I have fond memories of the FAL...we had a single fire version...the SLR...I remember as a young trooper sitting down with my jungle cap on the floor stripping the rifle down and re-assembling it over and over again until we could do it blindfold. Seems like it was yesterday....

There was a neat trick some guys had picked up in the Falklands of using a match stick to enable the SLR to work like the Argy FAL's for a full-auto burst...this was used a lot apparently...I had a Parker-Hale Sniper rifle so never got to play like that but I picked up an Argy FAL with the folding stock as a back up ...now they were great kit...much newer than our old SLR's and had a proper pin in place on the safety/fire selector switch so engaging full auto was more reliable...we liberated a load of these and took them back with us...they saw a lot of use in N.I. as they were very handy in cars and the 7.62 was much better penetrating vehicles than the 5.56.

Then we went over to the H&K G33...which had greater mag capacity and was a fair bit more accurate...probably just down to the newer barrels...very impressive though for such a short barrel...we had been using G3's since Oman but the new compact G33 was like an MP5 on steroids and was very popular at the time. Then I got to play with a PSG-1...best Sniper rifle I ever used...but the bi-pod was a real akward affair...I prefered the simpler bi-pod...I think everyone did...

Now it is the L115 .338 LM because of the greater engagement range...but the rapid second shot on a PSG-1 still has it's place in my view...and modifying one of those to a .260 or a 7-08 would be very interesting. This would give the rifle a fair bit extra range and performance at distance with the 6.5mm and 7mm VLD's. I liked the PSG-1 so much I had one as a civi for tactical Sniper comps but lost it after Hungerford...although I believe it is still with Northumbria Police in their Armoury...the Head of Firearms back then actually came to my house to collect it...LOL...he said they could'nt afford them but that this one was "going no-where" now that they had it. That did make me feel a bit better!
But not much!

You guys in the States don't really know what it is like to have your guns taken off you...and I hope you never do!