The classic SIG rifles are going to be dropped at some point. I guarantee it.

SIG is increasingly defense oriented, while recognizing that their biggest customer is the US civilian market. You really don't make a lot of money, or reinforce yourself as a forward thinking modern arms company by selling an outdated design that really only appeal to collectors. There's little to no demand in the foreign arms market, and NONE in the western world for any version of the 550, 556, or XI. The global defense industry is hardcore wired for ARs and new rifles.

SIG is pushing the MCX as it's latest and greatest, and I could see it relegating the 516/716 to the back shelf. (It really is a better design). Unlike the ACR, it is already being adopted by some of the top units in the world and will do the "HK416" thing of being in tthe gun locker of every highspeed CT unit and SWAT team, while also actually being available for you to buy.

The 556 and XI are hardly expensive top dollar rifles, and are probably the cheapest "not AR"/"not AK" rifles available. The swiss built guns (550/551/552/553) are great reliable guns, but heavier and less versatile than the AR platform. I'm not sure even if readily available they'd really be much more popular. Being defensive about the 553 and claiming "poor people hate it because they can't afford it" is intellectually dishonest and ignores the fact that in the end it's a collectors piece. Built by a company who is slowly withering, hasn't adapted to the times, and continues to build and sell (at a massively declining rate) outdated collectors pieces that have dropped severely in popularity world-wide with professional users. Plenty of people here would love a classic SIG rifle, but nostalgia doesn't build sales or produce new more capable firearms for professional end users.

If the SIG rifles have any future it would have to be continued by small HK-like custom builders. Seems there are a ton of choices for getting roller-locked HK clones, but I'm not sure the SIGs were ever popular enough to get that support to begin with.

Considering the reasonable cost of the MCX for a non-AR rifle (that drops right on an AR lower) and it's adoption and use already you'll see the platform grow. You're right, it's not at that stage yet, but in a few years I think the MCX will do very well both as a commercial rifle and the go-to choice of well funded high-profile LEOs. The standard AR will always be king, but I see the MCX taking over the role of the HK416.

I REALLY liked the prototypes of the 716 LW, which I believe became the G2. However, SIG has already shown off working prototypes of the MCX-M (CSASS entrant) which are SR25 receiver compatible. having been involved in a lot of 716 projects I've always gotten the feeling that the G2 is the stopgap for the next few years until the MCX-M goes through needed development to become a viable system long term. The 516 has been fairly concrete while every change to the 716 I saw was incremental for best and, to me, suggested they were trying to figure out the best direction to go with it long term.

The G2 looks like a great gun (and the 716 IS a great gun), but it's not commercially available, and I'm not confident that there's too much future in it because it introduces future product redundancy.


The HK416 is a very highly regarded firearm but, materials advantages aside, it does little for most over a 10.5" AR or MK18. The MCX has a lot going for it that significantly improves over the HK416 and the AR. When the HKM4 project was developed they ended up scraping a lot of the goals and shoving a G36 oprod in an AR (originally it was supposed to be a G36-esque rifle that fit the M4 lower). The lead engineer went to SIG and was given the free reign to develop the LVAW (later HALO, then MPX/MCX) how he wanted. This resulted in a rifle whos gas system was designed to use as little gas as possible, allow for a variety of folding stocks, has as little recoil as possible, and designed to be suppressed without the noise of the gas system. I'm fairly confident that these advantages may make it the non-AR rifle of choice with legitimate advantages over the AR.

Classic SIG rifles have some beautiful craftsmanship and some advantages. But they also are easy to screw up during assembly(the guys who build SIG rifles hate working on them because they are so difficult to build), are not easily user serviced or modified, and are super expensive to build. Modern rifles are legos that can easily be manufactured and worked on; guns like the 516/716 (and sooon MPX/MCX/MCX-M) are more capable while being much cheaper to build and easier for the end user to service.