Building the Ultimate Scar 17 Part 1
10:34:00 PM
The Scar 17, the epitome of efficiency for a rifle chambered in .308, it light weight and low recoiling. It's been referred to as the Ferrari of rifles, exception to the rule, or even the .308 freak of nature because of it's lightweight, barrel profile and still maintaining long range accuracy.
You've probably seen the spec's for the Scar 17 but here they are; it's chambered in 7.62x51 NATO or .308 Winchester, it has a hammer forged barrel that is chrome lined with a 1 in 12 right hand twist rate with a length of 16.25", the upper receiver is a hard anodized monolithic extruded aluminum upper, it is operated by a short-stroke gas piston system, it has a folding and telescopic stock that allows the weapon to be fired even when the stock is folded, it comes with a proprietary 10 or 20 round aluminum magazine, and all the controls are ambidextrous except for the bolt catch and release. On FNH's website they list the weight of the Scar 17 as 8lbs but I got 7.4lbs on my scale.
I am not going to go over the history of the Scar platform and series of rifles, because it been done hundreds of times, the information of how it was developed and it's adoption by the US Special Forces is readily available.
Today we are going over the issues that the Scar 17 had and how they are corrected to make the ultimate battle rifle. This really is just my opinion but FNH would have been better off with making some of these changes themselves.
The first and biggest issue with the Scar 17 is its trigger module (a.k.a lower receiver) and the magazines that it uses. I have no fucking clue why FNH would opt for proprietary magazines or why the US Socom wouldn't make them change the mags from that bullshit to the more reliable, less expensive and already in service SR-25 style magazine.
So when I bought my Scar 17 the first thing I bought and changed was the trigger module. As of now there are two manufactures that make SR-25 compatible trigger modules for the Scar 17. The first and most well known is Handle Defense, they make a few trigger modules from aluminium and magnesium. Then there is X Products, there trigger module is newer to the market, and it is the one that I went with. X Products trigger module is made from aluminium and is far more aesthetically pleasing than both the stock trigger module and the Handle defense trigger module.
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| On the left the standard trigger module and on the right the X Products X-17 trigger module |
Having the ability to use SR-25 magazines makes the Scar 17 more efficient, compatible and interchangeable with most of the other .308 chambered rifles I own. I use Magpul Pmag 25 LR/SR magazines 25 rounders that brings me to a few more benefits, the first is its a Pmag, Magpul makes probably the most reliable and battle proven magazines in existence. And the next benefit is Pmags are far more cost effective than the proprietary mags that FNH chose to use, the standard Scar 17 mags cost around 40 to 60 dollars if you can find them for sale, while Pmags cost around 18 to 20 dollars. So the choice for me was easy and Pmags fucking rule.
The next change I made was that ugly, rattly, Ugg boot looking piece of shit buttstock. I ended up going with the Vltor VSS-11 Scar stock, Kinetic Development Group make a good Scar stock but I like the angle and feel of the Vltor stock far more, nothing more needed to say about that.
The other not so huge but more ergonomic changes that I made to the rifle is the pistol grip and the selector switch. The pistol grip I choose was the Magpul K2 grip because I like the steeper angle. And the selector switch I went with is the Magpul SSG selector switch for the Scar family of rifles because it is far more comfortable to use than the standard selector switch.
There are more changes that need to be made to the Scar 17 to make it more effective for the way I plan to use the rifle, look out for part 2 of the ultimate Scar 17 build.
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