Last year FN came out with a semi-automatic version of their world famous Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) dubbed the M249S. We reviewed that firearm about six months ago and one of the main complaints I heard was that the Para version of the gun was better, not only because of the improvements to the stock but also because that’s the version currently in most common use with the military. The original M249S was geared towards the best looking version of the M249, not necessarily the most accurate. It looks like FN has decided to fix that with the release of a Para version of that same gun.
The firearm ships with a 16.5 inch barrel, but that can quickly and easily be swapped out for the more common SBR-length barrel once you have a tax stamp in hand. The only real change between this firearm and the M249S we saw last year seems to be the addition of the Para buttstock, a simple change that raises the price of the gun by a full $800 — MSRP on this bad boy is $8,799.
When you have more coin than brains…
Sound great! Nifty! Love the stock! Even more expensiver so I can cross it off my list and pay several years of my mortgage instead.
So much *facepalm*.
Why? Do people just want a very expensive reminder that they can’t have the real thing. I wouldn’t buy a fake machine gun no matter how much money I had.
How many of the 249s’s have they sold to date? Two?
As one salesman at my store, I’ve personally sold 3 of the five my store has sold. FN seem to be a pretty smart company, they wouldn’t make more if they weren’t selling them.
Please describe the typical buyer of one of those…
Describe the person who visits a Aston Martin dealership?
If people weren’t buying them, they wouldn’t be selling them, and the definitely wouldn’t be expanding their product line.
Believe me, you may not be able to afford one, and I may not be able to afford one, but people ARE buying them, and buying them in sufficient enough quantities to make it worth while to FN.
What does “afford” mean?
I could afford one, I suppose – I just can’t justify that on an overly heavy semi-auto rifle.
Now if it were full-auto . . . Well, I’d be willing to pay a fair bit more.
How in the ever loving h$%% is there 9 grand worth of firearm in that?!?!
Obviously there are way too many people in society with more money than they need to be able to pay $9K for something that a similar item does for $300
The people who are buying these, are either doing so with money they don’t deserve or didn’t earn.
Just because 100 drug dealers buy from you, doesn’t make it a sensible market.
TTAG might as well start doing reviews on MMV’s and Surface to air weapons systems.
For just $135,000,000 this can be yours!
yay, sign me up.
The salt is strong with this one.
“The people who are buying these, are either doing so with money they don’t deserve or didn’t earn.” is a very liberal statement, Bob.
+1. This screed reads pretty clearly as: “I’ll never be able to afford a gun that expensive, so I’ll denigrate anyone who can to make myself feel better.”
^^^ Bingo.
“Anyone who has more than me has too much. They don’t deserve it.
Anyone who has less than me needs to work harder like I did. I’ve earned it.”
If I won the lotto, I *would* spend the $250,000 or whatever a transferable Dillon mini-gun goes for nowadays.
I’d probably seriously consider selling it after I run 10,000 rounds through it in a day.
Make that in an hour.
Like that old Styx song went: “And the fun never ends, that is as long as I’m buying..”
Perhaps I need to phrase it in a way this board will understand.
The Gov buys billions of dollars in equipment, brand new, then demolishes it for scrap because they don’t want to ship it.
You guys cry outrage about waste of your tax dollars.
How is it any different, you pay the Gov to defend you, they throw money around like its free.
You pay Apple to make you a phone, their CEO throw money around like its free.
But the Apple CEO deserves his pay, the Gov should be more careful?
Don’t you think the “people” benefit from both parties being more balanced?
Wouldn’t things run smoother if taxes and product prices were lower?
If you say no, so then would it be better to have higher taxes and more waste and retail items cost more and more money was horded or wasted?
Incorrect, you missed the point.
Also viewing extreme wealth as undeserved is far from liberal, its conservative.
If a person makes 3 million dollars an hour but does very little if any work to earn it, do they deserve it?
Its not about someone being better or worse off than myself, its the extreme imbalance.
Take a good look at the CEO behind EpiPens right now and then tell me more about how hard shes working.
Stealing money and then wasting it like a spoiled brat is not something we should all be striving to be.
“The people who are buying these, are either doing so with money they don’t deserve or didn’t earn.” -Bob
You get that from your crystal ball, did you? Or maybe you just pulled it out of your ass because you’re feeling inadequate…
People are perfectly free to waste their money on stuff like this. But I’m just going to say it: a semi-automatic Minimi is pointless (aside from looking cool). The semi-automatic uzi carbines, I can understand. Those things are simple, reliable, built like a good solid steel gun, and cost about as much as your average polymer handgun. If you’re going to blow the cost of gently used everyday driver on a crappy toy, you have more money than sense.
I guess most of these guys live in well off neighborhoods and haven’t seen the poverty we have in this nation.
Everyone seems to be missing the point, money well spent is one thing, money poorly spent is dumb.
My statement isn’t about me not having enough money, I don’t need any money.
There are too many other quality places to spend money than inflated junk.
$2500 for this rifle, maybe, pricey, but rightly so.
$9000?
why, just because a few will sell.
if you sell 10 at 9K a piece or you sell 20 at 4.5K or 40 at 2.25K
see what the difference is?
lower price means more jobs and more people who can enjoy said product, yet the company makes the same profit (or close to it).
So this tells me that FN cares more about its bottom line than it does about getting its products out and in the hands of the people who support them.
Well next lifetime learn to throw a left handed curveball or work at Goldman SSachs…..
Is there some bumpfire stock for this thing I don’t know about that makes it worth having?
A modern belt fed IS pretty awesome… plus its uniqueness makes it quite the collectors item.
I don’t have that kind of money laying around, but I’d consider it if I did.
Now THAT’S a $9000 business investment idea!
Everyones phone tells perfect time, and yet rolex and its many competitors are still doing fine. Just cause u wouldnt buy it doesnt make it wrong.
But this is like a Rolex that only tells you the hour and weighs 15 ounces. Of course, no, it isn’t ‘wrong’ to buy one though, but it looks like subjecting ones self to being teased (by the gun). So close but yet so far.
If you have an SOT they are convertible to full auto. Buy a linker too.
I don’t have the money to buy this. Well, I do but it’s better purposed in other places. If money suddenly became no object to me this would be one of the first guns I bought. Love the concept.