New dsa sa 58 308(fal)

[Hunter700]

Hey all. Just picked up the dsa sa58 tactical carbine with fluted med. contour barrel. I've run into a few issues and was wondering if these are normal. The first I noticed while dialing in the gas system following the manual. The spent brass was getting hammered as well as the finish behind the ejection port. The second thing I noticed was how loose the upper is from the lower when taking the bolt out(when the rifle is split). There is a lot of slop at the hinge. When the rifle is reassembled, I can twist the upper and lower by gripping the fore end with my left hand and the grip with my right. Won't this make my rifle inherently inaccurate? For any of you with fals please help! thanks

 

[animator]

For the gas settings, adjust until your rifle won't eject, then keep moving it one setting at a time until it does. Then adjust it one more number past that. No reason to send the brass into the next county, but you will want it to be reliable with different loads...


For the slop, that's probably going to happen. You can tighten the nut to reduce the slop if you wish.


If using an optic, the slop won't necessarily affect accuracy, since the bore, upper, and optic are all attached as an assembly. If using iron sights, the slop probably won't be enough to noticeably affect accuracy... unless you can shoot MOA with irons....


...so no, it won't affect accuracy...

 

[Hunter700]

Thanks animator for your reply. As far as the gas system I did all of that. Loading one round at a time till it fails etc. So if I'm getting brass dings on the dust cover, my gas settings are still too high? Strange, guess I gotta try it again. I'm using the hornady 168 tap fpd, and I've been reading that the lighter loads are shooting much better than the heavier ones because the amount of powder being burn. Is this true? Haven't been out to shoot the light ones yet. I would've liked the 18" barrel, but ended up with a compensated 16.25". Anyway, cheers.

 

[Hunter700]

Also something I forgot to mention... I've tightened the bolt as fa as it'll go. Could I put a shim in there? Or take the female side down a few thousanths?

 

[Z-Michigan]

The FAL is fairly hard on brass, even when adjusted right. Dings on both cases and ejection cover are normal.

Slop between the receivers like you describe sounds excessive, especially with the bolt fully tightened. I would contact DSA about that.

 

[Robert]

So if I'm getting brass dings on the dust cover,

They are called brass kisses. They happen. No way around it. Badge of honor really. They mean you actually shoot your rifle.

 

[TexasRifleman]

So if I'm getting brass dings on the dust cover, my gas settings are still too high?

That's just the way it is. You won't get a FAL to eject reliably without the brass spinning back into the receiver. It's working properly.

 

[marktx]

I cut a few small squares of black duck tape and put them on the receiver where the empties were hitting and it seemed to reduce the dents on the empties and keep the thing from getting marked up.

Gotta get it completely clean (I used alcohol) to make things oil free and get good adhesion. So far it's been good for around 500 rounds and no sign of coming off yet. Same thing worked very well on an AR shell deflector.

On the one hand I don't mind the marks that come with a well used rifle but on the other hand the black tape when trimmed into a small "pad" is almost unnoticeable and protects the brass and rifle.

 

[Bwana John]

Or take the female side down a few thousanths?

Bingo, we have a winner!