FNC Sears

[rsideout]

There were 18 sears in that offering. They sold them all in about 2 weeks. I bought one, and had it installed by TBA.

 

[DOHCTR]

No regrets here. Funny looking back how the emergence of the sears was seen as dubious and suspicious.

 

[GeneralJPP]

I personally think that there are fewer than 400 S&H sears for the FNC. The way that S&H sears were numbered, I have never seen one below 2000, nor one over 3800. I think they were made in small lots and numbered by the entries made into the manufacturer's books. There is the famous lot of 200 litigated sears that we all know about. Those were sold at auction many years ago. I believe that most of those have been installed and there are just a small handful of sears left being held by someone either waiting for them to go up in value, or, think that BATFE may let them install them in a SCAR at some future date (hope they will realize that won't ever happen and cut them loose). I foresee in the next few years the prices of the host rifle dropping down to what that rifle is actually worth, about 1500.00 With no more sears realistically available, the high prices that are being asked will never materialize. Insofar as there being more sears than rifles, I seriously doubt it. You cannot cough up a sear now for life or money. What ye thinks?

 

[jimdet]

I have to agree with you. I haven't seen a sear for sale in over a year now. Nor have I seen a sear numbered under 2000 or over 3500. If anyone else out there has seen one let us know. Maybe with a little feed back from fellow members here we can get a better idea of the total amount of sears approved. For some reason it seems the people who actually made these sears and know how many are out there don't want the rest do us to know.

 

[dvader]

Good idea. My FNC has S&H sear number 36xx.

 

[GeneralJPP]

I had a friend cough one up by posting an ad on Sturmgewehr. He had several scammers try to hit him, but after several weeks, someone did reply legitimately from another state. 4 months on the dealer to dealer, and then we are guessing a year plus to get the form 4 back from BATFE. He should have that one in about 9 months. That serial # was 34XX. I had contacted TBA, and they did not have anymore sears. But they were willing to sell me their only remaining converted rifle. S&H does not have anymore sears. My class 3 dealer cannot cough up a sear either, so, I really think we are at the end of available, uninstalled sears. It seems that with the class 3 rifles bringing 10-11K, the sear price should be around 6 to 7K. 3000 for a rifle, 600 for conversion, and 350 for a burst pack. Does anyone know how many Fleming FNC's are out there? Those too, I believe, were registered sear rifles. I have never seen a Fleming sear up for sale that was not already installed.

 

[JoshNC]

I had a friend cough one up by posting an ad on Sturmgewehr. He had several scammers try to hit him, but after several weeks, someone did reply legitimately from another state. 4 months on the dealer to dealer, and then we are guessing a year plus to get the form 4 back from BATFE. He should have that one in about 9 months. That serial # was 34XX. I had contacted TBA, and they did not have anymore sears. But they were willing to sell me their only remaining converted rifle. S&H does not have anymore sears. My class 3 dealer cannot cough up a sear either, so, I really think we are at the end of available, uninstalled sears. It seems that with the class 3 rifles bringing 10-11K, the sear price should be around 6 to 7K. 3000 for a rifle, 600 for conversion, and 350 for a burst pack. Does anyone know how many Fleming FNC's are out there? Those too, I believe, were registered sear rifles. I have never seen a Fleming sear up for sale that was not already installed.

I think Fleming FNCs were papered as registered receivers, but use a non-factory spec automatic sear that looks nearly identical to the registered S&H FNC sear.

 

[jimdet]

A year ago I would have said no way could they ask that much for a sear. Today, not so sure. Maybe if the price goes up a little some of them will appear. One thing I would say for sure, if the price hits six to seven thousand and none are available, there are probably no more out there. The last one I saw on TBA went for $5500.

 

[DOHCTR]

I think Fleming FNCs were papered as registered receivers, but use a non-factory spec automatic sear that looks nearly identical to the registered S&H FNC sear.

That is correct. I was speaking with Bill Fleming at the Tulsa gun show a few months ago and he said that he invented the FNC conversion but S&H ran with it with sears rather than receiver conversions.

 

[okpud]

I think Fleming FNCs were papered as registered receivers, but use a non-factory spec automatic sear that looks nearly identical to the registered S&H FNC sear.

The only Fleming converted FNC I have worked on was a registered receiver. All the others have been registered S&H sears. If I remember correctly, the Fleming RR FNC used a real full auto hammer vs. the modified semi hammer done as part of the S&H sear conversion. Since I did my own conversion, I used a S&H sear w/ a factory FA hammer, too.

 

[Paramarine]

This sux. I have an FNC Para that is crying out for a sear and there is none to be found.
Saw an ad a two or three months ago on GB for $4,500 but didn't yet have the rifle so I didn't buy it. I am kicking myself now!

 

[seabee]

A full auto FNC for 7-10 thousand is still a bargain
Considering what other 223 full autos sell for

 

[quasi]

A full auto FNC for 7-10 thousand is still a bargain
Considering what other 223 full autos sell for

... and a better rifle.

It may not be as sexy or modular as an AR, but neither is the AK... The only rifle design better than the FNC is the SCAR.

Now, if we can just get our sears legally installed in those rifles :boohoo

 

[Wetworks]

My number is 29XX

 

[jimdet]

My sears are all between 3200 and 3448. I have four. Through the past year and a half I have not seen any more sears for sale. I am however seeing quite a few FNC's for sale. I would think if someone was sitting on a couple of sears they would be scarfing up those guns while they can. This isn't happening though. This leads me to believe there are very few sears out there anymore that are not already in guns.

 

[jbntex]

I have two FNC sears and both are in the 3000 range (one is 30XX and the other 34XX).

Both came from the last lot of sears that were part of the Tom Seslar bankruptcy deal and went up for sale via Jim Banks & John Norrell.

My complete guess is there are 2500ish sears out there. Never seen one in the 4000s nor one below 1000.

Curtis Higgins/S&H ran out of sears over a decade ago (~2001/02 timeframe) and the only other lot was the ~200 aforementioned Seslar sears that went up for sale in 04 via Banks/Norrell and even that lot is approaching 10 years old. I can only assume that at this point the vast majority of those 200 Seslar/Banks/Norrell sears have found a home in a gun at this point.

There are 6000+ FNCs in the US so that means there are thousands of hosts out there that will most likely never see a sear and which jives with all the never ending gunbroker auctions of semi auto FNC but nary a sear hasn't come up for sale in close to a year or more.

If a sear does come up for sale at this point I would suspect the asking price at least $5000 for it, maybe even $6000.

Seeing that converted FNCs seem to be about $9000 and if you back out ~$2500 for the host and ~$500 for the conversion. Why would anybody sell a bare sear for less than $5000 when they could put in in a host for ~$3000 more and then get $9000 for the whole gun.

 

[aramsogo]

Mine is 38XX. I bought it about 15 months ago. I suspect I bought it from someone who bought one of the Ohio 18 sears lot for their spare parts FNC. It was a packaged deal for $6,300 with his spare parts gun. The spare rifle was pretty rough, so I sold it on GB for $3,150. I remember seeing his main select fire FNC (a beauty) for sale on GB, so I think the person was getting out of FNCs completely.