I have the opportunity to purchase a new-old-stock SIG 716 Patrol rifle from the first year of production for a really attractive price. The rifle was ordered with a substantial deposit and was upgraded by the dealer with a match trigger and a Smith Vortex flash hider. This rifle has been sitting in my local dealer's back for years and the dealer offered it to me at a ridiculous price after the customer left town (basically taking the deposit off the rifles cost).

I need some advice as to what the issues are regarding the "first generation" 7.62mm patrol rifles.

I have seen pictures of lower receivers that have been damaged by impact with the lower edge of the bolt carrier and I would really like to understand what that issue is. One of the theories I have heard was that the original bolt buffer was insufficient (a slash buffer could resolve that) and other comments I have read indicated the problem related to suppressing the rifle. Another comment suggested there was a problem with the geometry of the buffer tube location.

Could some of you SIG rifle RKI's step in here and give me the benefit of your thoughts?

I happen to have a SE suppressor left over from my M1A days that would pop right on that bad boy, so that does increase the attraction of that particular rifle, however dropping $1200 on a rifle that is a problem child is making me itchy.

Any thoughts, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Failure to feed. Polishing feed ramps to solve that.

Failure to eject. Addition of double ejectors to later bolt assemblies to solve that.

Subpar accuracy or worse than what may have been expected. Sig will not guarantee a certain level of accuracy.

Excessive adjustment of windage to zero. Not sure if sig actually attempts to  sight these guns before they leave production and are boxed up. I had two 556's and now one 716 and they all had that same issue.

All of the above I have either read about or experienced first hand with my 716. Other individuals, including myself, have had to send their 716's  back to sig. Some from what I understand multiple times to get issues resolved.

This may only serve to let you know what your might be in for. Do a search engine of "sig 716 issues".

$1200 only sounds like a great price compared to what Sig charges for a new one...   have you seen what you can buy one of the new Savages AR10s for?

AR10 part compatibility is already a gamble and Sig offers little to no support for old rifle platforms.   It would need to be priced near what you could recoup piecing out parts to Gunbroker or Numrich for me to buy it.

Another good point.

To give you an idea of the lack of aftermarket support other than basic AR parts and some aftermarket triggers, Lancer is the only maker of aftermarket handguards that I know of unless another manufacturer has stepped forward with another offering.

Unless they offered them before, Sig has only recently offered parts kits on their web site  for the 716 even though it has been in production for a couple of years.

I bought a Gen1 716 a few years ago.  The FDE Patrol model.

I bought it on a whim at a gun show.  Didn't really know anything about it but it looked really cool so I did an impulse buy.

When I got home from buying it I looked them up on the Internet and read a few reviews that said they were jamomatics and I would probably have to send it back to Sig to get them to work on it.

However, mine has been great.  The first round I fired in it failed to eject.  I cleared it and never have had a jam or failure to feed after that.  I probably have about 800 - 1000 rds through it with no problems.

I have used several different kinds of ammo in it and they all work fine.  NATO surplus, Gold Medal, cheap commercial .308 and reloads.  They all work fine.

The rifle can shoot as good as I can.  I get about the same groups with it as I get with my Loaded SA M1A.  Usually about 1.75 - 2 inch groups with NATO surplus and right at 1" for good quality commercial.  I can get sub MOA with my precision reloads.

My Gen 1 was fine for a while, then started FTF.  I do not have an exact round count, but probably less than 1000 total.  That's when I noticed the damage on the receiver where the bolt carrier was hitting.  Called SIG, wound up sending it to them.  They replaced it with a brand new G2, so I guess they figured it wasn't worth messing around with.

Do not have a lot of rounds through the G2 yet, but so far so good.  The G2 is noticeably lighter.  Still not a lightweight, but the G1 was a tank.

Up until the feeding issues, the G1 was fine, seemed accurate with decent ammo.  Trigger sucked, but that is easy enough to fix.

I wouldn't touch it.  As an owner of a 556 rifle that thankfully I haven't had any trouble with I am disappointed in Sig in that they no longer support the platform.  My biggest concern is that sales may slow for the 716 and then Sig will leave you in no man's land like me.  I would suggest purchasing a platform that is more popular and has aftermarket support.