FN SCAR 17 (Heavy) 🏁 Speedway [ Long Range On the Clock ] - Practical Accuracy

This video is brought to you by Slate Black Industries. For grips and accessories, visit slateblackindustries.com. Let's make sure my fingers are clear. Standing by, ready? Yep. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Neutralized. Impact. Is it to the right? Nope. It's too low. impact another one at 650 another one at 650 impact neutralized impact oh so that's it that's it that first one at 650 I call the hit was a skip I realized that after on your second shot because I saw the dust pop short okay all right okay so there's a lot to talk about we'll take you over at the debris we'll welcome into the debrief for this run on the speedway runs we break down our evaluations based on segmented categories so we'll talk about the overall run and the shooters performance hitting on how the base firearm the sighting system the cartridge and the environmentals all came into play during the course of the run now unlike our regular practical accuracy series the speedway course challenges the shooter to shoot as fast as possible while also accounting for constantly changing elevation and wind holds as needed this presents a unique challenge that the shooter then has to overcome so let's get into it so for starters I think we actually both agree that this was a very good run and I think everything went really well up until the 650 where I think what probably happened is I exacerbated your miss on the first shot by incorrectly calling it a hit now I saw the plate move so my brain that's a hit okay so I called the hit and then you took some subsequent follow-up shots that were short short short and it was like okay I clicked what was going on you asked for a spotter assist to see where the rounds were going and about at that time I realized like ah it was a skip so made the correction you scored a hit and then within another round or two after your reload you scored the second hit followed up by an ace like center punch it on the bonus at 725 so I think had I not indicated that that first round was a hit I think things would have been a bit different at the 650 and you can probably speak to whether or not no that threw you off I don't I it did throw me off but I don't think it would have been that different because I actually also saw a hit because when I was looking at when I was looking at it it clearly you know it's one thing to see like this the skip puff in my mind actually I was a little confused because I saw a puff underneath the target and then I saw the target really move because it wasn't just a slight sway it was an actual violent move right so in my mind the way I processed that was that was a hit and that was splash that ended up underneath exactly that's exactly what I was thinking when I saw it as well because I did see the little kick up of dirt but seeing the target flex I was like oh it must have just been you know some some spall coming off the bottom of the plate causing some dust to pop I do think though yeah you're right you know in my mind like when you get calls like that and it is a field condition I mean this is this is like within split seconds of your mind trying to process what's going on on the spotting scope and behind the rifle I mean this is this is also why it's challenging on a speedway course because it's a self spotting course in large so that's just a you know par for the core everything was a perfect one for one I would up to the 650 with a little cluster of misses at 650 and then one for one on the bonus at 725 so I think in the context of things especially at the speed at which you were shooting I thought it was a very good run I thought that the speed was quick but also controlled insofar as it didn't feel like you were rushing any of those shots the shots all felt like they were controlled from where I was sitting in the observation perspective of this but I did notice that you struggled a little bit when you were getting the firearm set up on I think it was two separate occasions where you really needed to try to readjust things as to how it was sitting on your pack I know you really like to shoot off of the packs but this particular scar is set up very much as like a battle rifle or an assaulter style setup if we want to use that terminology that's the right way of putting it it's hello there I'm just here maintaining the nine-hole scar so that it's always ready when I need it but did you know that the first few times we actually took the scar out to pattern it for accuracy we actually had a very tough time getting any sort of decent results and it wasn't until we determined that some of these screws here that hold the barrel in place had actually worked themselves loose but how did we get to that point shooting hundreds of rounds of match grade 308 ammunition and working through the problem-solving required to get the scar functioning correctly well is doing no small part to the small but loyal community that we have over on patreon who support us with the financials in order to be able to go out and buy ammunition to perform these tests as well as the emotional and intellectual support that well let's be honest you all know we very much need so we'd certainly like to have you guys consider joining us over on patreon and of course if that's not something you're interested in we'd very much like to also just simply hear from you in the comments down below here as well hope you guys enjoy the rest of the episode onward we go this particular scar is set up very much as like a battle rifle or an assaulter style setup if we want to use that terminology that's the right way of putting it it's an assaulter's rifle it's an assaulter's rifle being pressed into a DMR roll in this instance but it's a heavy assaulter's rifle per say shooting a very capable cartridge and one of the tenets of that is that you are using some type of a vertical grip our SVG basically yes and when you're shooting off of packs your vertical grips are not usually the best answer to it so as I slammed it on the pack usually if you have a very straight forend that's very easy to gently get multiple points of contact on the pack but when you're running a vertical grip sometimes it kind of messes with that and in this case that's what you're seeing I put it down and it kind of lollipop it around and so I had to adjust for that lollipop and kind of figure out okay how am I gonna hold this to get the correct the correct holds and so I mean does that mean the pack sucks I mean no it just depends on how you want to use it and and what type of situation you're in a bipod is most certainly a better solution if you're shooting on an unknown surface at unknown engagement distances with unknown fields of fire but you don't always have a bipod on your rifle and sometimes if you're in an assaulter's role you may not even have the bipod clipped on because that's extra weight so I mean I would say the vertical foregrip to me is not always the most desirable item when you're using to shoot off of a pack but taking into context that this is a sort of set up as an assaulter's role a vertical foregrip makes sense so I fought through that I kind of figured it out on you know even though on the clock and it worked generally speaking when it comes to the SCAR the conversation of the reciprocating charging handle it comes up either because it's this horrible detriment or because people believe it's way overblown and so what I'd like you to do is to take us through your feelings on it having now shot this on the speed course for you okay so if we're looking back at what we're seeing here right you know shooting off of a pack a lot of times either you use a rear bag or you put your hand right in front of the mag well for me anyways I'm used to shooting the m16s which the reciprocating charging handle is not an issue and I would say a lot of times people out there they're either trained on the m16s or the AK or AR or AK systems neither one of those has issues with the reciprocating charging handle pushing off the side now every single reciprocating charging handle out the left side I have had an issue with same thing with the galil aces you know it literally I had two times where I set the target up put drop down and slammed my hand with the reciprocating charging handle or stopped the round from ejecting with a reciprocating charging handle yeah either ejecting going to battery because on the the way I have that SCAR configured is a left side charging handle setup which for clarity when you're talking about the AK not having an issue with reciprocating charging handle you're talking about specifically within the context of shooting from that exact position off of the bag right correct right yes so you when you look at you when you look at the last time I configured that you remember right before we shot it and you flip the stock out and I I flipped it over and that's because I knew it I knew it was gonna happen and then I just I did that this time I forgot about that and it happened again it happens to me all the time whenever I forget to switch it to the right and now I will say though I will say though this is a trainable issue this is something that could be solved with training you can get used to shooting a weapon system with something like this and figure it out right I it's not my rifle so I don't push myself on it regularly so in my mind when time is then pressed upon me that doesn't take over you know the the lizard brain as you would say does not take over and so my lizard brain then default defaults back to the m16 m4 series which if I were to shoot off the pack automatically I would tuck my hand as close to the mag well as possible for those close-range engagements and it's a very narrow window for which we're describing this potential issue right it is for shooting off of a pack style rest very specific again very specific deployment or implementation window so I do think that that's worth bringing up because I generally have no issues at all with how I shoot that scar now you typically also shoot it with a bipod too right I I do generally shoot it with a bipod yes if I were to engage at you know extended distances like that or I would generally take a fortune cookie stuff it between the SVG and the mag well and grip out in front of the SVG pulling into my body or holding the rear back so this is the first time that we're really pushing these firearms for speed on a distance style course how is the recoil impulse for you and specifically how is the recoil impulse with the suppressor the scar itself especially for how lightweight it is has a very low recoil impulse to begin with for a 7.62 NATO I don't think I was really affected by recoil much on the scar like I could spot my hits and misses I was able to see the impacts at 650 and then try to figure out what was going on in my mind and continue to press so the recoil really was a non issue and in fact I mean if you look at it factor in that I was a little slow on on the start because of figuring out the vert grip and everything the I'd say if if I don't know when we're going to publish this is probably going to be what like what one of the first episodes that we published on on Speedway but if you compare it to later on five five six rifles at this point we've already filmed I think you'll see that the speed and the tempo of engagement is not that far off from five five six rifles so I mean I don't necessarily think that the scar really has any issues with recoil in respect of it especially being a 7.62 NATO and having a little bit more oomph to push out at farther distances and have less wind correction right and I think what we saw is with the suppressor setting activated with the can in place it was just just gently popping out the brass into a nice little pile a few feet from you it was it seemed like it was extremely controllable even with the can in place and and now that you've admitted that you shot your FN SCAR with a suppressor your warranty is officially void is that an actual thing or is that internet folklore it's probably internet folklore but this is the internet so we can generate as much rumors as we want and then believe it on the internet right okay so how did the two-stage match trigger from Geiseley come into play if at all for you on this run because I do think that we saw you taking your time to very obviously press through that first stage stage up at the wall and then take a nice clean second shot throughout this course of fire so this is actually something that I had no idea what I was doing when I was well I mean it's not that I don't know how to shoot just stop there no you're good I'll pick it up from there stop okay partially I did not really even realize this but turns out Josh as a competitor likes to review footage over and over and over again because that's how tell me that's how that's how you figure out what your what your body is doing and how to streamline and continue to trim your techniques with race gunning right that's right I didn't know that that's what I should had been looking at until Josh told me to compare and contrast the trigger pulling between shooting the scar and some of the other rifles and even though that's an SSAE trigger I it's a call it the super scar but it's basically it's a two-stage match trigger so it's kind of like an SSAE for the AR yes I have the SSAE in my mark 12 so I am familiar with how that trigger pull is however I didn't realize that because it was in a different system my mind was actually shooting it like it is a different system and giving it maximum reset and pulling it all the way back every single time now that does make it slower turns out but it also guarantees that I have a very deliberate pull on each target that's right it's funny because we get so many people on the internet who try to analyze you know your breathing and your trigger pull and everything I mean people always are like oh you shouldn't slap the trigger I I don't know if pulling the trigger very fast and deliberately is not slapping the trigger if you're able to keep the rifle steady which I don't want to get into that too much more because I don't want to act like I'm boasting per se but I did hit all the targets just saying so so let me add a little bit of commentary here from a purely competitors perspective so I've noticed that I myself when I'm shooting rifles that I'm not intimately familiar with that are not my firearms even sometimes when they are but they're just ones that I don't shoot all that frequently I implicitly without even thinking about it give a much longer reset on the trigger than rifles where I am very familiar with the trigger and I can kind of keep constant pressure with the trigger during the entire trigger press or trigger pull reset and pull process that goes for speed shooting up close hammering targets on you know as fast of a split as I can as I can get all the way up to shooting more accurate precision based engagement styles like this speedway course where speed still becomes a relevant thing so I would say that what you actually demonstrated was very solid proper accurate trigger pulling technique for a two-stage trigger but maybe not as quick as you could have gone if you utilize the same methodology you normally do on some guns that you're much more familiar with where you keep contact and actually don't allow the trigger to reset through the entire first stage but I thought that that whole breakdown was very interesting to see that you do that as well because we've never really had you shooting on the clock in that manner and this is the first time I'm really getting to see it and it was very interesting to see those pieces in the in the footage well I mean it's it's very organic because that's something that I don't think about when I'm shooting it's not something that I deliberately think about oh I'm I've got to reset this trigger but in my mind I just do it because I'm unfamiliar with the system itself precisely that's your brain knows I need to make sure that this trigger resets and to do that I'm going to give it a bit of extra to ensure it resets as opposed to trying to keep perfect contract through the whole perfect contact through the whole trigger pull to optimize your ability to press the trigger again it's a very interesting a very interesting element for those of us who are a bit more geeky or nerdy when it comes to the actual aspects of the speed elements of doing this all right now let's talk about the optic a little bit here Henry we were shooting this with a night force attacker 1 to 8 which is an LPVO if you guys are interested in full details on this optics choice we have a full video review of it we will put the link down below now Henry I wanted to hear your thoughts on what the shooting strategy was with respect to this optic specifically how did you leverage the mill grid and how did you fight through the lack of externally adjustable turrets well it's I'd say fighting through the lack of adjustable turrets is sort of a it's not really reflective of my mindset when I was on on the range now back in the day it was all about adjustable turrets I mean the Christmas tree reticle was not very well loved let's say two decades ago right but there has been a lot of advancement in in that type of reticle since then to make it a lot easier to shoot now you've got cap turrets so there's no dialing that was not at all a hindrance to me I mean that was actually I wasn't going to dial it anyways shooting it all the way out I think the biggest the biggest issue came down to the donut right because the donuts there for the illumination side and it's basically it's it's there for if you were an assaulter and you wanted a center dot to substitute a red dot you could use it I mean that's good for up close per se if that's all you want to use it for but when you push it on distance that that becomes a liability I'd say especially if you're shooting your I believe it's like zero to one mil distance right it's really that the period of time between the dead hold and until you clear outside the bottom of the donut where you are having to deal with some of the target being obscured by the lower portion of that donut correct right right so so that donut had a little bit of an obscuring effect but past that it wasn't really an issue I did feel that the numbers that are on the side of the reticle made it very easy to figure out what distance you were and I believe they go like two four six eight ten so I mean that's easy to figure out in between the two and the four is a three right I mean that's easy to figure it out even if you're under the clock whereas at this point looking back at it some of the simple mill grids with only the dots when you're under pressure you're pushing your mind to work a little faster and you don't see that instinctively no even though you know your holds are let's say 2.2 mils for 400 and the the numbers certainly made it easier as far as glass quality had no issues I mean as as I told you at 650 I saw exactly what happened I saw the target flop around and I saw dust underneath it so if it's poor glass quality I wouldn't really be able to see that like I certainly wouldn't be able to see that with a French APX 3.8 magnification scope on the FR-F1 but this I had no issues 8x is also a very good magnification at this distance you have great field of view you have a very workable let's say situational awareness as I'm going up from the 150 through 400 it was just target target target target then zoom over so all of that was very workable I didn't have to zoom in or zoom out to get any of that. Do you open your eyes while you're moving? A. Are you shooting both eyes open during this when you're powered up to 8? Are you shooting both eyes open? The textbook answer what I should be doing is both eyes open when I'm scanning for targets and if I want to close one eye to concentrate on the target I can that is the correct answer now whether I was doing that I will let the audience evaluate whether I was doing the right thing or not so I don't know. Okay yeah I mean the speed at which you were flicking between the targets leads me to believe that as soon as you got the confirmation that the target was down or complete or done or whatever and you were going to find the next target the speed at which you're able to move to the next target indicated to me that you were likely opening you know making sure that both eyes were opening you're looking through the optic and then past the optic with your off eye finding the target and then bringing that reticle up and on to the on to the new the new target you were about to engage. One of the pieces then that I wanted to talk a little bit more about here were the wind holdoffs the the mill grid obviously extends out as opposed to a basic mill reticle or mill dot reticle because it has the wind holds as you're going out on the horizontal plane but the wind was not all that significant on this particular day that you shot the rifle so did you find yourself using those at all or was it pretty much just using that center that center bar? I didn't use a center I didn't just use a center bar I believe there was still a little bit of wind enough to where I had a post on to the edge of the bar in order to hit because I do remember seeing the windsock flutter just just enough for me to want to to do holdoffs. So then this leads me into a final point of conversation here within the confines of the the system that we're evaluating and that is the ammunition choice so we went with the M118LR clone? Yeah it's I basically I've learned to duplicate M118LR which consisted of 43.1 grains of reloader 15 powder pushing a 175 Sierra Match King and that is the older version of the of the 118 which actually according to some sources has issues with temperature instability but we were not shooting under adverse weather conditions well at least that part of the day we had dense fog to begin with which stifled a significant amount of the day and then led us there to where we could only do that one rifle and that was it right but I did not see any issues with the ammunition it's it's a velocity and a projectile that I am eminently familiar with and know the drop very very very well I will say though some people seem to look at the SCAR and say hey it's got this really slow twist barrel and it cannot handle 175 well impact neutralized impact oh yeah I mean I think we printed these what at about an inch and a quarter or 1.3 inches for a nine shot group when we when we put these on papers a speedway course is about maximizing the areas of advantage within a given system as you see fit so under most circumstances that's the round we would want to be running in this particular instance so and I would I would add to that that if you were to see this being used in a military context the SCAR itself is not a general issued rifle it's probably somewhere you know if if you if you saw it be in the hands of a Green Beret or someone from NSW who would probably be running M118LR on that type of range so there you have the breakdown of the SCAR 17 speedway run again what I think was a very good run I think Henry you agree as well it was it would have performed as we would have anticipated the rifle to perform basically going one for one under the clock for speed all the way through up to 650 with minor hiccup corrected at the at the bonus target for a very respectable run any final thoughts just just make sure you're doing your maintenance and make sure you keep an eye on your optics and electronics on the SCAR I mean that's basically it once you do if you do that rifle will carry you through and there you have it guys until next time we'll see you on the range