- Messages
- 4,129
- Reactions
- 187
I finally got the chance today to take a few new guns out that I haven't had the chance to shoot yet.
So I figured I'd give a quick review of each.
FNP-9;
I ended up giving this gun the least amount of trigger time. But I liked how it felt, very comfortable, low recoil. Overall it feels quite a bit smaller than it really is, and its a different animal than my FNP-45. It digested all the ammo I fed it effortlessly (around 100 rounds). The SA is very smooth and light for a service pistol, although the DA was pretty heavy and long, which is to be expected.
Overall this is (in my opinion) one of the best polymer 9mm service pistols that I've shot. I prefer the hammer fired over striker fired, and with what this gun offers at a low price point, I personally think that it blows HKs or any other polymer framed, hammer fired, DA/SA guns out of the water. While at the end of the day I still prefer steel framed guns, I would recommend for anyone looking for a service style 9mm, to check out the FNP.
SCAR 16s;
I finally ended up getting one of these, and the price of it was constantly haunting me in the back of my mind. But after finally getting out and shooting it, I really find it to be worth the money. When first shooting it, I was very surprised and confused by the recoil impulse. While admittedly its been a while since I've owned a piston operated .223, the recoil is pretty non existent. The feel is quite a bit different than an AR, which takes a little getting used to, but once you get some practice with it, it starts to shine. The action is rather smooth (and quiet), and with such a short and light recoil impulse, you might swear that you're shooting a .22 mag, but the muzzle blast assures you that you're shooting something bigger.
I put a few mags through with just the irons, and found it to come just as natural as using the traditional AR irons (probably for a reason), but I found it much more enjoyable with the ACOG. There were a few downsides that I noticed, first of which is using the front sight. Once the gun gets warmed up, it becomes a challenge to raise or lower the front sight, because it gets pretty hot since it sits on the gas block. Also I found that most of the forward receiver and rails got pretty warm. Also with the reciprocating charging handle, you have to be very attentive to where you place your offhand. I found myself getting tapped a few times by the handle when trying different positions.
All in all, I found it to be a great rifle, and can't wait to put many more rounds through it. For anyone that is trying to decide between a $2k AR setup (or any other semi .223 in the price range), I would suggest going with the Scar over any equally priced AR.
9mm AR;
I won't dive too deep into this since this wasn't a production gun. Since it's a blowback setup, you end up with a little bit of recoil considering the caliber. I had some serious problems with the teflon cproducts mags, but not with the other ones that I had. With the right mags it ran beautiful, and you find yourself doing rapid fire mag dumps more often than not. I was worried that I wouldn't like the 16" barrel setup, since most of my experience has been with SBR 9mms, but I found the extra weight give excellent control, and the longer barrel didn't feel clumsy at all. As far as the magpul products that I threw on it; I found the MBUS sights to be a little clumsy at first, but not too bad once you get used to them. Also I'm liking the CTR quite a bit more over standard CAR stocks (first CTR I've bought).
Well hopefully this info is remotely useful to anyone looking into getting any of these guns (or building a 9mm AR).
Here's a few cell pics;
So I figured I'd give a quick review of each.
FNP-9;
I ended up giving this gun the least amount of trigger time. But I liked how it felt, very comfortable, low recoil. Overall it feels quite a bit smaller than it really is, and its a different animal than my FNP-45. It digested all the ammo I fed it effortlessly (around 100 rounds). The SA is very smooth and light for a service pistol, although the DA was pretty heavy and long, which is to be expected.
Overall this is (in my opinion) one of the best polymer 9mm service pistols that I've shot. I prefer the hammer fired over striker fired, and with what this gun offers at a low price point, I personally think that it blows HKs or any other polymer framed, hammer fired, DA/SA guns out of the water. While at the end of the day I still prefer steel framed guns, I would recommend for anyone looking for a service style 9mm, to check out the FNP.
SCAR 16s;
I finally ended up getting one of these, and the price of it was constantly haunting me in the back of my mind. But after finally getting out and shooting it, I really find it to be worth the money. When first shooting it, I was very surprised and confused by the recoil impulse. While admittedly its been a while since I've owned a piston operated .223, the recoil is pretty non existent. The feel is quite a bit different than an AR, which takes a little getting used to, but once you get some practice with it, it starts to shine. The action is rather smooth (and quiet), and with such a short and light recoil impulse, you might swear that you're shooting a .22 mag, but the muzzle blast assures you that you're shooting something bigger.
I put a few mags through with just the irons, and found it to come just as natural as using the traditional AR irons (probably for a reason), but I found it much more enjoyable with the ACOG. There were a few downsides that I noticed, first of which is using the front sight. Once the gun gets warmed up, it becomes a challenge to raise or lower the front sight, because it gets pretty hot since it sits on the gas block. Also I found that most of the forward receiver and rails got pretty warm. Also with the reciprocating charging handle, you have to be very attentive to where you place your offhand. I found myself getting tapped a few times by the handle when trying different positions.
All in all, I found it to be a great rifle, and can't wait to put many more rounds through it. For anyone that is trying to decide between a $2k AR setup (or any other semi .223 in the price range), I would suggest going with the Scar over any equally priced AR.
9mm AR;
I won't dive too deep into this since this wasn't a production gun. Since it's a blowback setup, you end up with a little bit of recoil considering the caliber. I had some serious problems with the teflon cproducts mags, but not with the other ones that I had. With the right mags it ran beautiful, and you find yourself doing rapid fire mag dumps more often than not. I was worried that I wouldn't like the 16" barrel setup, since most of my experience has been with SBR 9mms, but I found the extra weight give excellent control, and the longer barrel didn't feel clumsy at all. As far as the magpul products that I threw on it; I found the MBUS sights to be a little clumsy at first, but not too bad once you get used to them. Also I'm liking the CTR quite a bit more over standard CAR stocks (first CTR I've bought).
Well hopefully this info is remotely useful to anyone looking into getting any of these guns (or building a 9mm AR).
Here's a few cell pics;
