Your favorite .308/7.62 NATO rifle?

[fastpat]

I have owned 2 Springfield M1A's (one walnut loaded and one stainless/black fiberglass), one Galil AR IMI pre-ban, one 16" FAL, and a full sized FAL worked over by Gunplumber at ARS. My pop owns a Rock River and Armalite AR10's, and I have shot HK91's and clones.

Without a doubt if I had to choose one, and I have, it is the full sized fixed stock FAL. All the other .308's have their strengths and weaknesses but the FAL simply put is the best "combination" of all the things you want in a .308. It is in the middle of the road for accuracy, weight, and cost, but has a great reliability and cheap mags and is pretty easy to put optics on it if you want. Larry Vickers stated it well when he said it is not the best at everything .308 out there but it is one of the most durable and easy to use guns and has a plethora of parts available.
It is very soft shooting to me also, I am not the big guy shooting the big gun but I find I can shoot the FAL more rounds without beating up my shoulder.
Now the SCAR 17 I have yet to play with......it is on my short list

Your experience echoes mine exactly.

I have an M14/M1A and while I love the 1930's look of the rifle, it has too many flaws to overlook when considering a useful FreeFor tool. For that you need easy to clean, easy to adjust, and low cost parts. For those, the FAL is the only choice. I don't recall the maker, but I understand that there's a very good after market trigger available for the FAL. That should correct one of its few deficits.

[stellite]

I've got one N6, an AR10 A4, DSA SA58, M1A Bush, and a PTR. The only one that I would dissuade anyone against would be the PTR/HK91 pattern. I've had the HK and have the PTR version, and am actually in the market for the Springfield Armory import, SAR 8, simply because they are fun to play with (and I'm a collector). If it's going to be your primary/only 7.62, or you plan on using/shootin it a lot, the other rifles are simply much easier to use and less fatigueing, easier to clean and work on. It hurts to say because I'm an HK whore. I grew up drooling over the HK advertisments in the gun rags. HK has always had an outstanding marketing dept. The HK93/43 is still my favorite 5.56 rifle, but as has already been said, I wouldn't choose one over an M4 to go into harms way with.

Also, it's been advised that one should look for an older M1A if that's your choice. Mine's an early 90s Bush and it has been perfect.

The 16" DSA SA58 Para would be my pick if I could have only one (I don't like to think about such things).

I love my SAR-8, but my big complaint is recoil and how far it flings brass. Also, the lack of picatini rail system doesn't give as many options, but I guess that is modifiable.

[supersix4]

I have a hard time choosing

WARNING: GRATUITOUS GUN PORN!!!

[M4Fundi]

Is that a GAP Crusader?

[Sensei]

Up until 2 years ago, the FAL was probably the most functional .308 battle rifle available to the public. It is reliable, easy to maintain, and blessed with prolific spare parts. In fact, the only legitimate dig was that it could not hang with the M-14 or G3 in the accuracy department since 2-3 MOA was the standard with good ammo.

Over the past 2 years, the sky has opened up with a ton of high quality semi auto .308 platforms and weapon accessories. Just about all of them combine FAL reliability with national match M-14 accuracy. It all depends on your budget, but all of them have similar accuracy and reliability so you are basically paying for features in the more expensive models. Here is my list of game changers in the past year:
1) KAC SR25 EMC - best AR .308
2) LMT MWS - modular and affordable
3) SCAR-H

[Suwannee Tim]

Kel Tec RFB. It's different and it's a shootin son of a bitch. Maybe not your first or your only.

[DocGKR]

The KAC 16" SR25 EMC w/1-8x optic--a combat proven, do everything rifle from 0-600, but not inexpensive...

[m1a_scoutguy]

Lots of good choices out there,,but "For Me" there is only one !!


My Son,,last Winter,,,

[hammonje]

Nice sticks you have there.

Supersix4 your collection is fine indeed.

Sgtbutt...dig the EBR chassis.

[supersix4]

Is that a GAP Crusader?

yes, and it is boringly accurate. I hand load 175s and shoot across a river to a bank that gives me ranges from 450yds to over 1300. With the USO SN3 with MIL scale GAP reticle, it will get me to over 1200 without any problems.

I have a GAP built 300WM with similar scope and have got consistant hits at 1 mile.