Let me start this review by telling you what this gun is. It is a semi-automatic bullpup rifle chambered in 5.56 NATO. The barrel is 18.5" (including permanent flash hider) and weighs 7.5 pounds. Bullpup means basically that it feeds from behind the trigger. The advantages to this is that it shortens the weapon dramatically by removing all wasted non-working space from the rifle, allowing a longer barrel at the cost of more difficult magazine changes, more moving parts, and normally a stiffer trigger. This rifle is equipped with a Trijicon TX30 Tripower sight and factory back up iron sights (BUIS). This rifle is gas operated via a piston. It is fully ambidextrous: shells eject forward, safety and magazine release can be manipulated with either hand. The monstrous magazine well means that it will only accept 30 round STANAG magazines. There are a few reports of Magpul E-Mags (NOT P-Mags) working, but I cannot confirm that.

*EDIT- I also found that 20 round "Vietnam Era" magazines work just barely. (official term?)

Accuracy: This has to be the most accurate assault type rifle I have ever shot. Today was the first time I've really been able to put some rounds through it. I was shooting at 50 yards with my dot sight, and this thing will literally put three rounds into one ragged hole. I have not tested it at 100 yards yet, but I am supposing it will do around 1.5" groups given that it had a scope with me shooting it. I did some 10 shot groups at 50' and was keeping all 10 in about a 2 inch circle. This is really good considering I was just goofing around. This rifle also handles great due to the fact that it is a bullpup. The balance point is DIRECTLY on the pistol grip. It is so easy to maneuver that it will blow your mind. The sight height measured off of the bore is 2.5" for the BUIS and 2.75" for my dot sight. This means that it will shoot very similar to an AR15 when zeroed at the same range. This aids in changing weapons systems and not having to totally relearn where to aim at different ranges (this is all explained in my "concept of zeroing" page.). Also, I can see through my dot sight and the iron sights at the same time. That way if my dot sight fails me I can instantly start aiming through the irons, just in case.

Operation: One downside to this rifle is that is does not lock open upon running out of shells. If you are empty you will not know it unless you counted all 30 rounds or it goes "click" when you pull the trigger. If you are in a combat situation you shouldn't have a near empty magazine anyways, but still a hold-open feature would be nice.
. This rifle has a dust seal that holds the magazine when you hit the release button. There is some controversy whether the seal is needed or not, and many say that if you take the seal out your magazine changes will be faster. I figure if FN put it there then I will just leave it there. The magazines do not drop free, you have to pull them out. But, I am OK with that because I don't like my magazines dropping on the floor anyways.


In the picture below you will see how the rounds eject. They are fed into the pictured tube and directed to the front of the weapon. This is nice because if someone is shooting to the side of you, they will not be pelted with hot brass. (I still have scars on my neck from hot brass...)


Below is the actual ejection port. It has a dust cover that can be closed. When the cover is closed, the first five rounds you shoot will be stored inside of the gun. After firing the sixth round, all brass will come flying out the front at once. It's kind of neat when it happens :)


In this picture, the door is opened so you can view the chamber. This is vital, so that if you aren't sure if the gun is loaded or not you can pull back the charging handle a little bit and look to see. NEVER assume that the chamber is clear.



How does it shoot? Here is a picture of a target from 50 meters, 10 shot group, with dot sight and completely messing around.

There is a lot of potential for accuracy here. You can see where I pulled two of the shots, but other than that the grouping is very tight for this type of rifle with given optics.

So, the down and dirty:

PROS: Handles great, accurate, lightweight, lot of rail space for optics, factory BUIS, VERY easy to clean, easy to tear down to the major parts, brilliant engineering, sight height comparable to AR15, fully ambidextrous, balanced perfectly, adjustable gas system, made by one of the best rifle mfg. companies in the world

CONS: Lots of moving parts, extremely complicated, magazine changes take some getting used to, permanent flash hider (pinned with weird left hand threads), extremely difficult to FULLY disassemble, only takes STANAG magazines, incredibly expensive, trigger needs adjustment

So, the bottom line is that I absolutely love this gun. Do note that this is not a gun for beginners. In fact this gun could have a negligent discharge VERY easily with a new shooter due to the fact that you can't see the chamber unless you open the inspection door. To take this gun fully apart you dang near need to be an armorer, but luckily you can do all basic maintenance with the gun tore down just to the major sections. I am an FN fan for life, and this is my new favorite gun of all time. It just feels SO GOOD to line up a shot, so EASY! The first time you shoulder one of these you will fall in love too.
This is rated in two parts:
FOR A BEGINNER SHOOTER:
X X X

FOR AN EXPERIENCED SHOOTER:




Here are the teardown instructions: (clear first obviously)

1. Pull charging handle back to c0ck the hammer (stupid Wetpaint edits out ****)



2. Pop the receiver retaining pin out



3. Slide upper receiver off of lower receiver



4. Slide bolt/piston assembly out front of weapon



5. Slide buttpad up and off of weapon



6. Pull trigger pack out.


That's it for basic teardown. For cleaning this is as far as you will need to go. To FULLY tear this rifle down would take an extremely long time. I would only do a FULL teardown once every few months to clean in the nooks and crannies.

Thank you for reading! I recommend my trigger mod, but remember your warranty will be VOID.

Also FN is now selling their Tri-Rail for the FS2000: