Update**** It has arrived POST 65****

Judging by detailed close-up pics of the Famae rifles I wouldn't pay a dime over $1800 for one based on the build quality. With that in mind, the XCR-L with keymod and light profile barrel easily gets my vote. It's just more versatile IMO

The build quality is actually quite close to that of the Swiss Arms rifles. The finish isn't nearly as pretty, but they're built exceptionally well. I'd trust a 540/542 over an XCR any day.
 
I have an XCR-M and like it. The ergonomics are the best I have seen, there are ample spare parts available, PMAGS are fairly inexpensive and the gun seems to be reliable. Still have to pay the NR tax, but them's the breaks in Kanada.
 
The finish is a good part of what I take into account when determining the quality of an item, not sure how you can have a high quality item if the finish is poor?.

The swiss rifles are a step above even the original German made sigs when it comes to quality and the Famae sitting next to a German sig sticks out like a sore thumb
 
Calgary Shooting Center has a complete stock of all the spare parts for the FAMAE. People must realize, the 54x was designed 45 years ago to be a conscript military rifle that could be built and used by almost any country. It certianly has its faults and in-issue form is not a MOA rifle, but is is very reliable. A few mods and it can shoot about as well as a PE90. A number of Swiss club members bought them last year when out beloved Classic Greens suddenly became prohib thanks to a certain person who owns a range in Calgary (hint, not the CSC). Initially we were underwhelmed by the accuracy at 300 meters, but by applying the same tweaks to the 540 that are applied to the Classic Green for match shooting, it does shoot quite well.

The current RA rifles are well built, modern in design and manufacturing quality and reliable. For the average shooter, I would get a RA before a 54x.

If you guys could make a thread with the tweaks ya'all did to those 540's to accurize them, I (and many others I'm sure) would be grateful. I have a 542 that shows real potential, but seems to like throwing a flyer out of what would otherwise be great groups. I hope your tricks on the 540 can be used on the 542 as well.
 
It's going to come down to maintaining the weapon system. There is no spare parts source for the Famae besides barrels. Mags are $125 a piece vs. run of the mill AR mags for the XCR. XCR has lots of spare parts available.

Correct Famae are now producing Galil ACE under licence from IWI for the Chilean armed forces!
 
It's going to come down to maintaining the weapon system. There is no spare parts source for the Famae besides barrels. Mags are $125 a piece vs. run of the mill AR mags for the XCR. XCR has lots of spare parts available.

I second this.
Also, you are considering 2x different calibers, which I think is the bigger more important question. Unless of course, you already shoot and love both calibers! ;)
 
The build quality is actually quite close to that of the Swiss Arms rifles. The finish isn't nearly as pretty, but they're built exceptionally well. I'd trust a 540/542 over an XCR any day.

Yes--me too. The iron sights aren't near as good as the Swiss Arms, but most people use optics now anyways. So far, I've shot 5-6 types of ball ammo of varying age--and zero malfunctions in the 542. Accuracy would be great too if it wasn't for those persistant flyers.
 
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Yes--me too. The iron sights aren't near as good as the Swiss Arms, but most people use optics now anyways. So far, I've shot 5-6 types of ball ammo of varying age--and zero malfunctions in the 542. Accuracy would be good too if it wasn't for those persistant flyers.

Lol.. accuracy would be good in any rifle without any flyers.. That's like saying "that girl would be pretty, if she wasn't ugly"
 
A couple of months ago I wanted to buy a nr black rifle. I wanted to buy the 542, but when I talked to the gun store he convinced me to go with the Robinson Arms multi caliber. The biggest thing was the price of mags and availability of them, also the fact that many RA accessories are based on the AR platform. I never saw a 542, but was more than pleased with the quality of the RA when it arrived, beautiful rifle. I often wondered what I was missing not buying the 542 until two weeks ago when I handled one in the gun store. I'm sure glad I bought the XCR. There is no comparison in the quality of build between the two rifles. The 542 is made of stamped metal pieces and feels cheap. I not saying the gun is no good, but for a suggested retail of just under three grand, this gun is not worth the money.
 
Lol.. accuracy would be good in any rifle without any flyers.. That's like saying "that girl would be pretty, if she wasn't ugly"

lol. Good point--if you mean flyers all over the place. The thing that's driving me nuts about my 542 is that I'd get (on a 3 shot group) 2 shots with in an inch, and the third approx 2-3" away (not all the time though). Usually the first shot is the one that's way out. On a 5 shot group, I'd get 4 within 2.5"-ish and the fifth way out there (ball ammo). Crazy.
 
Who cares most of you guys with robs and fameas are target shooting? Also you can get a used LMT cheaper than both of them and way more accurate

Who cares?
How many people do you think buy these, to sit at the range? I'll hazard a guess of less than 10%.

90%, that's who cares.
 
After visiting ATRS today, my vote would go to the modern hunter.
If you need to spend $3000 on an auto loader in .308 you might as well get one that shoots (I was very underwhelmed with both the Famae and XCR-M).
While I haven't witnessed what the MH can do, there is no practical reason why they cannot match that of available precision ARs.
Build quality is great as is all of the stuff I've seen coming out of that shop.
 
After visiting ATRS today, my vote would go to the modern hunter.
If you need to spend $3000 on an auto loader in .308 you might as well get one that shoots (I was very underwhelmed with both the Famae and XCR-M).
While I haven't witnessed what the MH can do, there is no practical reason why they cannot match that of available precision ARs.
Build quality is great as is all of the stuff I've seen coming out of that shop.
priced out the MH and it would be over 4k to my door and I only selected options to make it as light as possible for hunting (light profile stainless barrel, carbon barrel would push the price way higher)

I am also going to wait and see how accurate and reliable they are, I don't want to play beta tester.
 
What then justifies their insane asking price is what I've always wanted to know.

Small production numbers and higher quality than most other firearms on the market.

The finish is a good part of what I take into account when determining the quality of an item, not sure how you can have a high quality item if the finish is poor?.

The swiss rifles are a step above even the original German made sigs when it comes to quality and the Famae sitting next to a German sig sticks out like a sore thumb

To start off, the finish is not "poor". It is not as pretty as the SAN ones, but is tough and functional. Second, the FAMAE rifles are a fair bit (about $600) cheaper than the Swiss Arms rifles were before they went prohib. This represents about 20% off the retail price compared to the Swiss Arms. This is where the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" holds true.

Original German made Sig? The SIG/Swiss Arms rifles we have are Swiss. SIG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft, translated as Swiss Industry Company) was a Swiss Company (Swiss Arms AG is the company formed when the small arms division of SIG was bought out in 2000), and the 550 series was designed and manufactured in Switzerland. Sig Sauer GmbH is the German subsidiary of Swiss Arms, with Sig Sauer Inc being the U.S. subsidiary of Sig Sauer GmbH. While Sig Sauer GmbH does make its own sporting variant of the Sig 550, these rifles have never made it to Canada, and their production began well after SIG was producing their rifles for the Swiss military, so the only true original rifles are Swiss. Where were you looking at a German made Sig?
 
If you want to get technical the original 540 series was made in france because of swiss export regulations.

Comparing that to a newer 550 is not a fair comparison, not sure why that even has come up. The non Famae 540 I had the opportunity to play with was in Germany and it is of higher quality than the Famae I recently handled IMO
 
Small production numbers and higher quality than most other firearms on the market.

Small production: Do we have actual production output numbers from FAMAE? Vs SAN production output numbers?

Higher quality than most: An SG540 & SG542 sells for $2,999 @ SFRC (the mandatory "regular price" :rolleyes:) and sells for $2,699 @ Tactical Imports.

What are the comparable firearms at that price point?

KACs SR-15e3
LMTs CQB MRP, Defender
Armalite Super SASS (on sale mind you)

What is higher or of equal quality than those?

The way I see it is that they are that price because they are NR and very low production numbers, but would like actual facts to prove otherwise.
 
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