Ok, I own one of these, and I love her to death;





Here's the issue. I want to have a small magnification optic on it, but the 4x24 scope that was on it crapped the bed (the POS illumination knob popped off).  The FAL rear sight gets in the way of the eye piece on every other scope I've tried fitting to it, and I can't get the scope far enough back to keep me from goosenecking to get a good sight picture.  It's impossible to get the same cheek weld like this.

I was in Galyans today when the idea came to me to try a pistol scope mounted foward on the rail.  They tend to be inexpensive, lower magnification, compact and the extreme eye relief would give me room to adjust it fore and aft without the rear sight screwing it up.  It's really not necessary to do this on most other rifles, but that goofy rear sight on the FAL is getting in my way and I don't want to remove it.  

I was thinking about a 4 power Leupold or the like.

Have any of you guys done anything like this before?  Any suggestions?

    You can use a pistol scope, although I wouldn't suggest it. You would have to find a rail extension or put a mount on the front handgaurd. I have seen a pistol scope on an M1a scout rifle but the eye relief was still a little off. Try using a riser on the rail to get the scope high enough up to clear the rear sight.

Quoted: Isn't that scope a IOR M4 -I only ask because I have one and would prefer the illumination knob to stay attached...

It's a knock off, and a cheap one at that.  The scope still works fine, just with no illumination.  That, and it's ugly as hell with the knob missing.

Quoted: ...Try using a riser on the rail to get the scope high enough up to clear the rear sight.

 

It already has one riser on it and I can't imagine sticking another on top of that one.


Does anyone manufacture an intermediate eye relief scope?  Less than a handgun scope, but longer than a riflescope?

www.swfa.com/riflescopes/leupold/fixedpower/index.html

Scout IER scope.  Made for scout type rifles,should work in your application.

Look at "shotgun" scopes as well, they may fit your needs.

I've used a Loopie EER M8 2.5x scount scope in a situation similiar to yours. CDNN had them for $199.00 not long ago. Nice little scope for the money.

I think the concept is sound, but make sure you use a pistol scope rated for .44 magnum revolvers or the like.  FALs are scope killers, I've killed two with my STG58.  Pounding away with a semi-auto 7.62x51, neither of my scopes lived longer than a case of ammo each.  A pistol scope might not last that long unless it is a very strong one.

I think part of the scope life problem on large-bore semi-auto rifles is that they aren't designed to deal with repeated blows in the forward direction, which is what you get when the bolt returns to battery.  Put a normal rifle scope on a spring-piston air-rifle, and they often fail because the "recoil" is in the wrong direction.  The scope has to be rugged enough to survive a battering in both directions when you put it on a semi-auto.

Thanks for the link, Ratters... I think this is the same type of scope I was looking at.  As far as that goes, if I did put Leupold glass on it wouldn't it be warranted for life?  Or would they deny the repair or replacement because I stuck a handun/shotgun scope on a big ol' honkin battle rifle?

I really need to find someone with an ACOG... I'd like to try fitting one of them as well.  Looks like I'm going to  have to lug that pig around the next funshow...

Leupold scout scope, or really ANY scout scope has an eye relief between that of a rifle scope and a handgun scope.
I have a 2.75 Burris Scout that I intend to mount on a flattop AR if I can ever get my RAS/RIS in line with my receiver rail.

The one I have is here:
[link]www.burrisoptics.com/compactscopes.html[/link]