So I managed to get to the range last Saturday and take the FS2000 for it's initial session. It's really different than most anything I've shot before. It's slightly heavier than I expected, for starters. It's not bad and certainly lighter than the other guns at the range that day (an SKS, a couple hunting rifles and a surplus Russian sniper rifle - all with wood furniture). Recoil is minimal and noise isn't as bad as a stubby M4 barrel.
It takes some getting used to the manual of arms. You can lock the bolt back like an MP5, but you don't want to drop it closed on a live magazine. It will jam if you do that. It doesn't lock open when you run empty, either. So when it goes "click", you yank the mag and put in a fresh one
then cycle the bolt. The safety is in a great place, but it takes some getting used to. The mag release lever is just genius. As you grab the mag, you hit the release lever. So it's one smooth motion to grab & pull it out.
It's really clever how it does the forward eject thing. The bolt going forward is what drives the cartridges forward, so the first few shots, nothing comes out of the gun. Likewise, I discovered a couple empties still in the gun a few days later when I was showing it to friends and cycled the bolt whilst I was checking that it was unloaded. A couple empties sprang forth when the bolt went forward. Surprised the hell out of me.
But enough about the past... inspired by StuG, I went searching online for bullpup kits. After nearly snagging an SGWorks rifle, I started reading up on kits for 10/22s. While an SKS is probably in my future, I'm trying to keep the number of calibers in the house down to as few as possible. I already had a 10/22 so I picked up a 2nd one in a trade for my last remaining 9mm. The 2nd 10/22 was intended to be a project rifle because... well, why the hell not?
So tonight I went from this:
To this:
I appreciate good engineering and this stock is just fantastic. It's a JR Bunting all-aluminum stock that has this ingenious trigger transfer mechanism that is better than any bullpup I've ever seen. Light-years better than the trigger on my G22. The claim is that it faithfully reproduces whatever trigger you put in there, so it will take aftermarket match triggers, two stage triggers, etc. I believe it, as playing with the mechanism before I put the rifle in was smooth as glass. The stock trigger is decent enough for my purposes, but I might spring for something sweet for the holidays.