FN Special Police Rifle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| FN Special Police Rifle (SPR) | |
|---|---|
| Type | Sniper rifle |
| Place of origin |  United States |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Federal Bureau of Investigation (2004—present) |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Fabrique Nationale de Herstal |
| Variants | A1, A1a, A2, A4, A3 G, A5 M |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 4.9 kg - 7.5 kg depending on variant |
| Length | ~1015 mm (40") with 20" barrel, ~1120 mm (44") with 24" barrel |
| Barrel length | 508 mm (20 in) or 610 mm (24 in) |
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| Cartridge | |
| Action | Bolt-action |
| Feed system | 7.62x51 mm (.308 Winchester):
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| Sights | Telescopic sight |
The FN Special Police Rifle (FN SPR) is an bolt-action sniper rifle marketed by FNH USA, a subsidiary of the Belgian company Fabrique Nationale de Herstal.
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[edit] Design details
The rifle was manufactured in the U.S. Repeating Arms Company (owned by FN de Herstal) to FN specifications using Winchester Model 70 actions. All current models of the SPR come in one of a variety of McMillan synthetic stocks. The earliest rifles were shipped in the H-S Precision aluminum chassis fiberglass version of the Winchester Marksman stock. While these "First Generation" rifles were simply dropped into the aluminum bedding blocks of the H-S Precision stock, the later guns are all glass bedded by hand.
FN Special Police Rifles of all iterations are noted for being both very accurate (.5 MOA or somewhat less is not uncommon) and very low maintenance, featuring Parkerized metal finish, synthetic stocks, and a chrome lined bore in the barrel. A chrome lined bore offers a more durable, more corrosion resistant, and easier to clean barrel for the end user to maintain and is rarely found on precision bolt action sniper rifles. The barrels of the "First Generation" rifles were said to be made from the hammer-forged blanks used for M240 General Purpose Machine Gun production at the FN Manufacturing Inc. plant in Columbia, South Carolina. Later barrels are said to be from hammer-forged blanks intended exclusively for FN Special Purpose Rifle production.
[edit] Variants
- FN A1: McMillan A3 stock, heavy 24” barrel.
- FN A1a: McMillan A3 stock, heavy 20” barrel.
- FN A2: McMillan A4 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24” barrel.
- FN A4 Shooting System: McMillan A4 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24” barrel, scope, bipod.
- FN A3 G: McMillan A3 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24” heavy fluted barrel.
- FN A3 G Shooting System: McMillan A3 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24” heavy fluted barrel, scope, bipod.
- FN A5 M: McMillan A5 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 20” heavy barrel or 24” heavy fluted barrel.
- FN A5 M Shooting System: McMillan A5 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24” heavy fluted barrel, scope, bipod.
[edit] Service
As the name would suggest, it is intended for use by law enforcement agencies, and was one of two rifles (along with one from H-S Precision[1]) approved in 2004 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for use of by their SWAT teams.[2] This FBI variant has the model name FNH SPR-USG (USG – US Government).[3] This model is also referred to as the A3 G by FN.
