SCAR 17 - Stay or Go?

Hey all -

I have a SCAR 17, to be honest I bought it mostly because of the cool guy factor. I live west of Boise (farmland, pastures, lots of wide open spaces, etc) so maybe I am justified in having a 308. Although after listening to the 556 v 308 podcast, I have been questioning that.

I enjoy shooting it, but I would enjoy shooting a well made AR15 just as much (possibly more, as there's a .20¢ difference in ammo cost).

My question to you folks with more experience is: is there any reason to keep the SCAR or should I sell it and get a KAC or Hodge?

I know the scope and general purpose of P&S is to facilitate and disseminate quality info and promote what you NEED, but honestly bro, “because I want one” is a valid reason too. I want a SCAR 17 SBR badly, just can’t afford it right now. Is it a need? No. It’s a want. Nothing wrong with that.
 

BooneGA

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I know the scope and general purpose of P&S is to facilitate and disseminate quality info and promote what you NEED, but honestly bro, “because I want one” is a valid reason too. I want a SCAR 17 SBR badly, just can’t afford it right now. Is it a need? No. It’s a want. Nothing wrong with that.

I have absolutely no need for a 13" SCAR. But the stamp should be in any day now...
 
OP, do you own an AR now? After reading through the thread, I’m lead to believe all you have is a scar and a g19. If that’s the case I would seriously look into getting a 556 AR.
 

Low_Speed_Notper8or

Regular Member
Has OP thought about doing a AR with two dedicated Uppers?

For just a general purpose ranch rifle a 14.5 5.56 upper with a carbon fiber hand guard and Red Dot+Magnifier would be pretty good, and then get a .224 valkyrie dedicated precision upper with a 1-8x

But here is my question to OP, why do you want a .308 and what do you want to do? What a .308 gets you is greater muzzle energy and greater energy retention downrange and may be able to buck wind a bit. Besides that, the Small Caliber High velocity bullets have less drop, less recoil, greater capacity lighter ammo, and may actually be more lethal out to certain distances then .308 with heavy bullet construction.

Does the need to have better downrange energy(but not necessarily lethality) outweigh the downsides of having a bigger, heavier, harder to shoot round? If your shooting an animal at 400 yards, or in some extreme situation a person do you just need a hit or do you need to have more performance at that distance and is it worth the trade off?

I also question weather shooting 400-600 yards in a self defense situation, or in an extreme situation if you, single dudebro with a rifle of any caliber its tactically sound to do so.
 

Ryan St.Jean

Regular Member
Has OP thought about doing a AR with two dedicated Uppers?

For just a general purpose ranch rifle a 14.5 5.56 upper with a carbon fiber hand guard and Red Dot+Magnifier would be pretty good, and then get a .224 valkyrie dedicated precision upper with a 1-8x

I have never gotten the idea of "two dedicated uppers" idea unless we are talking about an SBR or a full auto lower I can't see why you would have two uppers without getting a second lower to make a complete rifle. Somewhere around 70% of the cost of the rifle is in the upper, even more if an optic is involved. It is like having two trucks and one set of wheels.
 
So for an update, I ended up selling the SCAR and got a Colt. Older model, it was cheap. $675

It's a Colt 6921. Heavy barrel, 1/9 twist. Added a GG&G SLiC Thing Sling And Light Combo Mount and an X300U. I figure I'll shoot the crap out of it, and sometime down the road upgrade to a Hodge.

Well after selling that SCAR you should have enough left over to backorder a Hodge. Why wait? Seriously.
 
I might've, but all the stores I found didn't have the option of a backorder.

I was also thinking my skills might not warrant such a gucci-AR. Perhaps like giving a kid who just took off the training wheels a Colnago road bike when what he really needs a single speed hybrid bike.
 

Low_Speed_Notper8or

Regular Member
So for an update, I ended up selling the SCAR and got a Colt. Older model, it was cheap. $675

It's a Colt 6921. Heavy barrel, 1/9 twist. Added a GG&G SLiC Thing Sling And Light Combo Mount and an X300U. I figure I'll shoot the crap out of it, and sometime down the road upgrade to a Hodge.
Why the heavy barrel though? With modern barrel manufacturing, unless you are going to be shooting on full auto or having exceptionally long strings of precision rifle fire pencil and lightweight barrels work great
 
Why the heavy barrel though? With modern barrel manufacturing, unless you are going to be shooting on full auto or having exceptionally long strings of precision rifle fire pencil and lightweight barrels work great

It was cheaper than the others I was looking at. I figured I would shoot it until it's junk then replace the barrel with the 14.5" SOCOM or go with a Hodge if they're available.
 

Low_Speed_Notper8or

Regular Member
It was cheaper than the others I was looking at. I figured I would shoot it until it's junk then replace the barrel with the 14.5" SOCOM or go with a Hodge if they're available.
Why would you want a Socom barrel? They made those barrels heavier then the standard m4 profile but also with flats to mount a grenade launcher for SF dudes who are doing stuff like dumping a combat load of magazines covering an extraction or assaulting something or some other kind of spoopy high speed stuff?

Are you gonna be firing full auto or mounting a grenade launcher? If not then why have a heavier barrel and a gun that is weighted more towards the front.


Check this video (and frankly the series) if you get a spare moment. Its from the guys at InRange TV (Ian and Karl) and one of the guys from Faxon going into a deep dive on the manufacturing and use of barrels

 
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