Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am out here today at the range in France
by the generous invitation of Scrome.
Scrome is actually the only optics manufacturer in France these days.
And they are the company that originally made the optics for the FR-F2 sniper rifles.
We have basically none of their scopes in the United States.
... I'm out here to have a chance to actually do some shooting
with one of them, which should be very interesting.
But I want to give you a little background on the company first, because it's an interesting story.
Scrome was founded in 1987.
And in 1995 the French military decided to upgrade - finally - their APX 806 scopes.
This was the original scope for the FR-F2.
Before that it was the scope for the FR-F1, before that it was the scope for the 49/56,
and before that it was the scope for the MAS 49.
This was essentially a German ZF-4 style of scope
that continued to be used up into the 1990s on the French sniper rifles.
And it was only a 3.8x power scope, and it was really a hindrance
to the potential of the FR-F1 and FR-F2 rifles.
So in 1995 the French Army finally decides to update the scopes.
They come up with a list of characteristics of what they want,
which is essentially an 8x power fixed magnification telescope.
And they wanted to have it manufactured domestically in France.
Well, there was really only one company that was doing that sort of work,
and that was Scrome, and they really weren't making rifle scopes.
Scrome was a company that specialised, and does specialise,
in basically optical-mechanical devices.
So rifle scopes certainly fit that, but what they did most of their work in
were things like sighting systems for mortars, for artillery.
Today they do work with lasers, with aircraft systems, camera systems,
things that are really much more complicated than your typical rifle scope.
So in '95 the French government came to them and said,
"We want ... essentially this list of characteristics, can you build it?"
And Scrome went, "Well sure, OK, we can do that."
And they made it, and it was adopted as the J8, "8" for 8x power.
... The French Army would eventually adopt both the J8 and the J10,
which is the exact same scope in 10x power magnification.
And what makes this a little bit of an unusual story is
Scrome didn't make these scopes for the commercial market.
They didn't adapt a commercial scope for military use, they built this thing from the ground up.
It's a boutique, sort of on-demand manufacture company.
They do a lot of relatively small scale, very complex, very high precision products.
So things like sighting systems for self-propelled howitzers.
And so they never really had a stock of these scopes,
they were never interested in selling them on the civilian market.
Some of the vagaries of French law meant that until fairly recently,
because they had a military range-finding reticle,
they actually couldn't sell the standard military pattern scope on the civilian market.
All of this put together means the scopes have been basically unavailable.
The only ones that were out on the market were those that fell off a military truck somewhere.
So it's very cool to get a chance to come out and take a look at some of these at Scrome.
But they are also actually, right now,
building a run of specifically civilian ... J8 scopes to sell to the civilian market
because FR-F2 rifles have been sold as surplus and are now available on the civilian market.
And they've decided to try and take advantage of that by supplying some scopes for them.
Even better, the laws in France have changed, and Scrome's internal policies have changed,
and they are actually making these civilian scopes with the original military reticle.
So folks who have FR-F2 rifles now are going to have the chance
to actually get the exact correct scope to go on them.
I think that's a pretty cool opportunity,
and I've been sitting here holding this thing and I'm dying to shoot it.
So, we're on a 400 metre range here, we've got a couple of steel targets at the end,
and I want to see if I can ring that steel with a Scrome and an FR-F2.
Let's give it a shot, so to speak.
Alrighty, 10 rounds, 155 grain hollow point boat tail, good, precise long range ammo.
Let's see what we can do at 400 metres with a Scrome and the F2.
That was a hit.
I like steel targets, and it's extra fun when they're at long enough range
that you have a nice little delay between the bang and the clang.
Alright, clearly that target is too big.
That was like 18 inches square.
There is a round gong out there that's more like I think probably 12 to 15 inches.
It's a circle, see if I can get that one.
That was just barely a hit, try again.
That was a good solid hit.
That was a hit.
And as I start to heat the barrel up here,
thanks to my thermal shield Russian snipers with infrared scopes still can't see me.
Alright, let's take a closer look at what we've actually got here.
The original cases are like very 1990s, cool plastic case.
Scrome
And we have a couple of items here, so the scope itself
... it's a robust, fairly heavy scope for its size.
And one of the unique things about it is that these were only ever made with STANAG style mounts.
So they never used rings, the mount is this bar.
And this isn't a uniquely French thing, this is actually a NATO standardised mounting pattern.
You'll find the same thing on, for example, H&K claw mounts.
And a bunch of other ... primarily European scope makers made scopes with this style of mount.
So you'll find Hensoldts and Schmidt & Benders, or rather you would.
... This pattern of mounting is really predominant in the '80s and 90s,
and really quite difficult to find today.
Now for the original FR-F2s, this was joined with this style of mount.
The FR-F2 has a quick-detach scope mount, that's your locking lever.
And then this is set up for your STANAG scope.
You've got two screws that lock the scope into the base.
And you can adjust it forward to back, you've got three positions: one, two and three,
so that you can get the appropriate eye relief.
Take a quick look at the markings here, we have Scrome of course,
and then French Army,
The dials are in ... tenths of a mil.
So we've got zero, and then B and H are abbreviations for
And
The focus is adjustable, turn this in and out.
And in order to make this usable on rifles that ... aren't specifically FR-F2s,
there is also a Picatinny adapter right here.
(If I can line that up, there you go.)
So that uses the same two sort of mounting screws,
you've got your recoil lug here in the centre, and two Picatinny clamps.
They ... made a variety of other mounts, including quick detach ones.
But this allows the scopes to be used on plain Picatinny rail.
And then we've got a rubber sun shade and a rubber eye cup for those who want to use them.
Now these were sold on the civilian market in limited numbers with mil-dot reticles.
This one is, as the label says, an original military one so I can show you the reticle here.
And the way I'm going to do that is actually with a still shot,
because I can get a much better picture of it that way.
So let's take a look at the reticle.
We have a fairly complicated reticle here, there's a lot of good stuff going on.
So let's start with the rangefinder at the bottom.
That goes from 200 out to 800 metres in 100 metre increments,
and it is based on the height of an average human being.
And so you put feet to top of the head,
and use those progressively shorter and shorter hash marks
to figure out which one fits your target best.
And that gives you a rough approximate rangefinder.
Now if we go straight up from that
you will see there are both a series of cross hatches, horizontal lines, and then chevrons.
So those are your actual aiming points.
The first one is 100 metres, and then it's marked 2, 4, 6, and there are intermediaries.
So you actually have 100 metre increments for your ranging points.
Now the first 400 in there are actually also quasi-rangefinders
that are essentially the width of a person's shoulders.
And so you can also use those as ... another sort of ad hoc rangefinder.
There are two curved lines that run from the 500 up to the 100 position,
those are actually not ballistically relevant.
Those are there specifically to draw your eye to the centre of the scope.
an interesting choice, but that's the case there.
... When you get below 500 you just have chevrons,
there's no point in a width-based rangefinder because it's too small to be usable.
Notice that those chevrons start to actually shift just slightly out to the right,
and that is to account for spin drift.
So ... you don't need to mess with the turrets on the J8 to shoot effectively out to 800 metres,
because all of your range finding is built into the reticle,
all of your holdovers are built into the reticle for
the 7.62 NATO loading that ... the rifle was designed for.
You don't have to adjust for a different load because it's a military rifle
and there is one standard ammunition to set up.
The last element here are the hash marks out on the left and right,
and those are milliradian adjustments.
The large lines are 1 mil, and the short lines are 0.2 mils.
So you can use that for additional range finding on things that aren't human sized.
Alright, now I'm going to go for a different target,
there is a 12 by 18 inch steel plate, still at 400 metres.
It's actually ... 20 by 30 centimetres. ...
That was a hit.
That was a good solid hit.
One round left in the magazine.
That was a good solid hit.
The problem here is that this rifle and scope combination, and ammo, just make it too easy.
I figured maybe you guys would like to get a chance to see down the range.
I don't know that you can actually see any of the hits, but maybe.
That was a hit.
That was a good hit.
Let's go to one of the smaller targets again.
Ah, right.
Just off to the right. You probably saw the dust cloud on that one.
There we go, that's better.
I just can't manage to get that middle one.
Alright guys, well I hope you enjoyed the video.
I would like to give a big thanks to Scrome for giving me a chance to come out here and
actually try out an FR-F2 with one of their proper original scopes.
And it is extremely exciting that they're actually going to be making exact replicas,
well, just continuing to make military versions
of the scope for these rifles for the civilian market.
They are expected to be out this fall.
They are going to be sold through retailers in France and in the United States.
The exact retailers are not yet determined.
So if you're interested in one of these, stay tuned.
As soon as I find out where they're going to be available, I'll let you guys know.
But I can tell you they're going to be expensive.
Everything that Scrome does is boutique, and high end,
and low production, and that means expensive.
Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.
I've got three rounds left, so I'm going to see if I can get three more hits with them.