The FN SCAR 16 is the 5.56×45 version of the SCAR platform, and it certainly has been catching the eyes of militaries around the world. While no major military has committed to adopting it yet, it is in limited use by many different armed forces. So what’s under all the aluminum?

Transcript …

– [Voiceover] Hey guys it’s Alex C with TFBTV and for today’s field strip we’re going to take a look at an FN SCAR 16S, the civilian version of the FN SCAR 16, which is a select fire assault rifle.

As a semi-automatic only rifle this a title one rifle in the United States and can be purchased new pretty much from any store in a state where they are legal.

There’s a lot of states that have restrictions on these kind of firearms but, these are very cool rifles, let’s go ahead and get to it though.

The first thing I always do is check the chamber, make sure it’s empty, remove the magazine, all that kind of good stuff.

After you do that let’s go ahead and get on with the field strip which involves pushing out this take down pin, which is captive, and pushing the lower receiver forward.

Notice the fire control grip looks a lot like that found on an FN FNC.

Now this part’s actually kinda cool.

You see this pin here that looks like it does nothing and then it looks like it was ground off as well as part of the magazine well.

That’s actually a very crafty way that these were imported.

Our import laws in the United States are very goofy.

FN USA and the FN subsidiaries figured out that this way they’re legal to bring in.

Which is kinda cool, just wanted to highlight that real quick.

So at this point, go ahead and pull the stock down.

It looks a lot like your girlfriends UGG boot.

It is adjustable and it has a risable, er a cheek riser built in, which is a nice feature.

So pull the charging handle a bit to the rear and pull out the buffer plate, which again is a lot like the FNC’s.

Pull the charging handle out and the bullet carrier group comes out from the rear.

To take this part down…

go ahead and remove the recoil spring and guide rod.

Use the charging handle to poke out the firing-pin retaining pin.

Pull that all the way out and remove the firing pin from the rear.

Go ahead and rotate and pull out the cam pin and the bolt as well.

Now remove the gas plug and the gas piston.

Press down on this little detent plunger, rotate it…

and pull out.

This one is pretty firm in there, I have not cleaned it in a very long time.

These guns are extremely reliable and you can probably get by with never actually doing this, but I’m not that neglectful of my firearms.

I generally use a cleaning rod to go ahead and poke out the piston as well.

So there you go, a fully field stripped SCAR 16S.

These are very promising rifles, they’ve generated a lot of interest by a lot of different militaries including the US military, although it doesn’t look like we’re gonna go that direction.

Other nations considering them were the French, the Italians and several others.

I can’t name all of them off the top of my head, but they’re certainly reliable.

However the issue is they’re expensive and they don’t offer a lot more than an M-16 does.

And it’s just hard to justify adopting a new rifle that’s expensive.

Especially with military budgets getting slashed everywhere these days.

The Cold War’s over it doesn’t seem like a lot of people have gotten that memo.

Anyways big thanks to Ventura Munitions for helping us out with the cost of ammo.

Special thank you to you for watching as well, hope to see you next week.