Love my Scar17, much better rifle than my m1a. I figure people are selling them because it’s an expensive rifle and they got in a little deep, plus you can get close to what you paid new for a good used one. The cost of shooting .308 might be a factor too.
I might consider selling my m1a, but never my scar17 unless I was starving to death.
Surplus .308 that doesn’t suck seems increasingly hard to find and new manufacture .308 is fairly expensive (and I don’t have the time or patience for reloading). Plus it’s a fair bit to have tied up in one gun (rifle, Geissele trigger, 10 mags, etc). There are moments where I’ve asked myself “Do I really need it?” and momentarily considered selling the thing. Then I come to my senses.
I probably have 1200-1500 through mine, had it going on two years, used it in few classes and have nothing but positive to say about it.
I think if you’re seeing a bunch for sale now, it’s probably due to a couple of things.
The biggest one is probably that the SCAR supply was pretty sporadic for a while, and it’s only recently got to where there could be many being sold off.
The other factor might be that it seems like a lot of people bought one (or two) and then don’t use them. The SCAR seems to draw a lot of buyers with a lot of money and…well, not without sense by any means, but maybe not having a lot of firearms experience. “Everybody said this was the one to get.”
Then after owning it for several months and never shooting it, they decide maybe they don’t need it.
I’ve ran into a couple of people who did exactly that. They looked around and asked around, and people kept telling them they would get one if only they had the means. They did have the means…so they bought one. After looking around some more, they kept seeing “You need really good glass to take advantage of the SCAR’s accuracy potential” so they sunk another pile of money into a 5.5-22X scope longer than the barrel.
Six to twelve months later…
Now they have a rifle they’ve shot once or twice maybe. They have little to compare it to, so while it seemed OK, they don’t know if it’s great or OK or what. It weighs 10-12 pounds after buying all the stuff since people kept saying what they would get if they had one, so they lost the best part of it in my opinion- the light weight. They aren’t deep enough into firearms to have a stash of surplus ammo or reload, so that doesn’t help either.
Now it’s a $5,000+ investment gathering dust.
They see people are still wanting them, plus the post-election panic, and decide maybe it’s time to sell.
Personally, I like mine, but I’ve only had it for about five months. I’ve shot it at least twice a week and have had all of the common types of .308 semiautos (and some not so common) so have some basis for comparison. I think the SCAR might be the best of the bunch. I can’t think of anything it’s really worse at, and several places it beats others (IMO).
The only way I can see parting with mine would be if something better came along, and I don’t know of any big developments in .308 semiautos on the horizon.
> 2,600 rounds and 6 months later, mine is very unlikely to ever be sold. But I’ve shot 7.62 (FALs built and accurized by me) since the late 90s. Plus I still have half a metric shit ton of Aussie 7.62 surplus, and I reload (and have another half shit ton of components).
My FALs are now safe queens. The SCAR H is worth the price, if you can afford to feed it and for the reasons generally discussed.
Mostly for me, it’s just easier/faster to make hits with it - close and far. Proven by me and a bud in the local 3-Gun matches against his 1ish MOA .308 ARs and my 2 MOA FALs. I went to the SCAR after he immediately started kicking my ass (with his SCAR 17). Now we’re back to even.
If you put a magnified optic on one, the best mount to get is the ADM Delta. It eliminated some minor, but annoying, zero shift on mine. Also improved the groups to 1.1 MOA (5 shots) with my 150 gr FMJ reloads.
I’m guessing people are trying to make a buck off the election panic and 308 is quite expensive to just pick up and shoot dirt clods with.
I don’t own one, only fingered them at the local fun store. I think its a great rifle and design, but for me i don’t need a 308 “assault” rifle. My middy and my ak fill the roles of any range i would expect to have to engage anyone where I’m at. Same reason I don’t own .45s anymore, 9mm does the job and is cheaper to practice with.
I prefer my M1A over the 17. I don’t own a SCAR but have put around 100 rounds through my friends. They are both great but I am a very nostalgic buyer so that is a big reason why I prefer the M1A to the SCAR. From a battle rifle stand point, I would choose the SCAR.
There are two good reasons to prefer an M1A over a SCAR: Nostalgia as mentioned above and the rules of the game you are shooting prohibit a SCAR such as Service Rifle competition. If you don’t fit into one of those categories, buy a SCAR.
If we have any questions about 45s we will be sure and solicit your advice. Could be worse, I guess you could claim to be an expert with the SCAR. When you begin your post with “I don’t own one,…” I respectfully request you hit the ‘X’ button not the “Submit Reply” button.
Why are you trying to call me out. I didn’t say I was an expert, I didn’t give an expert review/opinion. He asked for hands on opinions and other opinions as well. I threw out an idea of why they are so prevalent for sale at the moment. As others had stated, people bought what they didn’t need and I commented on why I haven’t bought one yet. Thanks for thinking I’m an expert but lets not try to call people out over nothing. If I make the claim that I am god of SCARs then call me out. Thanks and if you don’t like my response pm me and keep it off the boards.
I really like my SCAR 17 for most of the reasons mentioned and it won’t be for sale. That said and to the question of the OP I would suggest the reasons are:
Economic times are tight, hard to chew on a SCAR even with cheese sauce
We try to keep the signal to noise ratio reasonably high at M4carbine.net. If you want to just share your opinion, AR15.com is the place. The culture here is informed opinion.
He didn’t say anything about the rifle itself - just the market. Can’t really see that ownership is necessary for an opinion on the SCAR market any more than it is to talk about why the ACR tanked so hard.
I love my SCAR, it is exactly what I wanted except for it is not common as I would like. All the people I know who had one and sold it, sold it because they could not get mags or realized that. 308 ammo is pricey and did not want to feed it. YMMV
I have one of the first 17’s to be released and I’ve never regretted it for a minute. Actually sold my EMC after having it for a while since I didn’t see much of an accuracy difference between the two and the scar was easier to find a suppressor mount for and quite a bit lighter to me.
With the weight issue you have to remember there is going to be certain things you will add to any gun. The lighter the gun starts out the lighter it will end up. I like my SCAR17 as well.
Pat
What about spare parts cost on small parts? Last I checked they were very high higher than the M14 even.
The M14 and FAL are built for the rigors needed by a service rifle and while I know most US shooters take better care of weapons better, I often wonder how long a SCAR will last.
Small thinks like plastic parts, the screws for the rails in the upper reciever etc…
I have seen rusted FALs and M14 that have been in service for 30-40 years and still work.