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Posted: 6/3/2008 3:21:26 PM EDT
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Never shot an FAL but I have a buring in my wallet to get one. Just curious what kind of accuracy to expect. Looking at an 18" barrel model. Thanks |
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It's gonna depend on who you ask! Some are gonna tell you the battle rifle, minute of man thing 4 or 5 inches at 100 and other's are gonna tell you 1/4 inch group's at 100....Well I happen to be one of the Latter my DSA STG58 with good glass and FGMM ammo It will stack em in 1/2 if you do your part! Everything else it throw's from 2" to 5" at 100yds...To be honest mine was on it's way out till I shot the federal ammo, FAL or not I wanted something I could hit with not just a noise maker, that's what AK"s are for! (No bashing, I have plenty of those too!). Now money cant buy mine! I dont think you will go wrong with a DSA! Doug |
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It's going to depend greatly on the ammo. The best group I ever saw with my current FAL was 1.5 MOA with Winchester 150 gr Silvertip. With good GI ammo it's more like 2 to 3 MOA and sometimes 4 MOA. The Lithuanian and Aussie are just over 2 MOA in my FAL. Winchester 7.62 FMJ was more like 4 MOA. My FAL has the 21"Imbel chrome lined barrel. Be advised that once the barrel gets hot the groups may string vertically to some degree. A lot of FALs do this. However, it will still be more accurate than a AK. EMSflyer |
Yes. Like others have said, generally it depends on the ammo, and the quality of fit. A Century FAL built from unmatched, heavily used parts is not going to be an accurate gun. An all-matching, new condition STG58 or new standard SA58 from DSA will shoot very well with good ammo; an SA58 SPR or Graywolf from DSA is going to run with the best semiautos out there, but these are very expensive exceptions to the rule. |
ok your correct, u got me, since you are experts on this, i have no idea what im talking about since this is the only 6th stg i have built. but hey everyone seems to be the expert on here. now with the parts kit barrels ur gonna get like 1-2 moa grouping but with DSA barrels its alot better. |
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Most FAL's will do roughly 4" groups at 100 yards. - However - A significant number of them have _terrible_ vertical stringing issues. I had one that, while it did 4 MOA _windage_ wise, it consistently did _8_INCH_ groups vertically when shooting from a magazine. If I single loaded it without a mag (or with an empty mag inserted), the thing would shoot nice round 4 MOA groups. Start feeding it from a magazine again and it would immediately start doing 8"x 4" groups again. This is not an uncommon problem with FAL's. The problem is that in order to keep the stringing problem from happening, the lockup between the upper part of the bolt and the inside of the bolt carrier has to be nice and tight in all the right areas. Other wise, as you fire through a full magazine, the spring pressure in the magazine slowly reduces the upward pressure on the bottom of the bolt... which causes the bolt to sit at a slightly different angle in the carrier and more importantly in relation to the chamber... which causes the rounds to string vertically on the target. After much research, I found that many owners have tried to fix the issue. Some have had varying degrees of success by going out and buying several sets of bolts and bolt carriers then going to the range and shooting groups with each and every combination of bolt and carrier, marking the results and then keeping the bolt/carrier set that locked up the tightest and re-selling the others to some other poor soul who was dealing with the same issue. The other methods involve either putting a set screw in the bolt carrier or welding up the upper inside of the bolt carrier, then removing material until the bolt matches up nice and tight. - Certainly, niether of those methods are for the faint of heart, and much care must be used if a person tries these mods. Best for only experienced smiths to do such things. There's a lot of good info on this subject over at the FAL Files forums. You might want to check it out. * The bottom line is that FAL's are not built to be accurate. If you're _lucky_ you might find one that'll do 2moa groups, but most of the ones I've shot only do about 4moa. YMMV, of course.  If you want something you can make into a tack driver, buy an M1A or an HK91 (or clone). Both of those are better platforms to start with for that sort of project. |
Good job! I am a bit surprised you did not blast the FF tube to get rid of the shine. |
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Mine tends to like the 168grn bullets better thans the standard 147-150 grn bullets. Also im sure the groups tighten up with a more finer sight. But I wouldnt change a thing on it, its built like a tank. I can still hit a chest sized gong with surplus at 400 yrds 75%+ ( sa kit built on imbel gear rec.) |
The shine on the ff tube and the Shilen SS barrel will magically dissappear with the proper application of GunKote next month. |
I've gotta know how that thing shoots when you get done with it! Did you make the free float handgaurd or is it some type of kit? |
Sorry, cannot take credit for this. Ed Vandenberg in Houston came up with the HB version a few years ago. A Shilen SS barrel blank is used along with a Belgium HB gas block. Approx. 1" diameter under the HG, and .850 in front of the gas block. Sight ears are milled off, and a locking collar is used to keep the gas regulator in place instead of the cheesy wire retainer. The barrel does not have 'wrench flats' or a shoulder as all other FAL barrels do. In the last picture, you can see a large collar that the HG attatches to. After the barrel is threaded into the receiver to the correct depth, the collar is threaded on and tightened using a special wrench Ed made. Think of the collar as a receiver extension. Ed starts with a Shilen blank. Turns the O.D., cuts the chamber, threads the receiver end, drills the gas port hole, and cuts the outside extractor releif. All by hand. No mass produced CNC here. The aluminum handguard is made from .125" aluminum tubing that is cut and formed into what you see in the pic. The trigger job compliments the other mods perfectly. After fitting, the trigger group gets allen head set screws installed to manage overtravel and creep. Works great. Similar to the Power Custom set-up for AK's. Pro's: The most accurate FAL made by anyone. Period. With the Swarovski 6x42 ZFM, mine will shoot between .6-.65 MOA with proper match ammo. Other customers with better optics have reported tighter groups. I certainly do not claim to be a great shot... Con's: Expensive. $600+ for a top end with your receiver. Trigger work extra. Heavy. Mine shown is 12.6 lbs. Your friends with tuned M1A's will hate your guts. But thats whole idea! |
If you use your sling like a target shooter your groups will open up big time. The FAL sling mount is designed to allow you to carry the rifle while moving, not to stabilize the rifle while shooting.
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hello; sar 4800. shooting from a brench rest. open sights with 62 year old eyes, 147gr. fmj/h335 = 4" group (on a good day). with bushnell elite 3200 at 9x = 1.5". you will never know what you have until you put a scope on it. never see anything about a trigger job for the fal. made a big difference when i changed the trigger on my ar. rp |
| who cares---they are great rifles. I have 7 of them, and all are very good shooting rifles. I do have one sub-moa rifle----built by Ed {hope I don't spell his last name wrong} VanBerg. What a great rifle. Awesome gunsmith. In general----the FAL will get the job done! Reliably, with great ergonomics, and easy recoil. I love my FALs---get one now! |
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I've owned 2 DSA rifles now and neither could be depended upon to place 10 shots in anything under 2.5 inches. Yes, on occasion a group or two would keep me searching but in the end it seemed like I was putting a pig in a dress. The FAL is good at some things and I love my 16" carbine but pegging golf balls at 200yds is just not where it excels. Yes, there are guns out there that will do it but if the OP is asking what to expect I'd say 3-5 MOA with better and worse possible. Check out the FALFiles and read the stories of the folks who quest to make the FAL drive tacks and decide if that's where you want to go. These days I pull out the DPMS SASS if I want to shoot quarters at 100. I pull out the DSA 16" if I want to run-n-gun. Some custom builders work wonders too but the magic is expensive. |
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