FNH USA has announced a new semi-auto variant of the M249 series that will be available this fall.

James got to take the new semi-auto M249S for a spin at SHOT Show’s Industry Day at the range.

TFB writer Rusty S. previously broke this story as follows:

“This morning I headed over to the FNH USA booth at the NRA show to get some exciting details about the new M249S and FN15 military collector’s series. FN is planning on having the 1st 200 models of the M249S to be a “collector’s series”. Said models will ship in a hard case with a 200 round hard box magazine with links, FN15 magazine, and spare barrel, along with a certificate. Standard production models will ship with the 200 round box and links. The expected MSRP will be between $7,000-$7,500 for the standard production models. Not too bad for a belt-fed! They were able to keep the cost low due to the fact that it uses so many original SAW components that they already have in production. Pricing TBD on the collector’s series. The guns will take all original accessories for the M249, including stocks, forends, etc. The model itself looks outwardly like the M249 PIP version, with the fixed plastic stock andhandguard on top of the barrel. It will weigh roughly 17 lbs. The model on display was the one fired in their promotional video. With a 4.5-6lb trigger, I’m sure one could get this thing to run pretty fast! ”