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[ Scrome J4F1 on the FAMAS ]
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Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today I have my FAMAS back out at the range
because I have managed to get myself a Scrome J4F1 optic for it.
Which is a total unicorn here in the United States.
And ... well, it's an interesting combination of a piece of kit that is super cool and rare
and also reasonably, mostly, sort of effective actually.
So this was ... the primary, the official issued optic for the FAMAS for the French military.
And it was also actually the issued optic for the FN Minimi for the French military.
So it's a multi-purpose optic. Now ... the French did also use
Aimpoint CompM2s and EOTechs on FAMAS rifles as well.
Especially in the Foreign Legion, there was really some flexibility
on the individual level of what optics you wanted.
If you wanted to get something to a greater or lesser extent,
depending on your commanding unit officer,
you could just go out and get an optic and use it if you want it.
But this is the one that was primarily supplied by the French military.
Now when they specced this thing out to be manufactured
the idea was not so much for it to be a shooting aid,
but for it to actually be used for target identification and observation.
So the way that these were issued logistically
was one to every corporal chief,
The commanding corporal of the ... little several man squad would get one of these
so that he could identify targets and direct fire of the 3 men under his command.
So that kind of explains some of the issues here
like this has obviously a very high height over bore going on.
It also has a really interesting reticle that's zeroed at 300 metres,
with chevrons for 400, 500 and 600.
And that's something that's really kind of probably more use
on an FN Minimi than it is on the FAMAS.
But because this is a dual purpose optic, they're going to try and accommodate both platforms.
So the way this mounts is the FAMAS was actually retrofitted with
what was called the PGMP, or basically advanced handguard,
that puts a set of rail attachments up here on top of the gun.
So I can take the entire handguard off.
There is a metal bracket right here that locks into a pin on the inside of the rifle.
Centres itself on that pin right there, so that's how it retains zero.
It's not the best zero retention system, but it worked well enough.
You can see that we have our ... rail attachment coming up here.
It's locked into place by this turn screw right there.
We have a segment on the front where you can attach a second set of offset rail for a laser.
And then we have our ... Scrome mounting points right here.
So that's what you actually have on top of the handguard.
Again, it's another proprietary specialised thing.
You have a mounting bar for the Scrome.
The scope itself uses a STANAG mount, so it's got two screws, here and here.
And it's actually the exact same spacing and layout
as you would get for things like the Cold War era scopes
that went on HK claw mounts, that went on some of the FAL mounts.
This was actually the NATO standard scope attaching specification
prior to anyone using Picatinny rails.
Now there are also Picatinny adapters.
So just like I've got this screwed into a FAMAS adapter,
there are also Picatinny adapters for mounting it on the Minimi.
Or really on any other rifle. I actually had the chance to shoot one of these
on a SCAR-L at one point in France, which was pretty cool.
And to mount it in tighten these down, and in theory it retains its zero when I do this.
Now Scrome is not a particularly well known optics company, especially outside of France.
The French government, when they set up the specifications for these scopes,
they wanted them to be manufactured in France.
And there just weren't that many domestic optics manufacturers in France to pick from.
Scrome was actually a pretty big player
in much more sophisticated optical machinery than just rifle scopes,
they made things like artillery sighting systems, mortar sighting systems.
Today they actually do some optical interface elements for fighter aircraft.
Like they do really high-end, really precise stuff.
And so when the French government went to them and said,
"Hey, we want a fixed 4x power rifle scope, can you do it?"
They were like, "Well OK, sure,
It's a very simple project for them. But it really wasn't their bread and butter,
they never made any significant effort to put these on the commercial market.
There's at least one, but maybe not much more than one, very small commercial run of J4 scopes.
At the time in France legally they couldn't put a "military" reticle on a civilian scope.
So the civilian sale ones have mil dot reticles,
where the military ones have the range-finder and 3 chevron reticle.
There we go, we can clip that right back on.
It is set up with an illumination system, we've got a small battery in here
and you've got 5 illumination settings.
We have the illumination turned off today, because it's out in the desert
and it's really quite bright enough. But it is there if you needed it.
The scope's not overly heavy, it is large for a 4x power scope.
In practical terms you put this on the FAMAS, my iron sights are here.
Centre of the scope is up here, it is
quite significantly elevated and it is a total chin-weld to use.
Now that's kind of becoming the hot popular thing again
for a very heads-up, situationally aware sort of stance.
... They didn't do this because it was sexy back then, they did this because
they're stacking things on top of a rifle that was not originally designed to have optics on it. So.
But again the purpose was observation, target identification,
coordination of fire, and for that purpose ... really it works just fine.
Frankly, shooting it is not unpleasant.
... It remarkably holds zero on this system,
or at least holds zero well enough that I can't tell the difference.
And it's quite a lot of fun to shoot with. So.
Scrome ... they also made the scopes for the FR-F2 sniper rifles, the J8.
You can see their clever nomenclature here is 4x power is the J4, and the 8x power is the J8.
You'll never guess what they named their 10x power scope - yeah, J10.
Anyway, they are doing ... basically a run of reproduction military J8 scopes
for the FR-F2 snipers, and I look forward to those being available here in the US.
But until then, very happy to have a true unicorn,
there are very few of these in the US, because they basically never got sold to civilians.
So I'm very happy to find this one for the FAMAS.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.