FALess, everytime I get one it doesn't stay long. That Para is one sexy looking rifle though, I could put it with it if I could get one that's 2-3 moa but it will never be an AR-10

Last DSA FAL I saw at the range was beautiful, 18" Paratrooper.  I used to have one but was stolen, still have a SA SAR-48 though, I think it's nicer than most FAL's.  If you want a REAL paratrooper, Autoweapons.com still has an Belgian FN Paratrooper, select fire.  It's about $28K.  They had two but I just bought the other one to replace one that got stolen.  That really hurt, the one that was stolen was a dealer sample and cost almost 10 times less.  That was also an FN Paratrooper but I think DSA replaced the stock with an African R4, and sold it to me with an 11" upper, which was a lot of fun.  I'm going to do the same thing to the one coming in.


Here's how it handled: https://youtu.be/y3khG-4GK1c

I think the guy with the 18" Paratrooper from DSA said there was a long lead time, like 6-9 months wait time and this was fairly recent.

Well, I’m up to 6 months now. Still waiting.

Sell me your order!  I want one too, maybe more than you.

You’ll need to want it more, since I think they went up in price after I placed mine. Not selling!

i received one of the 16 inch range ready para models recently, it was direct from DSA and did take awhile, but cant remember exactly when ordered.    with that being said it runs very good, and is very accurate.  i used old metric mags instead of the plastic one provided.  i can hit 18 inch steel at 400 yards with the iron sights pretty easily.  bolt has sand cuts, i did replace the standard charge handle with their folding handle model..   i have prob 800 rounds through it now... would buy again, all my friends enjoy shooting it and comment on it's accuracy