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The problem with Sig Rifles

7K views 50 replies 31 participants last post by  Johnson8861 
#1 ·
Is there REALLY a problem so to speak, or is the new age of the computer and conversing with one another across the Net really the problem.
If you take into account how many different people are on these sites, and you are hearing about problems from people who live clear across the united states this is one reason people get the idea there is a problem. But take into account how many Sig rifles that are out there. If your hearing about even say 100 different people having problems that is a very small percentage. And to really add up how many different people are having problems you probably wont get a 100. It just seems like a lot on one site is all. And most are user error. And if you go to all the different manufacturers web sites they are ALL having trouble of one kind or other from the so called cheap brands to the most expensive.

And just because you read it on the web does not make it true, Now if rifles were exploding or coming apart they would have a problem. But a few FTF or FTE is very seldom the rifles fault. Even saying well its only a 2" moa gun how good does that person shoot it may well be a 2 moa user.

Just saying I think sometimes its a snow ball rolling down hill, These rifles are pretty straight forward and if something is wrong it can be fixed. There are thousands out there you never hear about. If they were all bad and being sent back the manufacture would go broke. Thanks Sig for a fine rifle.
 
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#36 · (Edited)
I recently purchased a Ruger SR762 which is a .308 AR Piston Platform rifle. It just came out in October and like many new guns was problem plagued in the early ones sold. Mine was one of those so off to Ruger it went to get fixed. Ruger sent a nice detailed note of exactly what they did to the rifle, some of which I would not have noticed. They replaced the entire upper and all of its components including BCG...replaced trigger with a higher quality job and all new magazines, Magpul Gen 3. I posted it on the Ruger Forum and encouraged others who were having problems to send their rifles back in. The same should happen her with Sig stuff.

You do have to bear in mind that Sig is a European Company with an American presence. Make no mistake however that it is European and in so much as that is a fact it is very much an issue as to how they render customer service, which is inferior compared to American companies. Not to say that Sig is inferior in its service but it can not hold a candle to a company like Ruger. I say this sadly as I am a big Sig fan. Shopping in Europe is a completely different experience than what we have in the good ol' USA....
 
#38 ·
I get the idea that out of all 516's sold maybe a fractionally small number have problems and all those people find their way to Sig Talk. So maybe there is some of that going on but it doesn't mean much to those who have had to deal with this frustrating problem. My 516 problem was very real. I took the gun back to my gun store (the largest gun dealer in Houston), which also has a full-time gunsmith shop. They worked on the gun but could not get it to do any better than single shot. So they just gave me a new 516 and returned the first one back to Sig as fully defective. A few weeks later I checked in at the gun store and was told they had a couple more 516's come back with similar problems. The gun dealer was unhappy having unhappy customers and they told me they were going to contact Sig to discuss the issue. I'm not sure if they did or how it turned out but the point is, the gun was truly defective and the gun store and the gunsmith agreed.

Now, the replacement 516 has been fine. I have only put 500 or 600 rounds through it but have had no issues. It is so weird. I really like this gun. It's very accurate and a blast to shoot. I would be head over heels in love with it if I could stop thinking about the earlier problems.

Now I want an AR-10 and would like to go with the 716 but I don't want to go through this again so thinking about going with Colt LE901. I am worried about the Colt DI system vs Sig piston (I like the idea of the piston system), and Colt is more expensive, but I am thinking the Colt will be more reliable. I know a lot of people have issues with Colt but the bar is set pretty low for me at this point. I just expect a new gun from a name brand like Colt or Sig for that matter, to at least fire properly when its brand new.
 
#40 · (Edited)
I still have the box from first 516 at home and I believe it's born-on date was mid April 2013. On the replacement, I don't have the box as they just gave me the new gun and kept that box to ship the 1st one back to Sig. This happened within a few weeks so I assume they would have had similar manufacturing dates but I do not know for sure the date for the replacement.

I don't think I could have run 120 rounds through the 1st one. I guess I could have tried to single shot the thing over and over but I am pretty sure I would have wrapped it around a tree before I made 120 rounds. It was awful and I was ******. In most cases when fired, the bolt didn't even budge. If it did happen to try and eject, it would only halfway feed from the mag and it mangled many fresh rounds. And I mean mangled them beyond any possibility of future use.

Glad to hear your 516 worked through the problem. It sounds like you had a true break-in issue.
 
#41 ·
The thing to remember on the net is people who have had an issue are 99.9% more likely to post their experience than someone who isn't having any issues.
I've never called a company to tell them how much I'm enjoying their product but I certainly have made calls when something went wrong :)
 
#42 · (Edited)
@dmspec, I definitely was going to send mine back but it settled down just before I was going to give up. Mine also cycled ok on adverse, so I only had a few consecutive shots where I had manually cycle it and all the others were just random times. I only had about 6-9 where they didn't cycle, so I wouldn't have hesitated to send it right back to the factory if I had more problems.
 
#43 ·
Yes I didn't mention it but I tried the Adverse mode too and it did fire properly for about 3 or 4 rounds before it went back to not ejecting rounds. After that there was no difference for me between Normal mode and Adverse.

One thing I found is that if you look for issues with other brands you will find it. For instance, if you Google "Colt LE6920 Problems" or "Stag AR Problems" you will find other forums where people had issues with those guns similar to what some of us have had with the SIG. Not sure what that means. Perhaps it supports greyghost's theory that there will always be a few problems with any item of sophisticated machinery. Also, maybe it means that a brand name AR-type rifle is made a little tighter than, say, a deer rifle that some of us might be accustomed to.

And maybe roninart is correct as well and I'm just part of the .001% that get the short stick. Which actually makes a lot of sense the way my luck always seems to go.:)
 
#44 ·
@dmspec, one other thing. Most here recommend a thorough cleaning which you may have done, but an area on mine I noticed, which I felt could have impacted the cycling, was that the gas piston was really dirty and almost binding. I cleaned that carefully and lubed it with CLP and it seemed to move a lot more freely. Might try that if you haven't and it that helps may be it or if not, one more thing eliminated.
 
#45 ·
Yeah I cleaned it real good before firing and 3 more times afterward trying to resolve the problem. The gun was cleaned and lubed well but still didn't work. So then they gave me the replacement and not a single problem. And I didn't treat it any differently. Same cleaning etc.
I was really happy with my gun dealer for just giving me a new gun. Many guys with this problem had to send their gun back and forth to Sig with all the waiting in between. That has to suck.
 
#47 ·
I just purchased mine and only have 10 rounds through it so far, I'm waiting on a couple of parts to come in before I really start to break her in (2 stage trigger and a muzzle break). I'm amazed at how the stock trigger feels otherwise everything else looks and feels great. Once I do get some rounds down range good or bad I'll post my experience.
Even if I do have some issues I am lucky that Sig is only 15 minutes for my house so I could be there everyday asking on progress, lol.
 
#48 ·
Oh and I did do a very thorough clean and lube, some of that shipping coat took awhile to get completely cleared.
 
#50 ·
sig has grown exponentially the last couple of years, both in their product line, buildings (their new pease facility is sweet), numbers of employees etc. some problems would be expected. I have purchased several firearms, with only 1 problem which was promptly addressed. from what I have personally seen, the 716 problems seem to be ironed out, i'll be picking mine up monday:D
 
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