[mcguyver]

Well, tonight I got to put some time in on the 416. As I dug into it, I found a few more things that needed attention.

The hopup sucked. It now has a modified hopup, and later this week it will have Systema adjuster cushions and the spring is history. Neither the 416 barrel nor the 7.5" factory inner barrel assembly could apply enough hop to a .30G BB. My Systema 10.5" inner barrel assembly was miles ahead in range and consistancy. Like 50+ feet and a tolerance of within 5 fps and not 10 fps. The factory FCC adjusters fit very poorly to the inner barrel, and yet I remember a couple of other hopups I had assembled last fall that I noted fit well.

The 416 lower would not accept a Magpul nor a Troy real trigger guard. It does now.

The dust cover was replaced with a real one I had that I had ground the lock off of. And it stays shut, like it is supposed to.

The motor brushes had the wiring run outside the brush hoods instead of inside the spring track. This is a guaranteed motor failure when the brushes wear and are inable to move due to the friction of rubbing over the brush hoods. The brushes themselves do not appear to have any appreciable silver content. Silver is used to add strength to what is essentially pressed carbon, and as such resist excessive wearing. This is a plus and a minus. On the plus side, it is less likely to wear on the commutator. On the minus side, the brushes themselves will wear very fast and are prone to sustain more arc damage, as well as being brittle and subject to breaking in half. Overall, the minus side has more sway here than the positive. I haven't decided yet if I will change them to Systema 30% silver brushes, but I probably will. The motor that came with the 416 was a 2.5, and it suffers from the same poor fitting brush hoods that make installing a grip a son of a bitch. I also noted that FCC has used metal screws to secure the brush hoods with a little insulating washer. I do not like this at all, and the fate of a FET board is contingent on them staying in place x 4. Systema uses nylon screws, a better, non-conductive option.

The buffer cap was, well, ridiculous. It fit poorly, but this was not limited to FCC brand, a Systema fits just as poorly in this gun. They are both loose on the buffer and will wiggle nearly all the way out with little encouragement. When I removed it, there were 8 shims on the cap, which is about twice as many as the most I have ever seen on any gun. But, FCC had no choice, as 1 extra turn of the buffer tube set it too deep to allow the buffer to be installed with zero shims. The only solution was to replace the FCC cap with a Systema cap.

The only remaining items is to cut the screws for the FCC 416 sights and paint the ends and replace the sun and bevel gears to allow use with other cylinders. This is a bitch both FCC and Systema have to bear. WTF was the point of an M160 in an FCC or an M165 in a Systema? Those avenues should never have been pursued, they were a waste of time, money and resources. FCC could have learned from Systema' mistake there.

The MOE grip is going to go. I may cut a MIAD for it later, who knows, that item was reserved for my other FCC hybrid project.

This of course is all before the the gun has itself even seen 1 round, and reliabilty and performance have yet to be judged. I will say now that FCC is going to be subject to my standards the same as Systema, and the primary factor is going to be performance. Reliability will come over time.

Overall, I am meh on the 416. I was not wowed upon box openning and remained un-wowed after going over the gun. I have a great deal of experience with high-mileage Systema guns, and I am just not certain on the longevity of the FCC, there are quite a few little quirks that I am not sold on yet, like planetary tooth pitch and gear lash, as well as material and finish quality of the geartrain as a whole, from rack to bevel. I am also not yet sold on silicone grease in the cylinder, it doesn't work well in Systema cylinders, and there is very little design difference in the FCC to lead me to believe it will work well in their cylinder.

We shall see.