Anybody know if Sigarms will sell their .223 rifles to us civilians?

Man I would sure love to have a semi 550.

CRC

Not unless one of two things occurs, and I wouldn't bet on either one.

1) The 1989 Import Ban would be recinded.  Not gonna happen.

2) SIG decided to build them here in the US up in Exeter, NH.  Possible, but highly unlikely.

It's nice to dream though.........

The problem isn't the 1994 ban which sunsets next year.  

The problem is SIG's own stupid policies (shared by HK).  They don't want to market EBRs to civilians.  

True, there is the 1989 law which says that a rifle must have X number of US parts.  But, that's easy to get around - get a machine shop here in the US to build US made substitutes on your behalf.  

Century, does this with the G3 (as did the famous Todd of Special Weapons) - that's money HK could be making with the HK91 (I'm sure that if they were sold for the LEO listed $1200 some would pay for it rather than get a monkey-assembled, I-survived-30-years-in-a-third-world-army POS).  

All SIG would need to make here would be a plastic non-folding butt, a pistol grip, a handguard, and do some precision machinery for their HTS.  

BTW, you CAN own a Semi 550/Stg90:

- you can get a preban.  I've seen prices range from $6000 to $10,000.

-Todd of Special Weapons claims that he will be making post ban civilian legal ones soon.  Price, IIRC is $3000.  


It's a shame that one option is expensive, the other is unreasonable.  The Stg 90 in Swiss service beats all their .30 service rifles in 300m competition, and is claimed to be the most accurate military rifle around.  I'd like to put it up against my AR-15!

Marketing policies like those practiced by SIG & H&K smell of European social engineering. Their denying civilians market access to firearms stinks of passive gun control.

********

One has to wonder what kind of bug H&K management has up its a$$. They seem to consistently go out of their way to diminish the civilian market. IMO, the SL-8 & USC45 were nothing but emasculated versions of the G36 & UMP45, respectively. I have been told by many a dealer that the M4 is beating the G36 C & K variants in the LE market partly because H&K is a lousy company to deal with, imposing excessive rules & controls over dealers. You'd think they were out to screw themselves out of a profit.

Does Germany have some sort of high-priced doll going out to companies that lose money? That might explain it.

But those are the policies of SIGArms in the US, NOT in Europe! The semi 55x series is available all over Europe, unless the various govn't has banned them.

hee hee!

[img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=1261[/img]

[:D]

Brou, Very nice, very nice indeed.

I raise your "hee hee", Brouhaha! [:D] [:P]

[img]http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/Cardinal/SIG551_1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/Cardinal/Wpn_selection.jpg[/img]

Yeah, well..

umm..

well..

That doesn't count since you're in Norway!  Yeah!  (now I feel self-assured [:D])

Nice 551 there.  I'm thinking about buying a 551LB barrel myself.  The regular 551 barrel is too short and I'd have to register the rifle as a SBR [:(]

Saw an ad for SIG semis in a magazine, the kind you read, the cover has a sniper type rifle in 280 ackley.
GG

Brouhaha and Cardinal,

How do they shoot and are they really worth the money? They look nice and I'd apprciate any info on them.

CRC

The Sig 550 is sold all over Europe still. Even then, its still expensive. Here in Germany, they sell a sporter version for about $3k. The gun shops I visited in Switzerland, it was still about $2k.

In canada they sell some Sig 550 offshoot made by sig. The rifle has a blue finish but it looks alot like the original 550. So yes they will sell their semi auto evil rifles.

SIG makes great handguns, and our snipers love their expensive SIG rifles. I had a chance to handle a couple of the SIG assault rifles (real assault rifles). They were "neat" but I think there was more functionality and ergonomics in our M4 carbines. SIG is supposedly coming out with models with rails, and that would make them better, but for the price of one stock SIG 550 series weapon, I can buy a couple of Colts, maybe three Bushmasters, or one Colt or Bushie with lots of high-speed gear.

I think I'll stick with AR15 variants for the time being.

Are they worth the money?
Well that depends on what you pay for them I guess. Here in Norway a SIG SG550 or a 551 SWAT (like I have) will cost you approx. $500 more than a Bushmaster (in preban config).
A BM will cost around $2000 in Norway today because US Dollar is weak vs the Norwegian Krona. 1 USD = approx. 7 NOK, while the normal is more like 1USD = 8 or 9 NOK.
The SIGs are about $2500
The good news is that you normally wouldn't have wait more than a couple of days for the SIG, worst case being about 1-2 weeks if they have to get another one from Switzerland.
The problem with Bm is that due to the US State Dept and the incompotent importers, you're looking at a 6months+ wait before you get it.


SIG Pros:
1: Excellent trigger out of the box
2: Very reliable, uses an AK-type gas-system
3: Very accurate
4: Tritium sights as standard
5: Pushpins are impossible to accedently push out.
6: Extremly solid folding stock, very stable
7: Mags clip toghter, great for MOUT.
8: Clear plastic lid on the pistolgrip where you can write your name. (this is a feature I like from a military point of view. Often we had to toss the HK G3's in the trunk or the cargo hold of a buss while in transit. Then when we would arrive, they would have to be sorted by their serielnumber. It would be a LOT easier to simply look on the nametag.)


Cons:
1: More expensive
2: Not as many accessories (so if you want your gun to look like a Sci-Fi gun you'll be dissipointed...)
3: Magazines doesn't drop straight down. Uses the Hk "rocking-motion". (but I'm used to the HK G3 so this doesn't really bother me)
4: Mags won't fit in all pouches due to the clips on the sides.


All above is of course only "IMHO"....

Cardinal,

Thanks! That sux that our govt won't let you buy AR-15s without a bunch of bs. I doubt Bush will change it. His dad virtually banned Sigs from being imported here.

CRC