Southern Tactical Galil SAR Review

[IUHoosier429]

ETA - I managed to snag one, and will use this thread for an ongoing review of the gun.

Paging @barnchicken or anyone else with hands-on feedback for these. I'm looking to pick up one of their BFPU SAR builds soon and am curious what current/former owners think of theirs.

Pic for attention...

 

[barnchicken]

I'm enjoying mine so far after about 200 rounds down range. My only two complaints -

Mine has some heavy trigger slap. I believe S-Tac started using different triggers in more recent batches that corrected this but I'm not 100% sure.

It's over gassed which if I remember right Galils and Galil builds are notorious for. About 35-40% of my casings come out some kind of dented. Edit - TIL It's normal for Galil's to dent the brass, adjustable piston can help with this.

Aside from that I really like it. Everything else feels smooth and locks up nice and tight, I'd recommend getting it but expect to maybe have to replace trigger and add an adjustable piston depending on how you like it.

 

[WadeWatts]

They look cool enough. Give an update when you get some more rounds down range

 

[IUHoosier429]

@barnchicken thanks a ton! Very helpful stuff.

Good to know about the slap. I've been communicating back and forth awhile now with the owner of Southern Tactical, and plan to do a detailed write-up whenever I get my hands on one.

 

[IUHoosier429]

Okay I snagged one. Will share some photos in hopefully a few days!

 

[Hellquest]

Probably some of our kits for my last job. Got to mess with over 5k galils during that time period. I find that most have issues with their gas ports. Over sized to fix the issue of drilling straight 90 degree and not at an angle. Closer to 30. Or them drilling larger holes or under sized. Mishaped holes also. Lots of things to look for.

 

[IUHoosier429]

Got it home...



My initial reaction is fit and finish are good. The folding stock is tight but smooth. Everything is straight, and no excessive wear or damage on the surplus parts. Bolt carrier travel is buttery with no hang up. The etchings on the Tortort are crisp - much better than photos I saw on the first batch of these things. Overall it feels like it's worth the sticker price.

I am utterly swamped with work and travel right now, but I hope to get to the range in the next week. Will bring a mix of mags and ammo and put this thing through some paces, and will report back.

 

[Dan0311]

A few weeks ago I picked up the 'other' kit. https://atlanticfirearms.com/galil-sar-diy-stg556 Tortort receiver. Not too sure why I bought this one over the others, but I was buying a few items and it sounded like a good idea at the time!

I own several IMI Galils, wanted a shooter. The fit/finish seems very good. Too good - all plastic on the parts kits I've found are a bit chewed up, while the metal looks brand new.

 

[IUHoosier429]

A few weeks ago I picked up the 'other' kit. https://atlanticfirearms.com/galil-sar-diy-stg556 Tortort receiver. Not too sure why I bought this one over the others, but I was buying a few items and it sounded like a good idea at the time!

I own several IMI Galils, wanted a shooter. The fit/finish seems very good. Too good - all plastic on the parts kits I've found are a bit chewed up, while the metal looks brand new.

View attachment 661330View attachment 661340

Looks nice! What's the plan for that - keep it in pistol config, or SBR candidate? I've been considering a form 1 for my ACE 22.

 

[Dan0311]

Looks nice! What's the plan for that - keep it in pistol config, or SBR candidate? I've been considering a form 1 for my ACE 22.

Trying to SBR it - didn't realize I rec'd my control # (went to spam), sent prints late.....we'll see. I hear they look for any reason to disapprove an application, so we'll see.

 

[IUHoosier429]

Trying to SBR it - didn't realize I rec'd my control # (went to spam), sent prints late.....we'll see. I hear they look for any reason to disapprove an application, so we'll see.

Dang. Fingers crossed for ya, friend.

 

[IUHoosier429]

Upon closer inspection I'm still satisfied with the initial quality. Parts are uniformly worn and everything fits tightly together. Bonus point for getting a surplus rear night sight, but the front night sight is absent. I have an order in for Meprolight tritium sights, along with a surplus IMI sling coming from a dude in Israel. All the surplus Galil mags and new commercial IWI mags I've tried lock in tight - Tortort makes one heck of a nice receiver. I had every intention of hitting the range on my lunch break Friday, but like God, my job tends to laugh at me whenever I make plans. I'll try for this upcoming week and will bring an assortment of steel and brass ammo of various.

For its part, Southern Tactical says it uses about 11 kits to build every 10 guns, cannibalizing parts in the process to replace damaged and heavily worn components. From the first batch of these, there have been scattered reports on the AK Files, r/Galil, and elsewhere about poor receiver etchings and some problematic guns, but ST seems to be pretty responsive in an effort to make things right for unsatisfied owners. Even for what I'd consider minor issues like a guy complaining about a bent front sight hood, they offer RMAs. My front hood is ever so slightly dented, but who cares. Remember, these are heavily worn, old surplus parts kits.

Full disclosure on this review - Russ, the owner of Southern Tactical, reached out to me personally with an offer to buy one of these at a slight discount as long as I shared an honest review online, for better or worse. There was a fair amount of teeth pulling on my part to get him to consistently follow up with me, but I also communicated with the folks at Atlantic and they secured a random gun for me from I believe the fifth batch of builds. I still had to buy it just like everyone before the particular batch sold out (as they all have pretty quickly). But I just want to point that out as part of this review.

Here are a few more photos. Performance and reliability will trump everything, but I gotta say ... this thing looks cooler than an Artik Avatiach. Anyway, let me know if anyone wants to see any specific component(s).

 

[WadeWatts]

I love the look of it

 

[IUHoosier429]

Finally, finally made it to the range after work tonight. Outdoor ranges in my AO are ass, so for time's sake I opted for an indoor range right by work. I brought five types of ammo:

-Remington UMC brass
-Igman brass
-Wolf Gold brass
-Tula steel
-(not pictured; pulled loose from an ammo can) Wolf/Barnaul steel



I also brought four surplus IMI mags in various conditions, as well as a new manufacture commercial IWI mag.



After 100 rounds, I had no failures or other hiccups of any kind. The action is smooth and all the mags locked up with little to no play. This is one gassy B - launched cartridges about 30 feet away at the 2 o'clock position. Being indoors I wasn't able to salvage any to inspect case damage. I will say, being so used to the AK manual of arms, the muscle memory to push the mag catch housing instead of the lever itself was a painful reminder this isn't quite a Kalashnikov. A nearly dislocated thumb knuckle ensures that won't happen again.

At 25 yards standing, offhand without a sling, I was fairly satisfied with the initial groups. Not great, not terrible. I'm so used to optics, it took a bit to get used to the aperture sights, especially in a dimly lit range shooting into shredded black rubber. I may swap in some tritium Meprolight sights. Here are the initial five-round groups from each ammo batch. Love me some Russian Barnaul. RIP...




The first batches of these SARs had reports of trigger slap. That seems to have been improved with different FCGs in these later batches. There's some grit on the initial take up but resets are pretty crisp. I expect it to smooth out a bit with use. It feels in line with a standard surplus AK trigger - not great but serviceable for sure.

All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. It's not as nice as the Galil ACE 22 that I love, but it's not meant to be. And with the muzzle extension and surplus tube stock it really puts off those classic Israeli vibes. I'll keep putting it through its paces and see if I can't elicit some malfunctions, but the thing seems pretty tight and well built overall. Initial reaction is that STG did a good job with this batch and is consistently improving its QC batch over batch. And did I mention that buttery Galil action?