I am looking for something that would be fairly accurate and reach out beyond 500 yards.
The M1a and Fal are very close as battle rifles with the edge to the M1a.But if you want to get out to 500+ yards the M1a is the only choice, Hell,that's where it really shines.The Fal,because of various design charateristics,can't compare. The M14/M1a has a far superior trigger and sights, and decades of use as a sniper and match gun so the methods of getting the utmost reliable accuracy are well proven.It would take alot of money and a very talented smith for an Fal to even come close to a slightly tweaked "loaded" model, you can forget about going nose to nose with a purpose built long range M14.As far as the supposed issues Springfield Armory has, you should remember that SA produces by far the most M14 type rifles so of course the chances of hearing of issues with SA rifles is greater simply because that is what is out there.Plus,let's say you hear 10 stories about something going amiss with an M1a,there's thousands of them out there = failure rate in the fractions of 1%They have a superb lifetime warranty that they honor for the life of the rifle.Considering that you'll be hard pressed to find an SA M1a of ANY vintage or ANY condition for less than a grand should tell you something about their quality and the esteem in which their held.