FN Special Police Rifle

FN Special Police Rifle (SPR)
TypeSniper rifle
Place of originUnited States
Service history
Used byFederal Bureau of Investigation
Production history
ManufacturerFN Herstal
VariantsA1, A1a, A2, A4, A3G, A5M
Specifications
Mass4.9–7.5 kg depending on variant
Length~1015 mm (40") with 20" barrel
~1120 mm (44") with 24" barrel
Barrel length508 mm (20 in) or
610 mm (24 in)
Cartridge
ActionBolt-action
Feed system.308 Winchester:
  • 4-round detachable box magazine or
  • 5-round internal box magazine

.300 Winchester Short Magnum:

  • 3-round internal box magazine
SightsTelescopic sight

The FN Special Police Rifle (FN SPR) is a bolt-action sniper rifle marketed by FNH USA, a subsidiary of the Belgian company FN Herstal.

Design details

The rifle is manufactured at 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 (0.5 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 Police Rifle production.

Variants

  • FN SPR 1st Generation: HS Precision Marksman-pattern stock, heavy 26-inch barrel.
  • FN A1: McMillan A3 stock, heavy 24-inch barrel.
  • FN A1a: McMillan A3 stock, heavy 20-inch barrel.
  • FN A2: McMillan A4 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24-inch barrel.
  • FN A4 Shooting System: FN A2 with scope and bipod.
  • FN A3G: McMillan A3 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 24-inch heavy fluted barrel.
  • FN A3G Shooting System: FN A3G with scope and bipod.
  • FN A5M: McMillan A5 stock with buttpad spacers and adjustable cheekpiece, 20-inch heavy barrel or 24-inch heavy fluted barrel.
  • FN A5M Shooting System: FN A5M with scope and bipod.
  • FN A5M XP: FN A5M with 5/8 x 24 tpi threaded barrel.

Users

References

  1. ^ a b "Rifles: H-S Precision HTR & FN SPR-USG". Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
  2. ^ "FNH USA awarded FBI rifle contract | Shooting Industry | Find Articles at BNET.com". Archived from the original on 2009-03-15. Retrieved 2006-03-28.
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