I've been toying with the Idea of buying a SIG rifle for a while, and the Cableas near me has a 551A1 for sale. After handling the rifle, I'm definitely  interested, but I don't know much about them, so I'm looking for advice? Are these decent rifles, and is their asking price of $1300 for a used one in good shape reasonable? In other words should I grab it or should I pass and keep looking?

Watch this video,

https://youtu.be/KuBGS6M4oJU

If you still want the gun you handled after watching the video, I would buy it.  It'll also give you some stuff to look for when looking at the rifle again.

Thanks, that was informative. Still find myself torn on this one.

I am happy with mine, especially after getting the MFI sights.  No problems with it and the best part is : It's not another AR-15 variant.  I like variety.

I am happy with the one I just purchased. With Federal XM855 I was reasonably accurate (offhand shooting) shooting at about an 8x8 or 9x9 target at around 100yd. I have the Aurora sights on mine which apparently more closely simulate the original Sig SG550 sights in both height and operation.

Overall, I really dig the rifle, it cleans easily and comes apart easily, the guts are very simple, and the trigger is weird but the video made it out to be more horrible than it is. It actually isn't bad, there is quite a bit of takeup with a crisp break, and that can be changed with a sear/spring kit I have seen floating around on the interwebs somewhere.

Buy one, OP. They are slowly creeping up in price, in a weird way they are kind of an oddity and somewhat collectible.

I plan on getting a 556 lower from somewhere so I can use AR mags with mine, just for compatibility's sake.

Thanks for the replies. Your responses and the ones in the other thread I started about this have me leaning more towards it. I put it on layaway yesterday afternoon to give me more time to research it and make up my mind.

I have nothing but good to say about both of mine.

OP, did you end up buying it?

Not yet, but I'm leaning heavily towards it. Even if I do decide to, it'll be Thursday afternoon at the earliest before I can make it back up there.

Cabelas in Dundee?

It's the one in Columbus, OH

I had one and liked it.  I'm a sucker for diopter sights...and couldn't get over how badly Sig botched them.  I unsucessfully searched high and low for a set of Aurora's before finally selling it.  Otherwise the rifle was great.  No issues feeding steel or brass cased .223/5.56.  I had a pile of mags to go with it as well.  The core of the rifle is nice....it's the little nitpick things like the sights that caused me to sell it in the end.  I actually contemplated buying another that was in the EE a while back with Aurora sights, but since I didn't keep any of the 30-some mags I had, didn't want to jump back into one at this point.


Looks like you're doing better than this Cabela's wanted for a used one.....

Here is mine with the MFI sights.  

MFI got around to making a diopter rear sight?  Nice!

I picked it up today. Won't be able to get to the range with it till next weekend. So far I'm quite pleased with it. It has the Swiss stock, and the handguards have very little play in them. Trigger is a little weird, but I think I'll be able to get used to it.

if you pull the pistol grip off you can see the spring retention system on the trigger.  If you  tighten it down a lot (for mine its almost all the way) you'll fid the gun actually has a great 2 stage style trigger.

Thanks for the tip.