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Posted: 3/23/2012 11:27:40 AM EDT
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I've searched for information about the quality of DSA's SA58 rifles through the years and I can't find anything reliable. A lot of guys complain about DSA, but don't give any specifics. It seems to be about who has the most collectable FAL, not the most reliable.
I purchased a SA58 in January of 2009. The consensus seems to be that DSA dropped the ball on their builds around that time. However, nobody gives specifics on what to look for or how to tell if you got one of the lower quality builds. So far, I've got about 600 rounds through the gun and it has been flawless. A couple of cheap $2 rusted mags made it hang up a few times, but my good Steyr mags run fine. Also, the last coil broke on my piston spring while I was cleaning the gun. It's literally the last coil and if you're not really looking for it you can't even see it. I'll probably replace the spring for $5. Other than that, the gun has been flawless. Anyways, can anyone give me specific information about what to look for such as, "This serial number range is bad" or "This part should look this way or it's a faulty part." Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. |
| IIRC, DSA started running out of Surplus parts a few years ago and has started making new parts from scratch. Some of those may be of suspect quality and certainly don't look right to folks that know the difference. Either way, since they got their start with a huge cache of minty OEM Styer parts it's gonna be hard to top them when it came time to roll their own. |
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The only MAJOR issue I am aware of with DSA guns is a batch of bad bolts that cracked after very few rounds.
Very likely there are still a bunch of DSA guns with the defective US-made bolts out there living the life of a safe queen. I don't think DSA knows which guns have the bad bolts. Surely, we will hear of them as those guns venture out of safes over the years and decades. There seems to be some evidence that the "bad bolt" issue was limited, and that the current production of DSA's US-made bolts is satisfactory. It appears that DSA is replacing the bad bolts with new US-made bolts. Would it be reckless to assume that DSA has resolved the problem with their US-made bolts now? If you have several hundred rounds through your DSA guns without a bolt failure, I think it is very unlikely that you have one of the bad bolts. Folks who build their own guns from recent-production DSA receivers have reported needing to use smaller-than-expected locking shoulders. We might assume the same condition exists in the factory-built guns. I don't see this as a significant issue if the gun arrived with the correct-size (i.e. correct headspace) locking shoulder in place. There is little chance that the US-produced barrels are as nice as the Steyr barrels that DSA used to have. Again, a minor issue, and not one that would dissuade me from buying a DSA FAL. There is no "serial number list" as you have suggested. If there were, I'm sure I would have heard about it. I wouldn't draw any sweeping conclusions on the basis of a busted coil on a spring. Replace the spring and keep shooting. |
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