Accuracy of the production FNAR Heavy proved excellent. This five-shot 100-yard group measures a tight .45 inch.

The safety is a simple trigger-blocking crossbolt at the rear of the trigger guard. Although a bit stiff to operate, it is well-placed for a right-handed shooter.

With relatively short 20-inch tubes, both models are fairly compact with an overall length of 41.5 inches. As law-enforcement shots are typically well under 100 yards, there's no need for longer barrels--at least for this application and especially in a .308 Winchester.

Mobility is far more important, and both rifles are fairly handy. The Heavy model tips the scales at 10 pounds while the Light model is one pound lighter at nine pounds. As to be expected, the Light model is the better balanced of the two. The Heavy model is fairly muzzle heavy, but it's quite stable on a bipod or off bags. The Light version proved much handier, yet still sufficiently heavy to be stable enough for best accuracy.

The pistol grip feels good in the hand, even while wearing gloves, and indexes the trigger finger properly in relation to the trigger. This is a shortcoming of rifles using standard M16A2 pistol grips, which tend to index too close to the trigger for shooters with average or large hands.

With a low-mounted scope, the cheek rest provides a solid repeatable cheek weld. Unlike an M21 or M24 you don't need to improvise a cheek rest obtain a good cheek weld with this rifle.

Magazines load easily into the rifle with a simple push, and the controls are simple to operate.

I had a chance to test the original prototypes of both models a number of months ago. During my initial testing I noted rounds loaded easily into the handmade prototype magazines, which fed smoothly.

Recoil, firing prone off a bipod, was mild, and reliability was flawless. Four different loads fed, fired and ejected without fail in 20- to 30-degree temperatures.

Accessory rails are located on the fore-end at the three, six and nine o'clock position and permit the mounting of lights, bipods and other tools.

Ejection was between two and three o'clock, with empty cases landing approximately three feet away when fired from the prone position. Both rifles produced very fast follow-up shots when engaging multiple targets from both supported prone and kneeling positions.

On a recent trip to FN Manufacturing in Columbia, South Carolina, I had a chance to examine a production FNAR. As to be expected, this looked a bit more refined and polished than the prototypes. The rifle itself is sleek looking and quite different in aesthetics than say an AR-10.

Looks though mean little, though, when it comes to sniper rifles. Accuracy is everything, and a quick follow-up shot is useless if you can't hit your target. So my big question was just how well the FNAR shoots.

FNH USA's accuracy requirement for this design is to group into one m.o.a. maximum--the same requirement as for a U.S. Army M24. Requirements are one thing, reality is often another, but I'm happy to report though that FNH USA seems to have done its homework.

Topped with a Leupold 3.5-10 x40mm LR/T tactical scope and fed Federal 168-grain Gold Medal Match, the FNAR Heavy barrel model proved to be capable of superb accuracy. Limited testing showed this particular rifle capable of shooting well inside the one m.o.a. requirement, averaging just .45 inch at 100 yards.