User Panel
Posted: 1/4/2020 9:09:03 PM EDT
Does anyone still shoot or mess with these?
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Popularity has definitely dwindled in recent years. Most people are off to mcx land. I. Sure there a still some out there though
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Does anyone still shoot or mess with these? View Quote Pretty cool and something a little different |
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I love mine.
Used it in a rifle class at Front Sight recently and am very pleased with it. At minimal, it’s nice to have a “not AR” |
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I guess I need to get it out and shoot it again. I remember I had an issue with the rear diopter sight constantly working it’s way loose... I’ve seen a couple of the newer-style handguard that I like. From the SWAT model I think. Might have to give those a look if I decide to keep it.
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I have one and like it. Don’t shoot it a whole lot since spare parts don’t seem to be easy to come by or inexpensive.
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Popularity has definitely dwindled in recent years. Most people are off to mcx land. I. Sure there a still some out there though View Quote It was produced for 12 years, and the MCX reportedly outsold it in its first couple of years of production. |
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Never got into the 556.
I have a 551 and it's great. If you have a 556, the parts that are compatible with Swiss guns can be obtained from SAN, but you're SOL on the incompatible parts (such as the barrel). A 556 can be modified to use a Swiss trunnion, but it's major receiver surgery. Alternatively, you can permanently adapt a Swiss barrel to the US 556 trunnion (with a custom fabricated adapter and some lathe work) but that sucks too. The 556 trunnions didn't use indexed threads, but all the Swiss trunnions did. Different pitch too. I would only buy a 556 if you get a screaming deal on one, and if it's unlikely you'll ever need to replace the barrel. I'm not sure what the longevity rating is, but the US barrels do not last as long as the Swiss barrels. I'd steer clear of the 556XI since it has even less parts in common with its Swiss cousins. I passed up some P556 pistols (and SBRs) for around $1200 and don't see them offered much now. That's the model I'd be interested in, since it's like an el-cheapo 553. A real SAN 553 is like $3300. |
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I have two rifles... A pistol... And 2 522s.
I shoot at least one of them every time a burn powder. I always wondered how a gun that got so popular, could fall out of Grace so quickly, and damn near vanish. I love the 556. |
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Have a pair. A green Classic, and a black SWAT Classic. Big plus to me was the folding/adjustable stocks. And the use of M16 mags. Haven't gotten around to scoping one of them. Both shoot well with Aimpoints and the Diopter sights. I got one of the spare parts kit coguns(?) had a few years back. I like them but they ARE heavy.
Paladin |
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It was never popular, not with the civilian market and definitely not with any mil/le. That's why it was dropped. It was produced for 12 years, and the MCX reportedly outsold it in its first couple of years of production. View Quote Exeter coasted on the good reputation of SIG (SwissArms), while offering a garbage rifle. What a sad endeavor indeed. |
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Quoted: It was never popular with the civilian/collector market because Exeter rolled out a genuine turd with multiple sloppy turd variants plagued with erratic manufacturing defects, slipshod QC/QA, and a general Walmart-like approach to firearm design and marketing, replete with Chinesium and Indian made parts and accessories. Exeter coasted on the good reputation of SIG (SwissArms), while offering a garbage rifle. What a sad endeavor indeed. View Quote The vast majority of 556 guns are extremely robust and reliable. Were they the 55X Swiss guns everyone hoped for? Nope. Are they essentially a beefed up, super reliable (heavy) AK type of gun? Most definitely. People gripped about aesthetics mostly. Cheap furniture, an occasional canted sight, but these guns just flat out work. You are right about Sigs turn under Cohen to a cheaper, more gimmicky approach across the board though. |
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^^^ This is largely fiction. ^^^ The vast majority of 556 guns are extremely robust and reliable. We're they the 55X Swiss guns everyone hoped for? Nope. Are they essentially a beefed up, super reliable (heavy) AK type of gun? Most definitely. People gripped about aesthetics mostly. Cheap furniture, an occasional canted sight, but these guns just flat out work. You are right about Sigs turn under Cohen to a cheaper, more gimmicky approach across the board though. View Quote Contrast that with their current optics, which have a good reputation. |
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Quoted: It was never popular with the civilian/collector market because Exeter rolled out a genuine turd with multiple sloppy turd variants plagued with erratic manufacturing defects, slipshod QC/QA, and a general Walmart-like approach to firearm design and marketing, replete with Chinesium and Indian made parts and accessories. Exeter coasted on the good reputation of SIG (SwissArms), while offering a garbage rifle. What a sad endeavor indeed. View Quote |
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Love shooting mine especially suppressed. One pistol on a form 1 (my shooter) and one factory SBR (right) still unfired. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1024x768q90/922/53sxCj.jpg View Quote |
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^^^ This is largely fiction. ^^^ The vast majority of 556 guns are extremely robust and reliable. Were they the 55X Swiss guns everyone hoped for? Nope. Are they essentially a beefed up, super reliable (heavy) AK type of gun? Most definitely. People gripped about aesthetics mostly. Cheap furniture, an occasional canted sight, but these guns just flat out work. You are right about Sigs turn under Cohen to a cheaper, more gimmicky approach across the board though. View Quote |
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I got one because it was in video games. It’s a really nice rifle, but for me it’s definitely more of a novelty compared to contemporary AR offerings.
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It's not largely fiction. I could list of half a dozen real issues off the top of my head over the years of the 556 production. I've owned 5 or 6, sold all but one. I'll stick to Swiss 55x. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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^^^ This is largely fiction. ^^^ The vast majority of 556 guns are extremely robust and reliable. Were they the 55X Swiss guns everyone hoped for? Nope. Are they essentially a beefed up, super reliable (heavy) AK type of gun? Most definitely. People gripped about aesthetics mostly. Cheap furniture, an occasional canted sight, but these guns just flat out work. You are right about Sigs turn under Cohen to a cheaper, more gimmicky approach across the board though. |
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Quoted: It was never popular with the civilian/collector market because Exeter rolled out a genuine turd with multiple sloppy turd variants plagued with erratic manufacturing defects, slipshod QC/QA, and a general Walmart-like approach to firearm design and marketing, replete with Chinesium and Indian made parts and accessories. Exeter coasted on the good reputation of SIG (SwissArms), while offering a garbage rifle. What a sad endeavor indeed. View Quote |
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This is actually spot on. Early ones had shit everywhere - all furniture & even iron sights. Even gave you a bonus Chinese res dot. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted: It was never popular with the civilian/collector market because Exeter rolled out a genuine turd with multiple sloppy turd variants plagued with erratic manufacturing defects, slipshod QC/QA, and a general Walmart-like approach to firearm design and marketing, replete with Chinesium and Indian made parts and accessories. Exeter coasted on the good reputation of SIG (SwissArms), while offering a garbage rifle. What a sad endeavor indeed. SIG shit the bed largely on aesthetics. The red dot it shipped with it was junk. The furniture was shit. Neither of which I intended to use....much like many of us treat AR's. We choose those things in many cases after we buy a gun. My 556P was SBRed. I put a stock on it, a rail and a T1. Flawless function in easily 3-4 thousand rounds. Never a failure of any kind and outstanding accuracy. My one gripe is that it's heavy for an SBR. Otherwise, it's outstanding. What am I missing? |
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No argument, but, nothing that effected function. View Quote There was a second one which came in with a part failure, but I can't remember what broke. I'm thinking it was a MIM part. |
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1. Canted/warped top of receivers
2. Variable welds of bolt carrier rails in receiver 3. Catastrophic failure of gas tubes 4. Improper gas ports on gas valves 5. Nutcerts pulling out of receivers 6. Out of spec trunion that peens the carrier 7. Catastrophic failure of bolt carrier cocking handle retaining latch Among a few others. Not to mention horrific furniture, Indian MIMd parts, Chinesium optics and lights, cheesy very loose facsimile of the original diopters. 556s without these issues function fine. The equivocality of Exeter’s manufacturing, QC, and QA make it impossible to trust a 556 without first inspecting it for one or more of these issues. Converting a 556 to be more Swiss at this point is a fool’s errand, as a 553 can be had for close to the same cost. Been there done that three times with no expense spared conversions. Never again. It was a very simple prospect to make a proper 551. Exeter had the tools to do it. And collectors would have paid for a properly made US 551 priced at $2k - $2500. Instead they F’d it all up on an epic scale. Very sad. But thankfully we are in a second golden age for Swiss 55x imports. And I’m thankful for the 556 because it did give us some 922(r) parts, assuming they aren’t actually made in India. |
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I have a early 556 with swiss internals and have no complaints about mine, very reliable. Since sig no longer supports it, I dont really shoot it that much, not because i feel that it has any significant value, but because once the barrel is shot out, its a parts gun..
if you can find one cheap, for a range toy, its not a bad rifle. |
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1. Canted/warped top of receivers 2. Variable welds of bolt carrier rails in receiver 3. Catastrophic failure of gas tubes 4. Improper gas ports on gas valves 5. Nutcerts pulling out of receivers 6. Out of spec trunion that peens the carrier 7. Catastrophic failure of bolt carrier cocking handle retaining latch Among a few others. Not to mention horrific furniture, Indian MIMd parts, Chinesium optics and lights, cheesy very loose facsimile of the original diopters. 556s without these issues function fine. The equivocality of Exeter’s manufacturing, QC, and QA make it impossible to trust a 556 without first inspecting it for one or more of these issues. Converting a 556 to be more Swiss at this point is a fool’s errand, as a 553 can be had for close to the same cost. Been there done that three times with no expense spared conversions. Never again. It was a very simple prospect to make a proper 551. Exeter had the tools to do it. And collectors would have paid for a properly made US 551 priced at $2k - $2500. Instead they F’d it all up on an epic scale. Very sad. But thankfully we are in a second golden age for Swiss 55x imports. And I’m thankful for the 556 because it did give us some 922(r) parts, assuming they aren’t actually made in India. View Quote SAN uses laser welding equipment that was cost prohibitive at the time for SIG to purchase. Plus, with stamped/pressed guns there tends to be a need to institutional knowledge aspect most forget. Look how long its taken to get quality HK clones that run. Im not trying to diminish how bad the 556 were, I'm just relating what I learned while I was there. ETA: collectors may have paid $2.5k for a proper clone. But that's not a long term business model for a company trying to expand long term into the mil/le & civilian markets. That 2.5k is almost 3.2k today. What large gun company is selling $3200 5.56 guns? That's Tommy Built custom territory. And (its been a while) but I believe the cost would have been closer to $3k to do it correctly. |
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They didn't have the tools to do it. Which was the problem. SAN uses laser welding equipment that was cost prohibitive at the time for SIG to purchase. Plus, with stamped/pressed guns there tends to be a need to institutional knowledge aspect most forget. Look how long its taken to get quality HK clones that run. Im not trying to diminish how bad the 556 were, I'm just relating what I learned while I was there. ETA: collectors may have paid $2.5k for a proper clone. But that's not a long term business model for a company trying to expand long term into the mil/le & civilian markets. That 2.5k is almost 3.2k today. What large gun company is selling $3200 5.56 guns? That's Tommy Built custom territory. And (its been a while) but I believe the cost would have been closer to $3k to do it correctly. View Quote I completely agree re: a poor business model selling a $3k collectible rifle. But so was ever thinking the 556 could compete on the LE market. |
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Quoted: $3k for a proper rifle would have been fine, albeit for collectors. They folded and welded uppers. They should have done a Swiss spec welded steel optic rail. That (in theory) should not have added significant complexity in light of what they were already doing. They could have purchased lowers and other parts from Switzerland. Or made a better aluminum lower. Or better yet, do what Arsenal USA, Steyr USA, FN, CZ USA, etc did (and still do) and import Swiss rifles, add 922(r) parts, sell commercially. I completely agree re: a poor business model selling a $3k collectible rifle. But so was ever thinking the 556 could compete on the LE market. View Quote |
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Quoted: Which was why they dropped it after 12 years and went all in on the MCX. View Quote Not that my business matters at all to Exeter. And I’m fairness they have been killing it on the mil contract side. I do wonder if the recent announcement of investigations into corrupt practices in government contracts will bite them. I hope not. |
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I love all of mine, the 55X is actually my favorite rifle pattern.
I have 556 ER Swat P556 Swat 556 ER-DMR (The 1/8 twist model) 522 And i just paid for a 556R Classic this morning (kinda excited for a new one to be honest) I also bought a shit ton of parts from CDNN when they bought out SIG's inventory (BCGs, fire control, etc.) I am lucky as most of mine are early models which didnt seem to have the issues later ones did. The 556 ER Swat was my patrol rifle from 2008 to 2019 and it has over 20k rounds through it. The only problems I ever encountered was a broken charging handle retainer and the screws holding the rail on the upper backed out. The charging handle required a trip back to Sig, the scews just needed blue loctite. I retired it after Sig stopped supporting the line, but it still gets shot. The P556s tend to eat themselves so i dont shoot it much. The 522 is a tackdriver and will eat anything I put in it, even Remington bulk bucket crap. The DMR is awesome but it is a very heavy pig. People whine about the weight of the 55X line, the regular line has nothing on the DMR's portliness so it is mainly a bench/varmit rifle. We will see what the 556R brings |
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Quoted: Yep. And while the mcx is interesting, Exeter forever lost me as a customer when they employed their Walmart model. I’ll stick to Swiss 55x, HK, B&T, Steyr, FN, KAC, and LMT for long guns. Not that my business matters at all to Exeter. And I’m fairness they have been killing it on the mil contract side. I do wonder if the recent announcement of investigations into corrupt practices in government contracts will bite them. I hope not. View Quote |
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I have a factory 556 SBR.
Nice gun, seems to run fine, no issues. I would like to get one that has the original style lower and takes original mags. |
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I have a 556 classic with factory ambi mag release and a 522. Both have been good rifles for me.
The 556 is a wee bit front heavy though. |
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I had a 556 Swat version with low S/N (fairly early version from mid 2008). Put maybe, 500-750 rounds through it without issue over a couple years.
-Heavy -Accuracy with mil-spec ammo 5 moa on a good day (using a Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x) from a bench. -Solidly made with good fit and finish (my sample) -Accessories and hardware from Sig - Stock and side-folder mechanism, GARBAGE - I replaced with Magpul immediately -Sig-tac light - ABSOLUTE JUNK - Sold on forum LOL -SWAT Rail - Super heavy, short on real estate and not user friendly to remove. Also VERY sharp edges. -Swat improved Trigger - Not terrible, but not even close to awesome. (horrible when compared to modern AR trigger JP, Larue, etc) -Aftermarket support was non-existent early on and then a few things here and there- then dead forever!!! -Did I say heavy?? At the time, it scratched the piston driven "itch" I had for a quasi-551 that I was looking for. However, it really never made it out from the back of the safe. Same with the Sig 716 that I purchased a few years later. I had never planned to sell, as I rarely sell, but after about 10 years in the safe, I stripped accessories and Sold at a small loss. On its own, it wasn't bad, but when I ventured out into top tier AR pattern rifles the Sig 556 design seemed to "age" very poorly. I still enjoy and respect its Euro-heritage, especially full-blooded 551's!!! I still like the Sig rifles and always eyeball the MCX line (have and MPX), so, I am not a Sig rifle hater |
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It is a shame the history of the SIG 556. I blame this more on Cohen and the lack of direction at SIG USA, QC, and QA. The 556 can't compare to the SIG/SAN rifles. I have the AMT, 550, 552, 751 and they are amazing rifles. I also have the SIG 556, WCA 551, 551a1, P556 SBR, and the 556R (Gen II). You can really tell the difference in quality and aesthetics when you place the rifles next to each other. My next piece will be the 551Lb or the 553LB.
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It is a shame the history of the SIG 556. I blame this more on Cohen and the lack of direction at SIG USA, QC, and QA. The 556 can't compare to the SIG/SAN rifles. I have the AMT, 550, 552, 751 and they are amazing rifles. I also have the SIG 556, WCA 551, 551a1, P556 SBR, and the 556R (Gen II). You can really tell the difference in quality and aesthetics when you place the rifles next to each other. My next piece will be the 551Lb or the 553LB. View Quote SIG USA want able to use the same machinery to build the guns in the US. Also, across the board stamped welded guns present real problems when built by another entity. Look at the decades of crappy HK builds, COLT building M240s, etc... Stamped welded steel guns require a measure of institutional knowledge that takes time to acquire. SAN had been building those guns for decades, SIG built a similar gun without the tooling, machinery, and knowledge that SAN had while doing it at a price the consumer would stomach. |
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I did the same, so that makes 2 in NH at least... It's really a great gun, soft shooting, runs well with or without a suppressor. I really enjoy mine. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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Quoted: Yep I know all about gas tube failures on my SIG-P556... https://i.imgur.com/9hpdUBfl.jpg I'm just glad I found the gas regulator in the grass at the range... View Quote I had this kind of failure on a full sized 556 after about 15,000 rounds, a thousand or so of it suppressed. I now have a P556 SBR and I'm curious about your experience. Thanks. L |
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I did the same, so that makes 2 in NH at least... It's really a great gun, soft shooting, runs well with or without a suppressor. I really enjoy mine. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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