Since roughly the year 2000 there’s been a growing movement to make rifles available to officers and deputies as part of their patrol equipment. Why? Because the reality of longer distance engagements against potentially better armed subjects/bad actors is being recognized. The reasoning behind such a push is sound and we’ve seen agencies across the nation either add patrol rifles to the shotguns locked in mounts in patrol vehicles, or we’ve seen rifles replace those shotguns in some agencies. We’ve learned along the way what is most desirable as far as design and function characteristics for the selected patrol rifle. The FN 15 SRP G2, from FN America, incorporates virtually every one of those favored design characteristics. Let’s take a look.
Throughout this article we will reference the published specifications for the FN 15 rifle. They can be found AT THIS LINK for your reference purposes as well.
The semi-automatic box-magazine-fed rifle chambered for the NATO standard 5.56mm has become the most popular rifle adopted for patrol response use. Some agencies purchase rifles chambered for .223 and learn a valuable mistake the hard way. If given the option, we would always recommend purchasing your patrol rifles chambered for 5.56mm. In them, you can chamber and shoot either cartridge, BUT if you purchase rifles chambered in .223, you have to be careful to not put 5.56mm cartridges in them as they are not safe to shoot in such a rifle. This presents a safety concern for all agency firearms instructors, armorers, etc. For this reason alone, it’s preferred for patrol rifles to be chambered in 5.56mm – as the FN 15 SRP G2 is.
Next up is barrel length. While short-barreled rifles are all the rage, and the FN 15 SRP G2 is available in 10/6”, 11.5” and 14.5”, all shorter than most barrels, our test version for the FN 15 came with the 16” barrel and we recommend it that way. Remembering that both barrel length and sight radius (the distance between your front and rear sight) have an impact on accuracy potential for the shooter, the value of the longer barrel becomes apparent. While there are circumstances wherein you would want a shorter-barreled version, for day-to-day patrol use the 16” barrel with it’s accompanying 20” sight radius (more on that in a moment) provides optimal accuracy potential, especially for the shooters who aren’t gun enthusiasts.
Now, about that sight radius. The FN 15 SRP G2 comes with a set of backup sights that fold down out of the way of your optic when you don’t need them but can be easily folded and locked up for use when you do need them. The rifle doesn’t require an optic, but it’s pretty rare that you see a patrol rifle without one these days. Still, batteries die, optics break, they fail… whatever. You have to be able to aim the rifle and if you’re in an emergency circumstance that requires the rifle as an option, then you can’t just excuse yourself to go get a new optic and come back when you’re ready. If the optic fails for any reason, you can put up the backup hard sights, cowitness them through the dead optic and get “back to work.” The backup sights were easily cowitnessed through all of the optics we had available to test with: EOTech, AimPoint and Lucid (various models of each). The longer the distance is between the sights – in other words, the longer the sight radius is – the more inherently accurate a shooter can be when using them to aim. Since the FN 15 SRP G2 has a full-length handguard (15”) added on to the Mil-standard picatinny rail that runs the full length of the top of the receiver, you can get a 20” sight radius. With some basic understanding of math and physics, you can easily understand
The barrel length obviously affects the overall length of the rifle, and so does the stock. In this case, the six-position adjustable shoulder stock allows the shooter to adjust for body size, arm length, trigger reach, body armor, winter clothing, etc. At the bottom of the stock is a fixed sling point. A sling is one accessory almost every patrol rifle should have, so it’s good to see this included. For the front end sling attachment, there are five quick-detach points on the handguard: one on either side just in front of the receiver and three more at the front end in the three, six and nine o’clock positions. How you attach the sling is almost entirely up to your preference.
The rifle has to be “fed” with ammunition and comes with one 30-round metal box magazine. In most agency armories, and a lot of shootists’ basements, there are an assortment of magazines that will work. We quickly tested GI-style metal magazines (an assortment we had laying around in our armory) along with several 2nd and 3rd generation P-Mags. Every magazine we tried fit, locked in, and cycled ammo (we tested with snap-caps before going to the range).
Every rifle gets personalized, in some way, with accessories. Whether it’s a sling, optic, light… whatever. Every rifle ends up becoming a system; it’s the foundation for a fighting system comprised of firearm and accessories. The FN 15 SRP G2 comes with just under 20” of military standard picatinny rail on top for attaching optics and sights. On either side of the handguard, and on the bottom, there are M-Lock compatible attachment points for accessories that use such.
Having familiarized ourselves with the rifle received, we (three firearms instructors and one writer) planned our range outing so we could put about 500 rounds through it. In December, we’ll report on how the FN 15 SRP G2 handled that 500 rounds and if we had ANY challenges along the way. Stay tuned!
