[JonM]

As the title says there is varying degrees of goodnes to aweful to not great in this rifle.

a little background as to what is driving my recent firearms purchases culminating in this one. for a while ive been fence sitting on just which 308 semi i really want. this has flopped from rra to larue to colt and a few others but the fnh scar17 wasnt really in that list.

recently the wife decided she wanted to go deer hunting and rooted through the gun safe and settled on my (now her's) savage model 10FCP-SR with nightforce 3.5-15x nxs f1. so there went my 308. i kinda settled my mind to get a colt 308 ad started the long wait. ran across one shortly before the election and missed it online by a few minutes. anyway i was content to wait a bit for a backorder until i went to midwest industries.

they had a scar17 on the wall. i decided i would go with that. if i didnt like it should be an easy trade for something else.

anyway its super light at 8 pounds empty for a 308 semi. i wont go over all its features but i will mention that the barrel is easily removed and it has suppressor friendly gas settings. the rest is just in the fnh sales material.

ok the bad. the only truly bad feature is the godsaweful pws muzzle brake. that thing is just punishingly brutal. DO NOT FIRE A SCAR17 WITH THAT BRAKE AND NO HEARING PROTECTION!!!!!!!!!! with that thing on its downright unpleasent bordering on painful even with hearing protection. soon as i got home i called surefire and ordered their fh762k-scar flash hider as a replacement. i will NOT be shooting it again until that PWS shoulda been called POS brake is gone. i dont care if i lose a bit quickness on follow ups i cannot use this for defense if i have to say "hold up a sec, let me put some ears on before i cap your ass...." thats really the only bad on this gun.

the ugly is the trigger. fnh did a bad job on the trigger. a better trigger will help and its on my agenda. thats the only real bad issue.

the good i should labeled GREAT!! this thing is crazy accurate. its recoil is super soft. the irons are very very usable. mags are easy to load and the spring tension doesnt stack much so the last round isnt much more difficult to get in than the first. the only failures to feed were caused by an ar15 556 brass catcher i adapted to the scar17. i see the flaws and will have a good working brass device soon. i was running it with the gas port set to suppressor use and it didnt seem to have any trouble cycling.

this is pretty much the rifle i have been looking for and once the trigger is better and the brake is gone it will be simply perfect. i had though about replacing the buttstock but the one it has fits right into my bench target shooting style.

i put my acog from the bcm middy on it for my upcoming hunting trip to texas but im rethinking that and will prolly steal the wife's vortex 3-9 (whats good for the goose :P ) for the trip until i can get a nightforce.

anyway this woulda been a one hole group if i was better at holding elevation with an acog



sorry for the blurrines my camera is on its last legs. but here are some images of me shooting a few rounds. you might be able to make out the brass catcher

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)

i did replace the fnh A2 style grip with a magpul miad. it seems to fit fine. it has about a 1/16th gap around the edges you have to really stare hard to see and then only if i tell ya about in advance. i may get froggy on a boring afternoon and do some fitting at some point.

[texaswoodworker]

Nice! If I had the funds, I'd get one. I bet that thing would be unbelievably accurate with a better trigger.

[JonM]

Thats a five shot group. Three went through the top hole. Not sure what order. I cant wait to try it with a scope that lends itself to more accurate shooting.

[silverado113]

Jon please move to IA, I need customers like you... Congrats.

[JonM]

The time to buy gold and metals was 15 years ago. Instead of that im buying guns. Guns hold value really well if you dont beat the sht out of em. Can always convert em easy into whatever i need. The value of gold fluctuates based off perception of the masses too much firearms are more stable.

[jpattersonnh]

Originally Posted by JonM

The time to buy gold and metals was 15 years ago. Instead of that im buying guns. Guns hold value really well if you dont beat the sht out of em. Can always convert em easy into whatever i need. The value of gold fluctuates based off perception of the masses too much firearms are more stable.

That's a fact. Ammo is another good investment. Cans of Bulgarian and Russian 5.45x39 were $108.00 when I started buying them. The last can was 129.00. They sell for 179.00 to 199.00 locally now. I have battle packs of LC and IMI 7.62x51 (300 count) That I paid 15.00 for years ago. Nice reloadable brass.
3/4 of a crate of 1949 Turk 8x57 that I bought when it was a full un-opened 1600 rnd crate on chargers in bandoliers for $110.00. The last crates of 7.62x54r were $109.00 shipped.

[orangello]

Interesting rifle!

[JonM]

the more i go over it and play with it the more i like it. one thing im not really liking is the ambi safety levers. ive order the magpul replacements and im going to trim up the right hand magpul lever and just use it as a non intrusive endcap. if i can find a replacement safety bar i will modify it to be non-ambi. it just gets in the way on the right side of the gun.

i also dont really like the short 45 degree throw of the selector. its hard to tell which position its in by touch with gloves. if i can find a 90 degree lever or modify one to become a 90 degree thrown im going to do that but not till i have a spare to play with.

the negatives with it are just personal quirks with what i like and dont like. im not a fan of ambidextrous controls at all. i dont mind ones that swap side to side but i dont like duplicate controls. im also going to look into disabling the left side mag catch to make it non functional. i have inadvertantly dropped the mag a couple of times trying to lock the bolt rearward wearing gloves and not wearing gloves. i just dont see any valid reason for it to be on both sides.

[JonM]

took the scar out after work to sight in the trijicon for this weekends hunt and im pretty pleased with the accuracy of the hunting rounds im going to use.

temp was right at 28 degrees with a 90 degree right to left 5mph wind range 100 yards. barrel twist is 1 in 12 (i prefer 1in12 for 308s since it shoots 140-168 grain very very well) bullet is a hornady 150 grin sst over 47.2 grains of rl15. i really need to replace my chronograph that got blown up by a 458 winmag 510grain bullet *sigh*

it was cold windy no gloves so i had little feeling in the fingers by the time i got it zeroed and shot this grouping

7 rounds with two fliers not sure when they happened in the string. those were the last 7 sst i had loaded. 5 measured .82 center to center with 1.6 including fliers.





the trigger on the scar17 is not that great for target shooting but adequate if you concentrate hard. its very heavy with lots of creep. its a little odd because sometimes it feels like a two stage sometimes it feels like a very creepy single stage. its definately getting replaced because the accuracy potential is superb. if all i was doing was cqb it would be a great trigger as unintential firings or multiple firings would be a lot harder to do.

i did remove the pws brake and replaced it with a surefire flash hider. it didnt change the ammount of muzzle flip but the recoil increased by about 30% in my estimation. somwhere halfway tween a ar15 and a m1a with the pws its much closer to an ar15 in felt recoil but the muzzle blast is insane. with out the pws it can be fired in open terrain without hearing protection if needed and not knocking yourself unconcious.

i wont have a chance to do doubles or triples until this weeked, but it certainly feels doable without the pws more so than whats possible with a m1a



oh i almost forgot... here she is with a surefire 762k suppressor

[orangello]

That is so hawt it might need to be sent to the trail!

On the flipside, 28 degrees? That's flamethrower weather.