The boys from Snatch review the Classic Army SCAR.
– Why are we reviewing the SCAR Turkish? What’s wrong with your current AEG?
– Oh nothing Tommy, its tip top…I’m just not sure about the colour…
Oh, how the worm has turned.
Classic Army were once the pariah of airsoft. Their guns were plagued with unreliability and their reputation was a joke.
The latest generation of CA guns have been, well, something special. Powerful, specialist and much much more reliable. Not as reliable as Tokyo Marui’s guns, but much higher in spec. This change started with the amazing CQB, which very quickly became considered as the best “off the shelf” gun in the world. Sure some of them had problems, especially with the piston head, but CA were listening closely and the next generation on from that “classic” aeg has arrived. Kieran bought the first one; the Kitty Kat ‘alike SEAL CQB, a M4 made into the smallest form possible with a stock. He has been playing with it every week and loves the solid reliability.
CA then set to work on something very special indeed; the SCAR.
– My God, Tommy. What have you been reading? Fuck me. Hold tight. What’s that?
– It’s me Multicam.
– No, Tommy. There’s an AEG in your gunbag.
– It’s for protection.
– Protection from what? “Zee” Darkangels? Where did you get it?
– Boris The Blade.
– Boris The Blade, or Boris The Bullet-Dodger. Bent as the Soviet sickle and hard as the hammer that crosses it. Apparently, it’s just impossible to kill the bastard.
WIKIPEDIA:
SOF Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, is a modular rifle made by Fabrique Nationale (FN) for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to satisfy the requirements of the SCAR competition.
…The SCAR features an integral, uninterrupted Picatinny rails on the top of the aluminium receiver, two removable side rails and a bottom one that can mount any MIL-STD-1913 compliant accessories. The original SCAR prototypes used the same Pistol grip and lower receiver design as the FN FNC.
Stats.
– Tyrone’ll drive for us. He’s done a rally driving course.
– Of course I have
– You said he was a getaway driver. What the fuck can he get away from?
– Don’t worry about Tyrone. He can move when he has to. Worry about getting us a gun. What’s that?
– This is a SCAR, Sol.
– It’s a fucking anti-aircraft gun, Vincent.
– I want to raise pulses, don’t I?
– You’ll raise hell, never mind pulses.
My SCAR Loadout:
Basic stats are excellent,
- Unique Serial Number
- Metal Charging Handle
- 7mm Metal Bearing Gear Box
- Hi-Cap Magazine (300 Rd)
- Metal Flip up Front & Rear Sight
- CNC made Metal Upper Receiver
- Up to 9.6V Mini Type Battery can be used
- Fibre Lower Receiver & Retractable Folding Stock
- Magazine Released Catch can function in both sides of receiver
- Bearing Spring Guide, Bearing Piston Head, Sealed Nozzle & Cylinder
- Motor without screw type
Indeed the SCAR is very much Flavour of the month and raises both hell and pulses. Computer games like Ghost Recon have made the SCAR an almost perquisite for the ultra-SAS style lead-out. Lets have a look at some of the guns design features and how they add to a players capabilities in battle.
The Good.
– The fact that you’ve got “Replica” written on the side of your gun…and the fact that I’ve got “SCAR”…written on the side of mine…should precipitate…your balls into shrinking, along with your presence.
The gun is a proper rifle. Longer than perhaps you would expect, it is suitable for almost all ranges.
The folding stock obviously improves CQB performance and the multiple rails are a geardo’s best friend. The folding action is excellent and very easy to do even in midst of battle. The stock locks in the folded position but unlike the LR300, you can easily un-fold the stock. So quick changing as you move in and out of positions is simple and effective. I would say that it is almost identical to the G36 action. The cheek pad also moves but I personally think this is a gimmick rather and something that will make any difference at airsoft ranges.
Folded stock:
The upper part of the body is a solid single piece of metal, which gives the gun fantastic twist resistance and far exceeds a TM even with a body upgrade.
Nice trades:
The iron sights fold down for when using a red dot and this is a great feature if, like me, you change your red dot often. The selector switch is on both sides, making the gun lefty friendly, which is nice in CQB where even as a right hander you will be swapping shoulders all the time.
– Heavy, isn’t it?
– Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable. If it doesn’t work, you can always hit him with it.
Weight is in the middle, when the battery is in, but the gun is heavy for sure. I can still effectively single hand it, but smaller players will struggle.
It comes with all the clips needed to properly sling the piece and I have attached it to my Chalker with no problems.
In use, with the standard battery, its range is stock CA. Nothing special and at Longmoor I definitely had to ‘aim up’. But for Electrowekz ranges, the gun performs very well indeed. It is very accurate and all my BB’s are landing in a very tight circle. I have no problems at all in picking off a hanging chain 9 out of 10 times at 35ft. My SCAR ROF is fast and the gearbox sounds great. The gearbox includes a Teflon type cylinder as well as an aluminium piston head and spring guide with bearing.
FPS was measured as 310 straight (.2BB’s) . This is very nice indeed and I was very glad that the gun was not too hot for CQB.
The body comes apart with ease, only a few pins to remove and the whole breaks down into 3 main parts.
Upgrades are already out and CA have started selling a 10volt upgrade kit! This obviously means that the gears are made of stern stuff. The motor is a high torque so upgrading the spring is possible too.
CA SCAR Enlarge Stock (Tan) With 10.8v 1700mah Battery
ROF is good, but not amazing. Say around 800 a minute.
The stock 1700 8.4v battery lasted me 6 hours of combat. Now, I am not the most trigger happy of people and never fire in sustained mode. However, I do think that even with the small, it was very good.
The Bad.
– Do you know what Nemesis means? A righteous retribution as delivered by an appropriate agent. In this case an aeg; the SCAR.
So far so normal for a SCAR review. Lots of goodies and things to get you excited. However, this gun is not without its problems.
Firstly, the paint. Now I have a multicam loadout and the SCAR’s tan paint job fitted the bill. However, the paint on the upper part of the body come off very very quickly. My SCAR is strewn with scratches through the paint and I haven’t dropped it or stored it in any rough way. It is all through normal play where the gun swings against my rig. Very disappointing.
Secondly, accessing the battery is a nightmare. You have to fold the stock, use an allen key to undo and loosen the bolt. Then the stock slides out. Often it just falls out and the battery hangs by its wires, which cant be good for them. Finally you have to reverse all this to attach it back! In combat battery changes are effectively impossible.
Folded stock, getting to the battery:
Now, there is a way around this, but it is a mod in effect. Basically there is a small screw holding the stock to the bolt that the allen key attaches too. You can remove this and thus the entire stock will slide off if you pull the stock position back far enough. An answer, yes, but not a very satisfying one.
Thirdly, the rails are fixed using an allen key size that I couldn’t find in 4 different sets. This includes my US set, my leatherman, my bike set and all my random scope keys. This means that I simply cannot remove a rail form the side. Possibly not an issue for you, but for me; trying to attach a guncam, it was a bar’steward.
Finally, the rail is very low to the top of the gun. So low in fact that with a full face mask on you can hardly use it. I have had to buy a M4 scope riser.
ATN Holosight:
Results.
– Good dags. Do you like dags?
– Dags? What?
– Yeah, dags. Dags. You like dags?
– Oh, dogs. Sure, I like dags. I like SCAR’s better.
I like the SCAR. It is by far the best built stock gun I have ever used. Envious looks follow it around the battlefield (if that is your bag) and hit newbs will surround you in battle (it that is your bag). Its battery life is fine, its range is good, its power is heavy, its stock folds, it takes every type of extra.
However, most new style M4’s have all of this. So what are you getting?
Your’re getting the little details that make this gun special. The small touches that show a gun that has been designed to replace the M4. It has out of the box features that you would expect to be on an M4, but actually aren’t.
I love mine.
The DAs tool up:
Here is a movie of the gun in use at Longmoor. It is take from the point of view of a camera attached to the gun, but you can clearly see the ROF and accuracy.
Regards,
Basho
