FNH, POF AR's, looking for first hand ownership experience...any good?

[fatdog]

I know about Colt, BCM, DD, LWRC, Noveske mostly being good to go AR rifle makers.

I have zero information (other than the ebb and flow of highly questionable internet wisdom) or first hand experience with either the FN or POF made AR's. I know FN has a DoD contract but that doesn't necessarily tell me the QA is the same on the rifles they push out the door to civilians.

My question to those who own, have owned, or have been issued one of these rifles, are they first tier? (please no more hearsay, or I now a guy/gal who had one....the internet is full of those opinions, I only trust this forum and those with real hands on)

thanks

[rcbusmc24]

I have personal experience with both brands, I currently own a FN 20 inch rifle set up as a A4 clone of one of my service rifles and have been issued multiple different FN's as well, I have also shot plenty of the current FN Ar15's on the civ side as well. I have personally experienced zero issues with these rifles, and trust the one I own as much as I do my BCM's, LMT's , KAC and Colt Ar's I also have in the safes...

I had a POF AR back in the day, During the Piston Craze era....., along with a LWRC as well, For a long time I believed the hype.... Now I do not have any piston AR's.... While I never had any particular issues with the POF rifle that I had, I no longer have it, I think that the aforementioned brands above are much more suitable for my purposes and I also did not want to have to worry about proprietary parts for the POF piston system....

Bottom line, today I would happily buy a FN AR15 Rifle with full faith and confidence if I needed another rifle, I personally would not purchase another POF. I am not sure if I believe in the tier system any longer for AR rifles, shit seems to change so much as brands come and go that I feel it has lost value as a descriptor.... But my FN is every bit the rifle my Colt 6920's, LMT Defender 2000's and BCM's are, my Knights guns are supposedly better......and much more money, I don't shoot them any better that the others though so.....

[Default.mp3]

@TomV may have some insights. Steve Fisher is quite fond of FN ARs, FWIW.

[fatdog]

Thank you, that is most helpful.

I have more faith in impingement, but I like having a piston around just to play with my registered can and not get so much gas in the face, the ones I have tried all broke on me (Adams, CMMG, Osprey) at some point. I should probably give up the idea if I am not getting an HK upper.

I will mention that I am asking about these two because the long predicted/expected "distressed sellers" have started showing up on my doorstep already. This FN carbine was probably fired 100 rounds or so before the owner put it in the safe.

[Suvorov]

Thank you, that is most helpful.

I have more faith in impingement, but I like having a piston around just to play with my registered can and not get so much gas in the face, the ones I have tried all broke on me (Adams, CMMG, Osprey) at some point. I should probably give up the idea if I am not getting an HK upper.

While not on your list here, I’ve been quite happy with the performance and reliability I’ve got from my Sig 516 and my PWS MK216. I’d definitely recommend either system to anyone wanting to go down the piston rabbit hole (again).

As for FN rifle - the only one I ever have used was a brand new A2 that was issued to me as a brand new 2LT. It was a thing of beauty! I recall a recent thread here on PF where someone claimed that FN builds civilian rifles to a different standard than their contract gun. Don’t know as it is far beyond my knowledge but I’d weigh rcbusmc24’s experience pretty heavily.

[fatdog]

Well, I bought the "distressed" buyer's FN 15, it is a 14.5" BBL with a pinned and welded A2 type flash hider to make it a title I firearm, and midlength gas. I have been sorta gentle to it but have 600+ rounds down range and it has been flawless. It has a nice small diameter free float MLok forend, this gun is called an FN15 SRP Tactical

I am starting to question the factory spec sheet/web description claim of "Mid-length gas system, low profile gas block pinned to barrel" because it looks to me as it is the typical low profile gas block with the set screws and I see no evidence of real pinning. I was able to easily detect the flash hider pinning but I see no evidence of real gas block pinning as I think of it.

I dropped an aimpoint ML/2 4 moa red dot on this thing because I did not have an available LPVO sitting around. But the accuracy has been most impressive for a 1/7 14.5 free float government profile barrel based on me shooting the 2" dots at 100 yards.

I went to the club and absolutely wailed on a reduced size B/C and an 8" circle piece of steel, both at 275 yards with out any magnification. That is most impressive to me since I can barely see the damn thing. For our USPSA full size target (steel target) at 200 yards I easily went 90 for 90 heating up the barrel over a 5-6 minute run.

All of which to say, FN is making nice barrels (no surprise) and this was a solid AR in the early testing. I guess time will tell on the whole rifle, but I like this package. I may have that gas block pinned, but the castle nut and gas block on the bolt were properly staked. The generic GI furniture it came with was yanked for Magpul replacements.

All the AR15 rifles I had built myself since 2004, over a dozen, all worked well but were not factory rifles.

About 10-12 years ago, I sold my factory pre-ban large front pivot pin Colts to brothers "behind the lines" in places like NY or CT where only pre-ban rifles were allowed.

So that lead me to settle for DPMS or Bushmaster or RRA lowers and mixmaster uppers I built.

But in the last year, I think of it as my "flight to quality" just as you would invest in blue chip stocks, I sold off the DPMS/Bushmaster/Anderson/PSA/RRA based rifles. All of the AR class rifles remaining are factory Colt, 6920, 6720, but I think this FN is on its way to earning admission to the quality factory AR club....time and rounds down range will tell the story.