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Posted: 5/30/2008 9:23:52 PM EDT
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From another board: The 552 may be a short & accurate weapon, but it is not reliable. I've never had a stoppage with mine, but I have seen several weapons have catastrophic failures. That's enough reason for me to stop carrying it. The failures include such minor issues as bent return springs, broken return spring rods, bolt carrier broken in half, gas tube sheared in half, etc. Not what is expected out of a $1800 USD weapon. The B&T Rail system for the 552 is not worth buying, but is almost neccessary as the handguards overheat after only a few magazines. It does not lock in positively enough to mount optics or IR accessories. The worst part is that we don't have many rounds through these weapons. I'm positive that I have more rounds through my personal Black Special than any 2 of our 552s here in Iraq.  That's a broken 552 bolt carrier. The roll pin has been removed and the piston has been rotated to show the damage to the mating shoulder  this is the bolt carrier mating shoulder from that same piston close up.  This is the broken Recoil spring guide out of another weapon.  You can see how much of a beating it's taken in this shot.  This is the bolt carrier mating shoulder out of the same weapon that the broken spring guide came out of. It's obviously not as bad as the first one, but it's still taken a hell of a beating. In addition to this, we've had the rivet that holds on the cocking handle spring catch break and fall off. So there was nothing to hold the cocking handle in. 1800 rifle sidelined for a part that's probably not worth 2 cents. On another weapon we had the roll pin that holds the piston to the bolt carrier work out the right side of the carrier and bind up the action. We've had some Croatian and Radway Green ammo put through these, and when we had our firing pin issues it was with this ammo. But the vast majority of what we shoot is Lake City stamped M855. To be fair other entities in country are using different versions, like the 551 and they don't seem to be having the difficulties that we are. As far as I can tell these problems seem to be confined to the 552 series. But my scope is limited to what I see. I've got a Black Special and what ever Swiss Arms calls the 551 at home, and they both work flawlessly, no complaints at all. But after seeing this I'm wondering if the almost 7k I've got invested in these things might have been better spent elsewhere. |
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I've read the 552 beats itself to death. It's a shortened action version of the 550/551 with some noticeable design differences. The bolt carrier and piston are pinned together. The recoil spring pushes the BCG forwards instead of pulling it forward. In the 552, the recoil spring/guide is in the receiver vs. being in the gas tube. The shortened action results in higher stresses. The failed parts in the pics illustrate that issue. Need to search some more, but SIG (SAN Swiss Arms) was working on a 553 model to address some of these design issues. SAN Swiss Arms may be able to retrofit 552 uppers to 553s. The upper has to be shipped to them. The retrofit appears to be a decoupling the piston and BCG and a 550/551-style gas tube and recoil spring. Neu = New in this pic: 
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Hi Somebody directed me here from the SIG forum. I was gob-smacked to see this from a SIG 552, if I think what my 550 has been through in the service. But frankly I never heared of this problem here in Switzerland. That bent screw plate pic didn't let me go and then I tried to think where this was on my 552 (original 2000 SIG made NOT new managment German SAN!). I dont have one! My orginal SIG 552 has a shorter gasrod and it's welded in to the front of my boltcarrier at three points. Completly different engineering. In my opinion new German SAN who is running SIG now, needed to save cash and changed to screw assembly from welding for cost reasons. I never heared about any problems with the orginal made Swiss SIG552's neither in the Swiss Army nor in the Swiss civilian market. So it definatly is the micky mouse rod assembly of German SAN that has caused this problem. Instead of quality welding they cobbled up a cheap solution that can't work in reality... I have come to loath the Germans running SIG/SAN Quality and Service has deteriorated since their take over. They can't answer any questions anymore, nor send the right spares sets. In the good old Swiss days things like this just didn't happen. I hear only three people left in the factory assemblying for civilian market, everything else outsourced to the Reich. Sad end to a quality Swiss company. SAN only cashing in on the name and not deliverying money's worth...save your hard earned cash guys or try and get the original Swiss SIG made guns pre 2001. |
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