SCAR Non-reciprocating Charging Handle

**RHINOWSO** · 09-21-21, 14:41

I guess I just fail to see interjecting individual accuracy issues when the thread is about the NRCH change on the SCAR.

But I know if there is a SCAR titled thread, it will attract 'Muh SCAR succked' responses from the usual suspects.

I don't even need to read certain replies, actually, because I've heard it 5+ times before. If you don't believe me, search your thread history.

**HKGuns** · 09-21-21, 15:18

Originally Posted by RHINOWSO

I guess I just fail to see interjecting individual accuracy issues when the thread is about the NRCH change on the SCAR.

But I know if there is a SCAR titled thread, it will attract 'Muh SCAR succked' responses from the usual suspects.

I don't even need to read certain replies, actually, because I've heard it 5+ times before. If you don't believe me, search your thread history.

It looks like I started the accuracy drift, when I stated the reciprocating charging handle didn't bother me as much as the accuracy.

Good news is I've never broken the stock of my SCAR17.

**SteyrAUG** · 09-21-21, 18:30

Originally Posted by RHINOWSO

I guess I just fail to see interjecting individual accuracy issues when the thread is about the NRCH change on the SCAR.

But I know if there is a SCAR titled thread, it will attract 'Muh SCAR succked' responses from the usual suspects.

I don't even need to read certain replies, actually, because I've heard it 5+ times before. If you don't believe me, search your thread history.

But is that because so many people are greatly disappointing or because they are promoting some unsupported bias?

Try this, I'm the resident HK fan. I remembered when the XM8 was gonna be the new space gun, then we got the G36. The G36 was also supposed to be the "one rifle to rule the rest" but it wasn't. The carry handle ret dot / dual dot optics were shit. On full auto the rifle was not the greatest. The accuracy was pretty much shit. Then the plastic receiver near the trunions started cracking. Basically the rifle was shit. And despite the fact that the German army dropped the G3 for the G36, the rifle was still mostly a piece of crap with a couple innovative ideas. It was the SCAR for it's time.

Now there are SCAR haters and there were G36 haters. The net was full of people who pooped on the G36 every chance they got because they loved their M4. But there were also legit critics of the G36 who evaluated the rifle objectively and lost interest.

I'm not coming here going "SCARs suck because I love my.....", I'm sharing my experiences having owned four of them. Honestly I don't know how you can defend a rifle when the first thing you have to do in order to get acceptable accuracy is to swap out the factory trigger for an aftermarket trigger. You can't say the SCAR is a great rifle EXCEPT the trigger. That is nonsense.

That's like me saying Obama was a great president except for his policy decisions.

**SteyrAUG** · 09-21-21, 18:39

Originally Posted by Defaultmp3

To be fair, some of the options are due to the fact that it had to meet requirements that were generated from a committee... including stakeholders that ended up pulling out.

That is a cause, but it doesn't make problems with the rifle acceptable, it just explains why they might exist. You won't hear me saying the G36 is the best rifle in the world BUT because of the bad decisions during development it's got crappy optics, poor accuracy and receivers that are prone to crack, but other than that it's the best rifle in the world. It's shit.

Why do we care? Because it should have been excellent but instead we got shit.

Honestly, the non reciprocating charging handle isn't even an issue, move it to the right side and it's fixed. You won't hang your thumb and if you spend a couple days with it you will learn to do the over the top charging handle trick and problem solved.

It is one of the least important issues with the SCAR rifle.

**The Dumb Gun Collector** · 09-21-21, 19:18

I'm not coming here going "SCARs suck because I love my.....", I'm sharing my experiences having owned four of them. Honestly I don't know how you can defend a rifle when the first thing you have to do in order to get acceptable accuracy is to swap out the factory trigger for an aftermarket trigger. You can't say the SCAR is a great rifle EXCEPT the trigger. That is nonsense.

The trigger is military rifle bad. It is still better than the stock trigger on a HK-91, SP-5, current production AUG, FS2000 (ok, everything is), PS90, FNC, ARX, X-95 etc. The gun is capable of excellent accuracy, but it is easier to achieve with an improved trigger. That's basically every rifle that is equipped with a military grade trigger. It took a Williams trigger for me to get the best accuracy out of my HK-91 on a consistent basis but that's just the nature of these guns.

**Defaultmp3** · 09-21-21, 19:32

Originally Posted by SteyrAUG

Honestly, the non reciprocating charging handle isn't even an issue, move it to the right side and it's fixed. You won't hang your thumb and if you spend a couple days with it you will learn to do the over the top charging handle trick and problem solved.

It is one of the least important issues with the SCAR rifle.

Depends on your use case. From a long time NSW member who was there to help test the very first SCAR iterations in 2005:

The side charging handle is a design feature that just plain pisses me off. There is no need for it, yet there it remains. As for being a "self correcting" problem, well.......it is, for those who hit their hand on it once. But there is shit in the real world that doesn't exist on the range. Shooting from underneath a car flat out sucks with the SCAR. If the handle doesn't hit the ground, the car, or your gear, you probably aren't hitting your intended target either. I semi-solved the issue by cutting it in half, and stippling it up with a soldering iron. Still, there exists a SCAR with a captured charging handle.

**SteyrAUG** · 09-21-21, 21:48

Originally Posted by Greg Bell

The trigger is military rifle bad. It is still better than the stock trigger on a HK-91, SP-5, current production AUG, FS2000 (ok, everything is), PS90, FNC, ARX, X-95 etc. The gun is capable of excellent accuracy, but it is easier to achieve with an improved trigger. That's basically every rifle that is equipped with a military grade trigger. It took a Williams trigger for me to get the best accuracy out of my HK-91 on a consistent basis but that's just the nature of these guns.

So you are close to my point. The trigger is probably better than a stock HK-91 trigger but it still won't out perform a HK-91, FAL or many older .308 designs. I find that pretty unacceptable. However, the MP5 trigger is much nicer than the SCAR or 91, it is hardly the same trigger.

The 5.56 SCAR won't even come close to an AR, but that is probably true of most piston rifles. My point being that for all of the revolutionary "improvements" it really doesn't do much other than be a lighter design due to use of polymers.

The SCAR is essentially just another attempt to get AR accuracy out of a AK/FNC/AR18 piston system. So far it seems only the Swiss have pulled it off with the 550 series. The 416 might also qualify but I have very limited trigger time with actual 416s so I can't comment.

That said, I'm not really as heavily invested in the topic as some believe. I have an opinion based on owning a few and then selling them (and that doesn't happen often) and the SCAR is but one of a series of rifles that I was excited to own but they fell short of the expectations.