The FNH SCAR- 16

In late 2004, FN Herstal won the contract from the United States Special Operations Command for a new, modular, and adaptable rifle system. The FNH entry was called the Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR). The new rifle system offering was rumored to be slated for several different calibers, including 6.8 SPC. To date, the FNH SCAR is only available in factory form in 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm. The FNH SCAR saw service with the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in the two variants, the SCAR MK16 (5.56), commonly referred to as the SCAR-L for Light, and the MK17 (7.62), commonly referred to as the SCAR-H for Heavy. In 2010, SOCOM announced that it was cancelling the MK16 program. The initial claim was that the MK16 did not do anything better than the current M4 offerings.  To my knowledge, a couple of units still field the 5.56 SCAR-L in the 10.5 inch CQC variant. The SCAR family of rifles operate off of a short stroke piston system. The SCAR family of rifles are also completely ambidextrous, a bonus for left handed shooters who often are at the whim of right hand designs.

My love affair with the FNH SCAR line of rifles began in early 2010, when I acquired my first personally owned SCAR 16s.  The rifle is the civilian version which currently only is offered in the 16 inch, and in semi-automatic only. Some of the features really struck me. The first thing I noticed was the massive size of the bolt carrier. It appeared very well designed and more robust than the standard AR15 offerings.

Looking at the external features, the rifle was fully adaptable right out of the box. It requires no extra purchase of MIL-STD 1913 rails to mount any mission essential gear on. It is fully adjustable for both length of pull, and for cheek weld adjustment. The length of pull is helpful, as the ability to shorten the stock to fit various different day to day body armor styles is very helpful. The folding stock might be an asset for some officers, but I am neither hot nor cold on it.  I could see it might be a bonus for some in car mounting systems where space is limited. As I stated earlier, the rifle is fully ambidextrous.  It comes from the factory with an ambidextrous magazine release.  It also comes from the factory with an ambidextrous selector switch. It is also worth noting that the selector switch only rotates 45 degrees instead of the 90 degree selector found on most AR15 style rifles. The bolt on the SCAR line of rifles is reciprocating, and the bolt handle is designed so that it can be mounted on the left of right side to accommodate a wide variety of shooting styles.

In the next 15,000 or so rounds that went down the tube, one of the major perceived drawbacks to the weapon became pretty apparent to me.  The SCAR 16s gets hot when ran hard.  While the heat transfer on the bolt is minimal, the front of the factory fore arm and front sight block get very hot. Adding the FNH rail extension helps if your shooting style puts the off hand out front as far as possible. Or if you are going to run it hard, you can simply wear gloves. It isn’t really a problem for me as much as an observation. Aside from that, some officers that I work with and I have found the recoil impulse to be very accommodating to speed shooting.

Another of the perceived drawbacks of the SCAR line of rifles is the length and positioning of the bolt handle. Some operators have rightfully stated that depending on which optic that is used, it becomes harder to use the bolt handle due to how close the bolt handle rides to the mounting of the optic. There are a number of good offerings out there of after market bolt handles if this is a problem for you.

In my humble opinion, the police carbine has a few things that fall in the category of a must, and a couple that fall into the category of things that are nice to have.

The first must is a good sling. The SCAR 16s has multiple sling points on the rifle as it comes from the factory.  They are both right and left side, and also include a slot in the top of the rear of the stock. It is completely left up to personal preference and the imagination on the set up of the sling. I personally like the HK style hooks on the Viking Tactics line of padded slings.  I also added a Magpul Rail Sling Adapter to the bottom rail and run it all the way back near the magwell. I like this a bit better if I have to transition to a pistol, or sling the rifle tight for whatever reason.

Another must is a good white light. While there are literally thousands of offerings out there, some are problematic due to the design of the SCAR rifle. I spent quite a while toying with the various light attachment designs. I am a fan of the Viking Tactics light mount attachments. However, to accommodate the bolt carrier design, the SCAR is a little taller than most AR15 designs. I prefer a lighting set up that I can shoot a high thumb, or C grip from either shoulder, without having to change my grip and style of shooting. The two methods I found that best accommodate this is to either run a 500 lumen SureFire X300 ultra at the 12 0′clock position or the SureFire M720V Raid light with the pressure switch at 12 o’clock on the top rail. A good white light and sling are the must on any police carbine.

The nice to have items start with a good quality red dot sight. The full length rail on top of the SCAR gives an officer a pretty wide latitude on where to mount it. The Aimpoint T1 is a great fit. I bought a tan EoTech and mounted it on one of my SCAR16s and ran it for a while without issue.  The T1 in an intermediate mount that provides absolute cowitness is a great option. The T1 has an obscene battery life and I just leave it on constantly. When I pull the rifle out of the trunk of my cruiser, I just have to chamber a round. I do not have to worry about turning my optic on, or worry about the battery running down. I just replace my Aimpoint battery in the spring when I change out my home smoke detector batteries and I am good to go.

I also run the Magpul stubby vertical fore grip on my SCAR rifles.  I use it primarily as a hand stop, and it also comes in handy in supported barricade shooting.

The last item that can be problematic with the use of a SCAR as a duty rifle is that not all magazines will work in the SCAR16s. Most GI spec metal magazines will work fine, but some of the Magpul magazines will not work in the SCAR16s. The new version Magpul Gen3 mags will work in the SCAR without issue. Older Magpul magazines can be successfully modified to work in the SCAR16s.  All it takes is a few minutes, a file and an internet connection.

The FNH SCAR16s is a great all round police carbine. Its modular design and ruggedness makes it ideal for police service in any conditions.

This entry was posted in Long Guns, Review by Jerry Jones. Bookmark the permalink.

About Jerry Jones

Jerry Jones has been a Sheriff's Deputy in Kentucky since 1996. Jerry is currently assigned as a patrol deputy, firearms instructor and senior operator/training supervisor with a multi jurisdictional tactical team. Jerry is Kentucky POST certified to teach firearms, SWAT, and sniper operations and deployment at the Academy level. Jerry is also the President/CEO of Operation Specific Training and the Law Enforcement Representative for Apex Tactical Specialties.

6 thoughts on “The FNH SCAR- 16

  1. I would be interested to see which units still field the SCAR L in a 10 inch version the writer is talking about.. Considering the MK18 is the go to gun if your unit doesn’t run the HK416 and your unit has a need for shorties. And SOCOM pulled all the MK16s out of operational service. I know NSW doesn’t use. Every SF ODA I have seen is rocking MK18MOD1s. Add to the fact that the SCAR family has just been generally not liked by the end users, kinda makes me doubt that anybody still is running them in the US military.

  2. I’ve ran just over 9000+ rounds downrange through my primary SCAR 16 which has an Elcan SpecterDR 1-4x scope mounted. My SCAR 17 has clocked in about 6000+ rounds to date. All of which have been flawless and completely jam free from day one. I have yet to see this system hiccup (and I own 4 SCAR’s now – they tend to breed hah.)

    With high quality match loads, it is entirely possible to achieve sub-MOA groups from the SCAR series. The SCAR 17 in particular is well suited for a long range semi-auto rifle and is in my humble opinion better than any other .308 offering out there. While my area does not have a 1000 yard range, I have been able to achieve 10 out of 10 shots on steel at 800 yards with a stable shooting position. I’ve owned M1A’s, FAL’s, AR-10’s, HK-91’s and a few others, but nothing has really been the “this is it” weapon for me like the SCAR 17 has. It’s the one I’ve been waiting for all these years.

    Seans – I’m not sure there are any units using the SCAR 16 version anymore, though there are photos circulating – but I have seen plentiful evidence that the SCAR 17 is being used still. I’ve also seen photo’s of 17’s that have been caliber converted to run 5.56mm – these appear to be recent photographs according to their sources, and are often seen being used at shoot houses. Check out FN Forum – they have a “War on Terror” photo section with the SCAR series shown in action overseas.

    • Yes the SCAR 17 is being used. Cause they is nothing else around unfortunately. I am in one of those units that is issued them and was lucky enough to be able to trade my 17 for a MK14. The 17 has a lot of reliability problems right now. A lot. There is a reason the SMUs use HK417s and you will not see them using the SCAR platform. The SCAR 17 is not a popular platform, its just unfortunately the only battle rifle that is around for the majority of guys.

      • I keep hearing about so-called “reliability issues” with the 17, but all we get are vague answers regarding this – nobody has yet to expressly say what these issues are. Some of these issues we do know about (such as optics destruction with older kit) have been since fixed – yet they still get circulated as though it’s current news. For myself, I have yet to experience a reliability issue on my SCAR 17 and I run it quite hard. I personally know one fellow who’s logged 17,000 rounds through his SCAR 17 with zero experienced failures (minus a stock latch he broke while bashing the thing against a tree.) Could this be similar to the difference of quality between military issued Beretta’s and what can be purchased through civilian channels?

        • The military issue ones are the problems. The MK17 and MK20 are having large reliability problems. The MK20 especially. The problem is its not just one given thing. The problem is the guns we get are either experiencing problems within 5000 rounds, or will run no problem. If it was 1 out of 20 guns, that wouldn’t be so bad. But my platoon had to replace 5 of 15 on deployment(these were new guns also), which 2 of the replacements had to be sent back. And the problems experienced are not just limited to a certain set of problems. Malfunctioning sears, firing pins breaking, catastrophic failures in combat, plus a incredibly weak charging handles that shear off when kicked in combat. This is problably why you hear vague answers. It isn’t just one issue its multiple issues. This isn’t even getting started on the MK20s massive problems. Guns going full auto, POA/POI shifts up to 4 minutes, a quick detach suppressor that has a acceptable POI shift of 8 minutes when you put it on.

  3. I will agree that just because a unit is issued something does not mean that unit’s members approve of the weapon. NSW pulled any other option (mk14, mk11) and sent them elsewhere, platoons were forced to use and bring the mk17 with them on deployment because platoons were refusing and leaving them stateside. I share in a distaste for the weapon, both small and large versions. I don’t like FN in general as a company as I have yet to be able to touch base with a military sales rep at shot show as they always seem to have better things to do then talk to the end user. The number of issues with that weapon in military use is large and highly documented at every level, multiple services.

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