# My new SIG 556 a review



## FrankW

This was the SIG 556 Classic, fully US made, receiver takes AR magazines, 1140 dollars plus shipping and FFL fee.
Preliminary not-yet-fired review:

Pros:

- Famous *Piston gas System*, makes for less cleaning, less heat on the internals so more reliability.
- *2 position switch *on gas system.. very cool feature when the gun gets too fouled to fire (by all accounts a very very rare event) this switch allowes more of the gas to drive the piston for the BCG back and continue firing.
- *Fold over Stock* reduces the lenght much more than a AR style telescoping stock.
- Absolutely *fantastic Diopter Sight*, can switch with the flick of a wrist between close, 100m, 200m, and 300m settings.
- *takes AR magzines* so those coming from AR's can keep using their PMag collections.
- Has a rep for great accuracy.
- *Looks cool*
- *Feels like a robust* gun (except handguards, more below)

Cons:

- My Rock River AR is much nicer put together, this SIG *feels cheap*.
- for example : this gun *greater gap between upper and lower receiver* than my AR, gap seems to tighten up once magazine is inserted.
- for example 2, *Handguards are of comically bad quality*. They even squeak when handled hard and seem seem to slide ever so little.
- *Heavy,* this is not a light rifle, even I with my 220 lbs I easily notice the difference. My RRA Rock River even with the Quadrail and the bulky last-gen Surefire is noticably lighter that this SiG 556 Classic is w/o any accessories. This impacts it's pointability and also incurs other carry penalties.
- The *Buttstock is way too short.* Just as bad as an AK Buttstock. This really surprised me as these rifles are a recent Swiss design and most Swiss are ethnic German and as such are not small men. I was actually counting on perfect ergonomics for me based on this consideration alone..The butt stock feels about 1.5-2 inches too short for me to get a comfortable shooting stance with the rifle. Supposedly there are modifications out there to address this.
- When the stock is folded the magazine release cannot be accessed. Not a problem with the original Swiss receiver (which had a Mag release on each side) but on the US style receiver the stock covers up the magazine release button on the right. Being limited to one Magazine is a pretty minor problem as in any realy firefight (and running out of a 30rd mag qualifies) one would fold the stock out.. but I wanted to mention it for completeness sake.

Summary:

Rifle has some great and cool unique features, that no one else in the up-to-$1500 price class has.
Also has great tested accuracy and relibility numbers from the big magazines.

Because of the gas system and the design features this had the potential of being such a cool rifle, but the sloppy execution of the rifles furniture ruins this a bit for me.
They did the hard stuff right but didnt follow through all the way.

Maybe this was pre-ordained, as they kept the price so low (for what it is)

When I saw it first I was wowed and ready to sell my AR to buy a second SIG, but now after handling it for an afternoon, I will not sell the AR,

The cool and unique features may still make this rifle a good buy at this price point for some. It's the cheapest rifle you can get that is a Gas Piston.

If you can live with its drawbacks that are mostly limited to it's poor furniture and high weight and want an affordable robust gas-piston rifle, this is still for you.

At this point i may not go out and bother shooting it since even if it shoots perfect ,the following considerations still apply for me:

Right now I might have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a SIG quadrail, an adaptor for a new buttstock and a new buttstock, to address my ergonomics issues (and lose the folding ability to boot  )

I dont like having to spend a chunk of $$ to make a new rifle work properly.

This SIG might be for sale very soon and might be replaced by a Bravo Company or Daniel Defense AR w/ Mid lenght Gas System.


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## truecarnage

Looks nice! I almost got the sig but went with the SR 556c, let me tell ya it ain't light either.
My rock river was much lighter but it was old and I wanted to upgrade to a new piston driven type AR.


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## FrankW

It looks cool and has great features for the price but I am not happy with some of the details.
I may not keep it since it will cost me 400 bucks to buy a replacement handguard ( likely via quadrail ) , a Buttstock adaptor for a AR Buttstock, a good AR Buttstock. All those htings together with shipping will be almost 400 bucks. half the price of a mid range AR, just to make this gun usable.

And That's assuming all the horror stories I read about form a couple years back from purchasers dont come true for this one.

So I will likely not fire it to be able to sell as unfired,and get close to my money back out.


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## mojo4

Buy American you turkey!!! Thats why were in trouble!! But seriously, Im not sold at all on the gas piston ar idea. It will not last nearly as long as the regular gas blowback design. The blowback is a little dirtier but will far far outlast the silly piston ak in ar pants nonsense.


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## FrankW

mojo4 said:


> Buy American you turkey!!! .


Actually this entire rifle is american made, *******.


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## Fn/Form

It looks like the sights have been made taller. Maybe high enough now to co-witness with an optic? That was a common complaint.

The "short" buttstock works better when you are wearing body armor and/or winter clothing. And as heavy as it is... nice to have weight closer to your body for easier hold.

How is the trigger and trigger reach? How are the mag release ergonomics?


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## FrankW

Trigger is good.
Mag release ergonomics are fine if you have a large hand.
Good point about the body armor.

Drop is Quadrails are 300 dollars spending over aquarter of the purhcase prise on addressing handgaurd si not going to happen.

My gunsmith can fix the handguards I am sure.
Basically the way to sum this rifle up is, features like a 1600 dollar rifle, assembly like a 600 dollar rifle.


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## SuspectZero

Ive used one. Agree with you Bluez. Not a fan for all the same reasons you said. I have a RRA Lar and love it except it takes getting used to the aluminum quads making it a little front heavy but ill have it by my side any day. Good luck with it and hopefully you didnt not by a gunsafe decoration.


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## FrankW

Sold it for 900 bucks locally.

The buyer got a great deal since none of the critisms really apply anymore in the 900 dollar price class.

Replaced it with a nice used AR with daniel defense Upper and Stag arms lower and full auto BCG plus chromed bolt. 
cold hammer fogeed barrell.
Used gun but hi en dused gun.
it did need new stock though didnt like th Vtor or whatever it was called.... just got done zeoring the AR and the stock it came wth was way to short for me. 
replaced it tonite already with a magpul 6 postion stock


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## mojo4

Cant go wrong with magpul furniture!! Get a nice vertical foregrip and a nice holographic sight and you are ready to rock!! The eotech is awesome and i just got to play with the meprotech. No batteries and it uses fiber optic and tritium.


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## prepperware

*SIG 556 swat patrol*

Hello - New to the site.. wanted to share my experience. I have the SWAT patrol version of the 556. It's lighter than the classic 556. I have a bushmaster m4 too and prefer the features of the 556. The trigger is very clean,predictable 2 stage system. Some say 3 stage because there is the initial set of the trigger onto the triggering pin, the pin then pushes back to the "edge" and just a very slight pull is a clean break. Hard to describe if you have not shot one but I prefer it over the BM.. Its a different design/operation than the BM. Both are great rifles. The gas system on the SIG is very robust and simple. It has a back up gas port setting in the event of a clogged port. The folding stock makes a shorter overall length than the colapsing M4 stock. Its the gas piston system and the trigger that sway me towards the 556. I would feel comfortable with either rifle if my life depended on the quality. The SWAT version came with the quad rail foregrip and is shorter than the classic's grip and shifts the balance from "nose heavy" to more centered like the M4.. If you get a chance to try one out, you might find it fits you better than the M4.. it's another worthy option.


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## Padre

BlueZ said:


> This was the SIG 556 Classic, fully US made, receiver takes AR magazines, 1140 dollars plus shipping and FFL fee.


It may take AR mags, but sadly  it doesn't take standard AR parts.



BlueZ said:


> The cool and unique features may still make this rifle a good buy at this price point for some. It's the cheapest rifle you can get that is a Gas Piston.


That being said... You can get into a Stag model 8 for the same price point, OR and this is what I just did, you can buy a MP-15 Sport, and buy a piston upper for between $1200 and $1500, and you get an extra (granted low end) DI upper.



BlueZ said:


> This SIG might be for sale very soon and might be replaced by a Bravo Company or Daniel Defense AR w/ Mid lenght Gas System.


I can't have a folding stock in MA, because a folding stock makes a rifle MEAN, and DANGEROUS. I mean I could get my finger stuck in it when it folds, BUT otherwise I would take it off your hands.


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## FrankW

Its sold and the new owner is reasonably happy 
I think if I had the SWAT version I would have been much happier with it.


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## Jezcruzen

Blue, thanks for that run down on the Sig. Very honest analysis, I would say.

I have an old Colt "Gov't Model" carbine. Man, I've owned it for a lot of years! But, been thinking of adding another.

Would you preference be to do a build rather than buy complete? I've built FALs, but never an AR.


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## Fn/Form

Jezcruzen said:


> Blue, thanks for that run down on the Sig. Very honest analysis, I would say.
> 
> I have an old Colt "Gov't Model" carbine. Man, I've owned it for a lot of years! But, been thinking of adding another.
> 
> Would you preference be to do a build rather than buy complete? I've built FALs, but never an AR.


I'm not BlueZ, but I'm a Colt LE/mil armorer and have carried ARs on duty for several years.

IMO, building an AR with compatible parts is excellent hands-on experience that should yield a decent shooter. If you're willing to spend a good amount of time on the details you can build a serious use rifle.

If you want a rifle you can trust your life to, there are a handful of shops that know how to build such rifles. Bravo Company, Noveske, LMT, Colt LE/mil (not the SP or sporter line) are at the top.

Daniel Defense is good, and then S&W duty rifles are probably the bottom of what I'd trust.

Some of the things to look at: NATO chamber, good barrel steel, quality bolt carrier group and gas key staking, proper gas port size, gas block taper pins, dimensional consistency, military grade parts, etc. A very good feature list can be viewed at the Comparison link at M4c:
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=82739

A parts recommendation. Geissele triggers are premier designs with military toughness. That's not an analogy--they actually give the .mil guys preference in development. It's hard to imagine why it took so long for Geissele to come along.


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## FrankW

FN:

I always thougth of S&W as barely mid range.
Where do you rank a off-the-shelf RRA vs a off-the-shelf S&W?

PS: Love the SIG diaopter sight.. the sight plus adaptor cost to put on my AR seems a bit spendy tho.


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## Fn/Form

BlueZ said:


> FN:
> 
> I always thougth of S&W as barely mid range.
> Where do you rank a off-the-shelf RRA vs a off-the-shelf S&W?
> 
> PS: Love the SIG diaopter sight.. the sight plus adaptor cost to put on my AR seems a bit spendy tho.


The S&W police ARs were the best bang for the buck, bar none, for the last few years. They listened to some knowledgeable people after they first came out, and they used great parts and had great reliability. I wondered if it was Kyle Lamb/Viking Tactics they listened to, as they had some off-the-shelf VTAC models. Anyway... only recently did they stop giving out the production info on their rifles. If someone can't swing a BCM, that's still my best/cheapest recommendation. Head and shoulders above my experience with Bushmaster and the other also-rans over 10yrs.

For the budget minded I'd still go with the S&W duty line vs. RRA. RRA also stopped giving out info, but even when they did they weren't close to mil spec. I'm not a fan of DPMS either, but one of the head Colt armorers let slip the fact Colt used a few of their small parts in their LE/mil line. "Parts is parts", as long as they're of the right material, treatment and within tolerance. That said, my buddy's DPMS patrol rifle has the rear iron adjusted waaaay to the right with every iron we've put on it. We haven't checked to see if it's receiver or barrel.

The diopter is great for target shooting... but I like a much more open field of view for patrol shooting. I'm actually running an older Diamondhead rear right now. Planning to move to the CSAT when I get another rear to cannibalize.


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## mojo4

I have lots of experience shooting a lot of AR rifles but not much with the actual building of them. With that said I definitely prefer to have them built rather than just order from some of the companies. With a good builder you can get a superior rifle with better components and its way way cheaper than buying a stock rifle and buying a bunch of upgrade parts. Id rather buy the right part once than always snooping for upgrades. So if you don't build em find a good local armorer. With that said, if you like holographic sights you gotta check out the meprotechs. No batteries and it runs off tritium and fiber optic.


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## Jezcruzen

Fn/Form said:


> I'm not BlueZ, but I'm a Colt LE/mil armorer and have carried ARs on duty for several years.
> 
> IMO, building an AR with compatible parts is excellent hands-on experience that should yield a decent shooter. If you're willing to spend a good amount of time on the details you can build a serious use rifle.
> 
> If you want a rifle you can trust your life to, there are a handful of shops that know how to build such rifles. Bravo Company, Noveske, LMT, Colt LE/mil (not the SP or sporter line) are at the top.
> 
> Daniel Defense is good, and then S&W duty rifles are probably the bottom of what I'd trust.
> 
> Some of the things to look at: NATO chamber, good barrel steel, quality bolt carrier group and gas key staking, proper gas port size, gas block taper pins, dimensional consistency, military grade parts, etc. A very good feature list can be viewed at the Comparison link at M4c:
> http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=82739
> 
> A parts recommendation. Geissele triggers are premier designs with military toughness. That's not an analogy--they actually give the .mil guys preference in development. It's hard to imagine why it took so long for Geissele to come along.


So, if you were building an AR, what brands of major components - upper, lower, barrel, sights, optics, internals - would you want?

Thanks for your input.


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