FN's Spacey bullpup: is this the short, handy rifle of the future?

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2009 by Holt Bodinson

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In today's highly mobile, mechanized style of combat in which you often find yourself cramped inside an armored vehicle or chopper and weighed down with body armor, ammunition, grenades and whatnot, a compact weapon is a distinct advantage. There's none more compact than a bullpup. Starting with a blank piece of paper, FN's engineers have given us a dilly, known as the F2000 in military circles and as the FS2000 in its civilian form.

About the only things conventional about this high tech, modular bullpup are its caliber, 5.56 NATO, and its use of standard M16/NATO/STANAG magazines. This rest is right out of Star Wars.

To really appreciate the design, you have to look at the image of the FS2000 broken down into its main assemblies. The frame is a clamshell, consisting of two, complex polymer halves bolted together. The other sub-assemblies are fully modular. The barrel and receiver group and the bolt and bolt carrier assembly slide into the front of the frame and the hammer group assembly slides into the rear of the buttstock. In short, you can break this little bullpup down in seconds, replace or clean any of the modular assemblies and keep on shooting.

The use of polymer parts and contact points and the lack of metal in the overall design are remarkable. See the image of the hammer group assembly. Here you have the assembly housing, the hammer, and the sear mechanism made entirely of polymers. The only metal used in the assembly is in the springs, retaining cross-pins and drop safety. While the owner's manual recommends oiling the springs, I think you could run this assembly dry all year with a minimum of wear.

Similarly, there are many examples in the design in which the engineers have been able to substitute precision castings for machined parts, notably the bolt carrier assembly, gas block and plug and stripping pin.

Other examples of modularity built into the design are the 10" Picatinny rail, which in this example is mounted with a 1.6X optical sight, and the front handguard that can be replaced with a 40mm grenade launcher, laser designator, flashlight, or non-lethal assembly. The F2000/FS2000 was designed from the get-go to be readily adapted to a variety of tactical missions.

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Weighing 7.86 pounds empty with an overall length of 29.1", the FS2000 is slightly shorter but about a pound heavier than the M4 carbine. The barrel is 17.4" long, sports a permanently attached flash suppressor and is rifled with a 1:7" twist. The bolt follows closely the design of the M16 and features 6 lugs locking into a barrel extension. Upon firing, gas is bled off near the muzzle to operate a short-stroke piston to activate the bolt carrier assembly.

One of the classic issues plaguing earlier bullpup designs, the ejection of hot cases near the face of the shooter, has been overcome in the F2000/FS2000 design. The spent cases are ejected down-and-out a tube positioned above the breech of the bullpup. The end of the tube emerges on the fight front side of the forearm and is covered by a self-activating polymer door. In use, spent cases are ejected vigorously to the right front of the carbine and well away from the face of the shooter.

The engineering is pretty clever. The extractor actually retains the spent case as the bolt begins to cycle forward on its return-to-battery. A cam activated, polymer switch mechanism flips into play and guides the case into the anti-return ejection tube where the case is propelled further by a lever on top of the forward moving bolt assembly. It's a patented FN design, and it works perfectly.

Not overcome as successfully in the design is another classic, bullpup challenge--a light, crisp trigger pull. The challenge is linking a forward mounted trigger to a rear mounted sear. In the F2000/FS2000 design, the engineers used a double-ended, U-shaped rod running from the trigger along both sides of the frame and contacts the front arms of the polymer sear at two points. The distance from trigger to the sear is about 9". The result is a mushy trigger pull that breaks cleanly, however, at approximately 9-1/2 pounds.

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Another significant challenge in a bullpup design is muzzleblast, generated by a short barrel, which seems to get shorter and louder since the muzzle is positioned further to the rear. Bullpups are tough on a shooter's ears. In a combat situation, there's no getting around it, short of adding a suppressor.

The smooth, rounded contours of the FS2000 stock make a comfortable fit. It's an easy stock to get into and feels good between the hands. The weight distribution is excellent, and the bullpup feels lighter than it actually is.

What I missed was a carrying handle. Sexy curves are nice, but you need something to grab onto. By the time the FS2000 reached me, the factory sling had disappeared. The FS2000 needs a sling to make it "handy."

I liked the location of the rocking safety right at the tip of your trigger finger, the charging handle conveniently located for a right handed shooter, the chamber inspection cover, the 1.6X optical scope with its typical European, three-picket-post reticle and the ease of disassembling and maintaining the FS2000.