Gus, you have not complied with any of the rules and stickies, we have no idea who you are.

Please fix this by COB Sunday.

TR

So I have a tendency to buy a civilian example of what ever the team gets issued to it (92f, M4 clone, rem700 with Mk4, etc) being a guard guy the range time is not nearly enough.

So once the Mk 17 Scar-H got to the cage, I went and bought a one (scar 17S). I saw no reason to ever buy a Mk-16 Scar L until we universally switched over and dropped all M4's.

The things I instantly noticed have already been elaborated on extensively ( charging handle, etc) and I will not go to far into those.

There was two things that really bothered the shit out of me. The lower being polymer and the magazines.

The magazine is a rather expensive and fragile item. I have dropped them on concrete a few times and they lose structural integrity pretty quickly. I seen them dropped as few as 7 times and exploded. Retail on these has always hovered in the $65-75 range. The KAC m110 mag and the 308 PMAG are so much better items

The polymer lower is far and away the weak spot of the whole system IMO. They flex, twist, deform and break with extensive use. I have pulled a lower off of a mk17 and when laid on a flat surface the twist in lower was painfully obvious. It was like a bad table that would wobble because of uneven contact surfaces. I figured that it was a matter of time and abuse before my civilian SCAR suffered the same fate.

I wished some one would make a billet lower that would accept standard magazines. God was obviously listening, because I went to NTOA and came across the solution.

A company called Handl Defense was there and they have a billet aluminum lower that accepts KAC and Pmags. I bought one and love it. I've used it in 3-gun and tac rifle matches and not a single issue. They fit tight as a drum and use all the same parts. IMO we should get these on the Mk17, there is a difference between the civilian lower and mk17 lower they said and they are making them.

I am new around here, so I don't know if dropping a plug for a product is cool or not, but I do really like it. Both the Lower and the SCAR.

The SCAR is just like the M16 in 1964, it needs some things looked at and changed. But I think the SCAR has so much potential.

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGfctIli6A

its an aftermarket metal lower for the scar .... maybe we can get a few?

Well

I just figured I'd come back here and let you guys know what has transpired over the last few months.

I contacted the company that made this aluminum lower for the civilian SCAR 17S

After chatting them up I found they had an extensive program to improve the Mk17..since they are local... I stopped by

the SR25 magazine patterned lower that MAGPUL was OEMing the 25 round 7.62 mags to and it is made of a different alloy harder than 7075 aluminum ...I watched them hang 275 lbs off of it

a new buttstock hinge .. they figured out why they were breaking

a new forerail assembly that didnt cause 2nd degree burns, passed the cookoff tests in spec sheet with flying colors, and it adds more rail space

they also are looking at making the gun into some sort of LMG as well

with all of this I figured the project lead at the J8 would be ecstatic

so I showed these guys how to submit to the SORDAC

of course not intrested... I guess we are going a new direction

but since I am a guard guy now... I guess we'll have SCARs until I retire...

We have several MK-17's assigned to the team. We carry a mixture of MK-17 (short), M4 (10''), M240 and M249, all suppressed except the 240. Most of the time we drop the 240 and just carry the 249. We put the 6x ELCANs with a doctor sight on the SCARs and use them for a long range fires capability when we don't have a dedicated sniper system / SO position for the mission. We can consistently hit out to 1k meters with them, although you're lobbing that round in there at that range. The ELCAN also gives us good PID capability that the EOTECHs on the M4's can't provide. From my perspective, here is rundown on the SCAR:

Advantages:
-Longer range due to combo of 7.62 and optic
-Heavier stopping / destructive power

Disadvantages:
-Ammo capacity
-With suppressor, its pretty long, even with the short barrels
-Ergonomics different from M4-style weapons (re-training IADs)
-Heavier weight requirement with basic load

Bottom line: I think they have their place, but we wouldn't want to give up all our M4's for them.

What can on the 17's?
 

What can are you guys using on the 17's? I have my preference, but mine isn't seeing the type of use that yours is.

Mike