You can find links to everything here: kitbadger.com/sa58-improved-battle-weapon-by-dsarms/

The FALs upper is a block of machined steel not stamped sheet metal, so too is the DS Arms dust cover. And if you think .308 is expensive you really would not want to shoot it in 6.5cm .

Hello Marc here from DSA! Our M-lok hand guard should have lock washers on the 2 front bolts I wonder if they were missed in production I can't tell but we can take a look at it if you send the firearm back to us. I also want to state that the number one customer question/issue/concern we deal with daily is the FAL gas system and its adjustment, this procedure is in the manual and on our website as well. As for any zero retention issues I've personally destroyed several EOtechs on FALs and at the same time I have some Eotechs that have went thousands of rounds with no issues on Fals. Given that the rifle was shooting great and then shot horrible makes me think this optic just isn't holding on this FAL.

This honestly is my dream rifle. One thing DS Arms needs to work on though is magazine quality. Steel magazines from older FALs get to be expensive, while DS Arms magazines take extra time to line up properly, causing malfunctions. Magazines are a crucial part of a gun to get right, otherwise the weapon won't be useful long term when magazines break, springs wear out, and so forth.

My brother in Christ, the FAL is the RIGHT arm. Great video, man! Much appreciated review.

Great overview. But since you kept saying the 308 round is antiquated and too costly, you should know that 6.5 Creedmoor is even MORE Expensive. There is No Free Lunch. Maybe you should look at 277 Fury.

It's always refreshing to see honest and thorough videos like these instead of "Hey guys, manufacturer X sent me this and after 50 rounds I can say it's the best thing ever".

Still rather have 308, you can get it anywhere and is still cheaper than 6.5 credmore or 6.8.

I think the main advantage .308 still has going for it is longer barrel life than newer higher performance rounds, so appropriate for a semi-auto gun you'll send more rounds down range with.

I’d like to see that in 8.6Blk. That would be interesting. For a fun gun. A modernized, short barrel FAL in 8.6

I used the British L1A1, for probably knocking on ten years before we got the then 'new' SA80. I can imagine no one's going to believe this, but I can honestly count the stoppages/malfunctions on both hands. We'd field strip and clean them pretty much every day, but they just ran and ran. Mud, snow, they just kept on going.

uhhh... 6.5 is more than $1 a round yet its a con for .308?

kit badger: .308 is antiquated me: get the pitch fork

You said left arm of the Free world, I'm pretty sure that would be right arm of the Free world

You gave a ood thorough review and I watched most of it. The list price is $2,345.00 and I would have expected handguards and rail to have remained solid without moving at that price. It does look like something that is a solution to non existing problem since there are other more modern designs out there. I disagree with you on the 308 cartridge, but we need to look at the mission in some cases a 6.5 C might a better round for some that like to shoot prairie dog size targets at extreme range. A battle rifle should use a round that is highly available and if you are complaining about a dollar a round for 7.62 nato go see what 6.5 will cost you. 308 brass and other components are easy to acquire for reloading if you wish to shoot more cheaply. A battle rifle is suppose to have anti-material quality to it and that the 7.62 nato does have. I like rock in type m14 magazines.

I'm not emotionally attached to a caliber. 6.5 creed is great but if you have hunted and killed only a few large animals than yes you have a pretty good chance of not seeing a difference. If you have killed hundreds of large animals than you realize heavier bullets have a slightly higher probability of the animal dropping. Also, when they don't drop, but they run. Then you realize on average they run slightly less of a distance an average with heavier bullets. When comparing two bullets of the same KE I will take the heavier bullet.

Always secure all bolts on your guns properly making sure to tighten them to the correct torque, and witness mark them so you can quickly check to see if they have moved before going out shooting.

I have a DS ARMS OSW. It is simply one of my favorite rifles (pistol, sorry). Has worked flawlessly and is a thumper. A tank as a rifle (pistol, whatever) is the best way to describe it. He is correct though. It is outdated and heavy.

FAL was standard issue when I served. I still like the rifle, but if I were in the market for a battle rifle, I'd look into more reliable lighter platforms. I am really curious to see where the 6.8x51 is going. Vastly improved ballistics for sure, and almost certainly more reliable.

theres a reason nobody makes a 11.5 barrel for 6.5. it needs 20-22 inch barrel to perform and thats why they consider an 18in barrel a shortbarrel 6.5 creedmore. 308 can be shot out of 14.5 and 13.5 and even 12.5 but ur correct it is an old round but still has plenty of uses

The receiver is actually milled not stamped but the end result is the same, the screws holding the top cover/optic mount have nothing to bite into and have a hard time staying in place. Perhaps drilling some dimples in the receiver could fix that but I'm not willing to do it to mine so guess I'll never know. The trigger housing is the stamped part and has no part in the accuracy unless you're using the irons since they are attached to the lower housing and play between the receiver and trigger housing can cause accuracy issues when using irons. Shims can be bought to remove the play and fix the issue. Welcome to the world of trying to make a 60's battle rifle do things it was never designed to do! If you really want to pull your hair out, get an M14 next!

Glad to see your channel is back bro!

Thanks for the honest review.

Thanks for your honesty

Personally I think if I was to get a SA58 I'd get the full length one and use it as a DMR setup. I feel I'd burn up less ammo if used in that role. Personally right now I run a CZ Bren 2, 11.5in, 5.56 for a close-intermediate range engagements.

I love the FAL and I also love honesty. Thanks brother!

Great review !!

Just got into an AR 308 for less than this upgraded to suite me and almost with everything light sling optic good trigger for a little over the entry to this

All my buddies love the FAL.

Man are you the only dude who can do videos with that back drop year round?

Great stuff Ivan, I was close to purchasing this rifle and while it looks pretty damn cool, I couldn't get past all of the negative reviews I was reading about it. Glad I held out. Keep up the great work brother.

Sad to hear the IBW being so problematic for you, the FAL Guy has some great videos on this variant. I absolutely love my Bush Warrior model SA58 FAL from DSA, once the gas is relatively dialed, it's a workhorse. Guess it's one of those things where the applicable adage is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The other issue currently is getting Metal Metric and Inch Pattern Magazines, it's a dry hole in the market.

My first 10 years of service I was issued with a 7,62mm FN FAL with iron sights only. I was never happy with its replacement 5,56mm but by then in my military career I wasn't having to walk patrols! In the late 70s, early 80s, I saw a FN FAL Sniper rifle, and if I recall correctly, the scope mounting was attached on the left side of the upper receiver and not on the dust cover.

"Left arm of the free world" lol

i want one of the older ones that have the quad rail and the folding wire stock. i think that is such a cool battle rifle,that ,the hk 51 and the sig 552 are my unicorns right now.

With that barrel being so short it's a waist of a 7.62 Nato round. All the cost of full house round with the performance of a AK 47.

The RIGHT arm of the free world.

6.5 in a battle rifle makes no sense. To short of a barrel life.

You could find .308 during the Great Ammo Drought. 6.5 Creedmoor? Not so much. Logistics matters. In a perfect world, 6.5 Creedmoor is the preferred choice.

Ivan Great Video, sorry that you had so many issues with the rifle. I was hoping that you were going to have a good review on the SA58 because I have always liked the FAL platform and I was hoping that DS Arms had gotten their stuff together by now! A good buddy of mine purchased a Belgium FAL from Century Arms years ago before the Assault Weapons Ban ended and his Rifle had the full length piston system and full recoil system in the stock. He wanted to put a Scope on it so he purchased the DS Arms Scope mount which happens to be the same one that your rifle had and had the same issues. His mount was so bad that the mount went flying within the first 250 rounds that went thru the rifle after installation. I can tell you that all the screws were tighten up to the designated Torque Specification Inch Pounds and DS Arms ended up sending him a new dust cover for his rifle because of the damage caused by the mount. I would have figured that in 20 years DS Arms could have redesign the mount and made it work! I understand were you are coming from saying that 308 Winchester/7.62NATO is an OBSOLATE Caliber but there is SO MUCH of it out there that it still makes sense to have at least one or two rifles in the caliber. I am EXTREMELY surprised that no one has actually modernized the FAL/SA58 Platform in the way that some people have done the AKS. The Gas System of the FAL is Legendary for being Reliable so if that was taken along with a NEW Lower Receiver that is made of Aluminum using the PARA folding Design so there is NO NEED for the Recoil System in the Stock and the Lower is able to take AR10/SR25 magazines and add the folding charging handle of the PARA rifle with the Long Piston and a 16 inch medium contour barrel in 6.5 Creedmoor that would be something very interesting! It time to sit down and get some ideas on paper and see what I can come up with maybe I can build a modern NEOCLASSIC! I do have a Type 07 FFL and a couple of people that might be able to help me with the machining. P.S. Ivan are you going to be doing the Cross Country Road Trip Tour this Summer? If so you coming back to the JTac Ranch in Florida? it was very nice to meet you and your sons.

All the people in the comments here are missing the point. A shorty FAL is super cool. Cool is what counts.

The original FAL topcover is stamped, the FAL upper is milled and the DSA railed topcover is milled. Not to excuse the poor performance.

I'm not sure how $1 a round is a talking point for 308/x51 when 6.5CM's prices aren't any cheaper

I love the super short 308’s. Especially the 51K.

Love your green screen. It's almost like you were really there. ;)

If anyone is interested I recommend the galil 308 modern and reliable but old enough design

I’d prefer it to be a 13in barrel over the 11in

Right arm of the free world Sir...😊

Very accurate review

So you don't like $1 308 but would like it to shoot more expensive 6.5? You like the adjustable gas system but don't like that you can induce malfunctions by adjusting it? Like being able to modernize and put an optic but don't like it doesn't hold zero and you would be better off with irons? Got it

This makes me so sad... Id really love to have a modernized FAL.

prediction: it isn't actually improved edit: yeah

They should have adapted an old gun to fit new parts vs adapting new parts to fit an old gun

I would love to see this gun in a modern intermediate cartridge the way it's designers intended, with the standard accessory mounting options that have become standard. This in a 6.5 grendel, or 6.8 spc2 or even bring back the .280 British.

I see an "OSW" I hit like. Even if my ar-10 is objectively better, this thing is awesome

Certainly sounds like an awesome gun but it doesn't seem like it's improved much. Better gas block? Shortened? Has a picatinny rail? Yeah sure, but improved? I don't think you can just put a new gas block, rail and a shorter barrel on something and call it improved. Stellar review as usual.

.308/7.62 nato is going nowhere... Yes, there are cartridges that can get better performance in that size case but none are even close the as prolific as the .308. You can go into any gunstore in the world and most likely find .308, you cannot say that about 6.5 creed. By the way I just checked, you can get tons of .308 for around $.85, while the cheapest 6.5 creed is at a dollar. As a side note, I'm not sure what you think you would be gaining by having 6.5 in a 11" gun that can only pull 1.5 MOA? You think you can hit out to 800 with only a red dot on that thing? To really work 6.5 creed needs at least an 18" tube and some glass.

I love my old style FAL from DS Arms. I do dial my gas system two clicks open when it gets colder and the front hand guard screws do walk out after 500 some rounds. I have not had an issue with a wandering zero with my railed cover, but that it probably due to the paint holding the screws in place. I wish DS Arms made metal magazines again or made the para FAL with the iron site system from the OG Fixed stock. Fingers crossed for a version in .277 Fury, so I can use that lower pressure training ammo and hope to captured some of the fun of the OG .280 British version.

I’d like to see dsa make a FN fnc clone.

Love your videos but wanna say put in context you could buy an Ar15 plate carrier with rma armament lvl4 plates and a pistol for about that msrp roughly

I will always absolutely love the FALs... You point out several very far flaws in this current version... Devote the same amount of RND into the FALs as has been put into the "AR" and it would be stellar !! Mags are certainly an issue...at one time they were the best, however, IMHO, the FAL would be MUCH better if it took "AR 10" mags in a fashion such as the ACR that has some excellent similarities to the FAL's controls.

That looks like it would make a good bag gun with how compact it is. Sad to hear about all the downsides with it though. A FAL/SA58 is something on my wish list, so I’ll definitely keep looking for a good one somewhere.

7mm-08, 6.5creed, 243 win, are all more efficient cartridges generally speaking, it'd be interesting to see how they'd all compare out of a short barrel. You could even go the other way and include 338 federal.

Good video

I've been wanting one of those sa58 for years

Love my 20 inch no optic FAL .. never screw with a classic

Disappoint. The FAL is "cool" in the same way that the 1911 is; which doesn't mean I really trust them, unfortunately. They can be fun range toys but that price is a little high for that. I agree that if I was going to get another FAL it would be an old-school Cold War repro.

DSA makes good FALs, but I don’t think shortening the barrel and gas system is an improvement. This platform could be easily improved by chambering it in 6.5CM or even 6mm both of which are closer to the original cartridge this platform was intended to use. Aluminum receiver to shed some weight and a smaller cartridge would yield a better rifle. DSA is trying to “modernize” the FAL while sticking as close as possible to the original gun. It’s not the furniture that’s the problem, it’s the weight and cartridge. Don’t get me wrong, I love the SA58, and 308, but the newer cartridges are objectively improvements. My problem with 6.5 CM is availability and price. It’s always harder to find and more expensive than 308, that’s why I still use 308 for the most part.

I love the FAL. As someone who loves the FAL, if you want a short or modern 308 rifle please get a SCAR, AR10 type, MDR, or even an HK31/G3 thingy. This weapons is based around the para type system, which works fine, the recoil spring is taken out of the stock and placed into the bolt carrier, but the short barrel and gas system are of a more modern inspiration and seem like the weak point. The FAL is great, but it's old and it will always be old.

I don't think you can complain about the cost of 308 and then in the next breath lift up 6.5

Awesome gun

Just pick up a used 18" SA 58 Traditional. Came with one of the crappy DSA polymer mags. Would hardly feed. Had to source some metal mags so hopefully that gets it going.

A .243 fal would be pretty cool

Yeaahhhh...for close to $2500, I'll go Daniel Defense. Nice try DSA, but this is a no go for me. Thanks for the honest review.

Let's GOOOO!

DSA needs to actually innovate instead of trying to repack the same shit. And get their QC up while dropping their outrageous pricing

“.308 $1/rd it’s expensive” but you wish it was in 6.5cm lol will someone tell him 6.5cm is more than $1/rd

I need this in my life.

Laughs in G3 reliability

How are you going to talk about one dollar a round when 6.5 Creedmoor cost way more per round?

Honestly, if you have been in it since the dawn of time like I have and this was during the glory days of kit building late 90's when kits were $100 to $200 and receivers were $200 to $300, yeah, it's worth it to stay with it. If you are just getting your feet wet in the FAL world, than I would say NO. Magazines are getting harder and harder to find, parts are now getting dicey in finding it also. I started out with 4 kit FAL guns and I still have them and still enjoy them. They were cheap back in the day and so was the ammo, of which I still have thousands of it. In the end, not giving up on it. That goes the same for my AKs, they were cheap when ARs and other HKs were in the thousands.

Steel case ammunition is notoriously under pressured. For safety this makes sense since it won't swell like brass it will just blowup. Having to increase your gas setting is a must with any piston gun with an adjustable gas regulator when shooting steel case ammo. I don't see that as a fault of the gun rather the end user.

I'd like to see how the VLTOR handguard compares, otherwise I don't think any 11" 308 is a very effective concept.

Almost got one of these years ago. Glad I never did

I still stick with the 308 over the others...just hits harder. Just depends what gun you put it in...

6:15 shorter barrels are more accurate, only reason sniper rifles typically use long barrels is purely for velocity sake

The adjustable gas block is not a new invention. This was on the original design. If it was short-stroking, YOU did not go through the procedure to learn how much gas you can bleed off with total functionability.

I have never heard of a reliable DSA. I assume they exist but man that’s such a downer. Maybe someday when the stars align, HK MP7s are imported daily, and 40mm GLs are common place, FN will do a rerelease.

It is a really good looking gun…

DSA keeps repackaging the FAL instead of trying to innovate on the platform. They need to do something new.

Kit - can you post a video that demonstrates "break down" (striping) of this rifle. I assume it's very similar to the Improved Carbine, which I just bought. There was no manual included and I can't find a video anywhere about the DS Arms SA58 Improved Battle Carbine 16". It appears to be a complete different animal than older FAL's.

Wait. What do you mean stamped? The scope mount top covers that DSA makes are aluminum, and not thin. They interface with a forged steel receiver. There are indeed a lot of screws, and they should be loc-tited. They hold zero though.

FAL always had an adjustable gas block.

need a 16" version

I went with the FAL because of the .308 and different types of ammo. Soft points are lethal. It just takes practice to get use to ballistics but a heavier bullet will be more accuarate at range... SP will leave a hole.

Like a dominant sports star who should have retired at the top of his game a few years ago.

and most importantly no baby poop color scheme!

It looks cool but I don’t understand the practicality of it. Takes away the purpose of it being a battle rifle to a carbine with that type of round. I really do love the way it looks.

What velocities are you getting compared to the full length?

It was too good to be true