FS2000

[Shihan]

I like it (of course). It ran very well through a Pat Rogers Carbine class.

I actually like the balance since it puts a lot of the weight between your strong arm and your body as opposed to being front heavy. I find that it feels more comfortable to shoot weekhanded than any other longarm. I especially like its compactness.

Below is a comparison of the FS2000 with my AR15 with the stock collapsed.



And next to the Carbine with the Stock extended and my FN FAL

I thought I recognized the pics and went hunting through my back issues of SWAT and guess what I found?
BTW nice article that you wrote.

[Ed L.]

Thanks, Shihan. I know that my back fence is famous.

I find it amazing that as soon as you mention certain non-AR-15 guns, some people feel obliged to chime in with reasons why "it's not as good as an AR-15, blah, blah, blah."

I'm wondering if it ever occured to them that I am aware of the FS2000s pros & cons vis-a-vis with the AR-15; because as you can see in the picture, I have an AR.

As I said, I really like the FS2000's compactness and balance. It hit me as soon as I picked one up long before I ever thought of buying one. It gives me a gun with the ballistics of a 17.5" barrel with a 29" overall length. Due to its balance, I personally find it easier and more comfortable to shoot weakhanded than any other longarm--thus I find it shoots more accurately than other guns in this manner. I've even found that I can shoot the FS2000 fairly accurate offhand from the shoulder using just one arm--to the point where I can keep all my rounds on a man sized silhouette at 50 yards. These are my views and experiences. I am not saying that everyone needs to run out and replace their AR--far from it. Besides, I just picked up a 6920 myself.

As far as being able to buy an AR-15 and an M1A for the $2k that I paid for the FS2000, I don't think so. And you are certainly not going to be able to buy quality ones--more likely a parts gun similar to the parts guns I saw in the Pat Rogers class that were malfunctioning every few magazines while my FS2000 had two malfunctions in the entire 3 day class/1500 round class.

[Shihan]

Thanks, Shihan. I know that my back fence is famous.

I find it amazing that as soon as you mention certain non-AR-15 guns, some people feel obliged to chime in with reasons why "it's not as good as an AR-15, blah, blah, blah."

I'm wondering if it ever occured to them that I am aware of the FS2000s pros & cons vis-a-vis with the AR-15; because as you can see in the picture, I have an AR.

As I said, I really like the FS2000's compactness and balance. It hit me as soon as I picked one up long before I ever thought of buying one. It gives me a gun with the ballistics of a 17.5" barrel with a 29" overall length. Due to its balance, I personally find it easier and more comfortable to shoot weakhanded than any other longarm--thus I find it shoots more accurately than other guns in this manner. I've even found that I can shoot the FS2000 fairly accurate offhand from the shoulder using just one arm--to the point where I can keep all my rounds on a man sized silhouette at 50 yards. These are my views and experiences. I am not saying that everyone needs to run out and replace their AR--far from it. Besides, I just picked up a 6920 myself.

As far as being able to buy an AR-15 and an M1A for the $2k that I paid for the FS2000, I don't think so. And you are certainly not going to be able to buy quality ones--more likely a parts gun similar to the parts guns I saw in the Pat Rogers class that were malfunctioning every few magazines while my FS2000 had two malfunctions in the entire 3 day class/1500 round class.

You are 100% about the "You dont need that and should stick with this" stuff. Its always nice to have something different as long as its a viable option.

I saw the pics of you shooting one handed and it looked more natural than one would expect.

What were the 3 malfs you had in the class?

[Ed L.]

The guy shooting one-handed was not me, but an SF candidate who was on leave who volunteered to be one of my testfirers.

I had two malfunctions in the class. Once was a self caused by riding the charging handle forward when loading the gun so that the bolt did not close all the way. When I pulled the charging handle back and released it, I got a double feed.

The second was during a course of fire when it failed to extract a round and I got a double feed. The casing would not come off the bolt face. I had to pop the upper and lower apart (which took a second) and peel the casing off the bolt face /extractor manually. I have seen this type of wierd malfunction happen with an AR and you have to peel the casing off the boltface--it generally takes a tool to remove it.

I was shooting XM193, which Pat had advised us was going downhill in quality. Even though it is rejected ammo, the problems that it comes with seems to have gotten worse.

[TOrrock]

I seriously considered getting one of these when they fist came out.

I'm a sucker for FN stuff, and I like the concept an ambi dextrous bull pup.

I'm also not wedded to the AR platform.

I have heard it's difficult to clear stoppages, and I've heard that the new rifles don't necessarily like milspec ammo with harder primers.

I'm still keeping an open mind.

[Shihan]

I seriously considered getting one of these when they fist came out.

I'm a sucker for FN stuff, and I like the concept an ambi dextrous bull pup.

I'm also not wedded to the AR platform.

I have heard it's difficult to clear stoppages, and I've heard that the new rifles don't necessarily like milspec ammo with harder primers.

I'm still keeping an open mind.

I love FN stuff as well.

If they dont like milspec ammo thats a killer for me.

I dont remember as its been awhile since I handled one does the brass eject like the PS90?

[TOrrock]

The FN 2000 ejects the brass out the front, on the right hand side, through a tube. The cases get built up in there and then start to fall out.

If you're at all familiar with a Maxim machine gun, it's a little like that, as they are pushed out the front.

Apparently, when they first came out, they had a firing pin designed around military ammo and guys were getting some slamfires with soft commercial ammo. FN's response was to put an o-ring or sleave (not 100% on this) around the pin and use an extra heavy firing pin spring.

So now they're just fine with commercial ammo but may have an issue setting hard military primers off. From what I hear, FN is working on something somewhere in between now and it will be an upgrade if your rifle needs it. I've also heard people snipping off a coil or two from the ultra heavy firing pin spring and that is taking care of their issue.

I don't have one, this is second or third hand info but I believe it to be pretty spot on.

[Ed L.]

No problem with Milspec ammo.

The problem came with the first few hundred causing some *ahem* slamfires with commercial primers--in other words *some* guns *might* fire a round with a trigger pull, eject the case, and upon chambering another round fire it also. This only *might* have happened with *some* brands of commercial ammo.

FNHUSA issued a recall and replaced the firing pin with a lighter weight one and surrounded it with a captive spring. This was overkill and it caused some failures to detonate with some milsurp ammo.

Luckily the captive spring is easy to pull off. I did this with mine and have fired several thousand rounds of mixed milsurp through the gun without a single problem, other than dud radway green which also caused some failure to detonates in my AR.

So as long as you remove the captive spring from around the firing pin you will be good to go.

[Shihan]

The FN 2000 ejects the brass out the front, on the right hand side, through a tube. The cases get built up in there and then start to fall out.

If you're at all familiar with a Maxim machine gun, it's a little like that, as they are pushed out the front.

Apparently, when they first came out, they had a firing pin designed around military ammo and guys were getting some slamfires with soft commercial ammo. FN's response was to put an o-ring or sleave (not 100% on this) around the pin and use an extra heavy firing pin spring.

So now they're just fine with commercial ammo but may have an issue setting hard military primers off. From what I hear, FN is working on something somewhere in between now and it will be an upgrade if your rifle needs it. I've also heard people snipping off a coil or two from the ultra heavy firing pin spring and that is taking care of their issue.

I don't have one, this is second or third hand info but I believe it to be pretty spot on.

Thanks for the info, I will pass on it and wait for the SCAR and Masada.

[Ed L.]

So now they're just fine with commercial ammo but may have an issue setting hard military primers off. From what I hear, FN is working on something somewhere in between now and it will be an upgrade if your rifle needs it. I've also heard people snipping off a coil or two from the ultra heavy firing pin spring and that is taking care of their issue.

As I said, just pull off the captive spring from around the firing pin and the gun will function 100% with mil spec ammo. I'm not sure how many thousands of rounds of various mil spec ammo I have through my gun without a problem.

The original article came out before FN replaced the firing pin with the lighter weight one and the captive spring, so the issue wasn't addressed in the article.