Picked up my new DSA Type II STG-58 FAL from my FFL the other day. I've
heard that even though these guns have *some* used Austrian parts,
they are virtually new. We'll what I have heard is true. The gun
appears new. The only *blemish* I noticed was a small amount of
discoloration on the carry handle but you have to look hard to
find it.
The handguards, stock and pistol grip are new. The upper and lower
receiver have a charcoal gray finish and match in color. Upon breaking
down the rifle, I notice the design of the FAL is made for reliability
with a bolt carrier that fits somewhat loose by design. Breaking down the
the bolt carrier, I noticed a small pin holding the firing pin in
place. This pin is easily removed. The firing pin is somewhat
discolored and appears to be used. The bolt carrier is covered with
a light coat of grease which I removed and then lubriated all the parts
with with Breakfree. Hope this is the correct method.-:) The Belgium
FN/FAL manual that comes with the gun leaves out lots of details.
The gas piston can be accessed and by turning gas plug assembly a full
turn where it pops out. The gas piston and spring appear new. From
what I understand the gas piston should be cleaned after use. I lubed
it with Breakfree and put it back together.
The barrel was shiny but had a small amount of power residue from
test firing. After a few strokes with patches soaked in Tetra solvent
followed by a bore brush and 4 dry patches, the barrel was shiny and
looks like new. Wow, I was impressed.
Enough of the aesthetics, lets see how it shoots. With the help of
Q-man, we had it on target at 100 yards after about 40 rounds.
Trigger pull is somewhat typical of military guns, probably a little
worse than an AR-15 but I'm biased, since I have 3 AR's. Recoil is
not bad but my right cheek bone was sore after shooting 50 or so
rounds from the bench. I'll have to loosen up my cheek weld in the
future. Q-man shot better groups than I did using Porteguesse(?)
and South African surplus. For me, accuracy was around 2-5 inches
at 100 yards. My old eyes just don't do well with the irons.
I've got a DSA scope mount on back order, so plan on adding optics
it in the future. We had one failure to eject with the spent brass
getting caught when the bolt cylcled. This is not surprising since
cycling the bolt was stiff and has loosened up a fair amount.
DSA had the gas setting on 4 so I thought I would *improve* it. Wide open
at 7 caused a failure to lock back all the way. I tried 6 and the bolt
locked back. Great I thought. Less gas means less recoil. Loaded up
a mag and the rifle locked up tighter than a drum after the first shot
was fired. We banged on the butt while pulling the charging handle to
pop out the spent shell. I moved the adjustment to 5 and damn, the same
thing happened. Screw it, I moved it to 4 and the rifle functioned
flawlessly after that. Hmmm, maybe DSA knows something about setting
the gas adjustment. -:)