I was torn between the two myself. I did not own a single round of 5.56. I sold my FAL and was trying to decide. I have about 1500 rounds of 7.62x39 and an SKS, so thought about an AK for ammo commonality, but a case of the ammo is the old Norinco steel core and a lot of the other is new Norma brass case reloadable. I would still need to get a couple cases of steel case blasting/practice fodder because I would not want to shoot all that up.
So I ended up going with an AR built on a Palmetto Arms lower. Traded some of my FAL magazines for AR mags. Working on trading a couple thousand Lake City surplus .308 off for 5.56 and I should be good to go. Molycoated the BCG and will run it with some light oil, so hopefully it will be reliable and easier to keep clean. Mounted my Aimpoint 5000 2x and just need to find me a decent set of backup sights, some more magazines and practice time. My brother wants one and a couple of my friends already have AR's but nobody had an FAL, so there was no common platform.
Maybe I will get or build a scout style rifle sometime, so I am keeping some of my .308 stash, but it will no longer be my main "go to" round. The great point of an AR is that you can swap out the upper and change calibers so easily. I want one in 300 blackout next and suppress it.
So I ended up going with an AR built on a Palmetto Arms lower. Traded some of my FAL magazines for AR mags. Working on trading a couple thousand Lake City surplus .308 off for 5.56 and I should be good to go. Molycoated the BCG and will run it with some light oil, so hopefully it will be reliable and easier to keep clean. Mounted my Aimpoint 5000 2x and just need to find me a decent set of backup sights, some more magazines and practice time. My brother wants one and a couple of my friends already have AR's but nobody had an FAL, so there was no common platform.
Maybe I will get or build a scout style rifle sometime, so I am keeping some of my .308 stash, but it will no longer be my main "go to" round. The great point of an AR is that you can swap out the upper and change calibers so easily. I want one in 300 blackout next and suppress it.