Swiss Arms 550 - Overview and disassembly

vancouverbc

vancouverbc

Regular
Rating - 99.5%
806   4   6
Location
BC
Long, but a great video showcasing the 550 / PE 90 rifle from a Swiss military member. Really shows some of the engineering that went into these rifles and I appreciate them even more. They are also about the same price in Switzerland $3000 SFr ($3900 CAD)

 
Last edited:
upnorth69 said:
I have one in full auto. They are good rifles but not fun to clean. Glorified AK47 in the end...
Click to expand...

I recently had some Swiss friends come visit me in Canada; they had finished their Army time a week or two before visiting. Both were thoroughly disgusted in the state of cleanliness of my PE90 (I didn't think it was so bad), but I couldn't convince them to give it a proper Army deep clean for me. They said they had done that more than enough and that it wasn't much fun, ha.
 
Hi

We don't get these new anymore - nobody wants them. The barrel on Pe90s wears pretty quickly, not sure why since they are supposed to last 15000 rounds without notable loss in precision, and getting a replacement one is next to impossible. So sport shooters get rid of them.

A near new used one goes for about 1800€ and a 30 rounder mag is 45€

In term of engineering, if i want a good a rugged AK type of assault rifle, I'll take my Sako RK95/S. I was thinking to post a photo orgy of the Sako but not sure where. In the Red rifles section ?

Cheers

Vincent
 
upnorth69,

Some inaccurate information has been provided. I have heard reports of target shooters in Switzerland being obsessed with accuracy and changing barrels at 15000 rounds, or even less! Often you will see rifle shooters changing barrels to try and get optimal accuracy, such as some bench-rest shooters (3000 rounds). This does not mean that the barrel is worn out by any stretch of the imagination. Having been issued full auto SG552, the barrel has been shot under demanding conditions to well over 25000 rounds and is still going strong with excellent accuracy.

The SG552, 553 & 550 are incredibly durable and reliable rifles. Having been on training courses firing dirty frangible ammo, AR-15 / C-8 users have started to have problems the first day but SG552's keep chewing through the dirty ammo without issues all week.
I do agree that do to the gas system they are a pain in the behind to clean, especially when suppressed.

Rich
 
Pain to clean? All you have to do is clean the barrel and the piston head once in a while, I have not cleaned my bolt and carrier in a few thousand rounds, because it’s still not dirty. I’ve cleaned rifles in the military, the cleaning frequency and the detail scrubbing are way overkill.

Barrel wears quickly? Hahahaha that’s a good one. Schönä tag no gäll.
 
Europeans tend to use more steel jacket in their bullets. They maybe plated with brass or tombac on the outside, but the jacket is steel. The old GP90 used nickel in the jackets too....they wore out the barrels too quickly and the Swiss switched to Tombac, and dumped all the unwanted surplus ammo into the civilian market. That was a pretty old story from like probably 15 years ago IIRC.

The swiss arms is indeed a PITA to clean. Anything with gliding rail in the receiver and a long stroke piston inside cylindrical gas tube are PITA. AR15 is the easiest to clean on this planet.


upnorth69 said:
Hi

We don't get these new anymore - nobody wants them. The barrel on Pe90s wears pretty quickly, not sure why since they are supposed to last 15000 rounds without notable loss in precision, and getting a replacement one is next to impossible. So sport shooters get rid of them.

A near new used one goes for about 1800€ and a 30 rounder mag is 45€

In term of engineering, if i want a good a rugged AK type of assault rifle, I'll take my Sako RK95/S. I was thinking to post a photo orgy of the Sako but not sure where. In the Red rifles section ?

Cheers

Vincent
Click to expand...
 
Hi

Shooters who saw a performance issue with their Sig550 barrels were not all shooting mild steel copper plated bullets. Why are the barrels wearing off i don't know (and don't care, mine is a safe queen anyways)

I prefer to shoot my Sako 95 and my Diemaco c8a3 clone

Cheers

Vincent
 
upnorth69 said:
Hi

Shooters who saw a performance issue with their Sig550 barrels were not all shooting mild steel copper plated bullets. Why are the barrels wearing off i don't know (and don't care, mine is a safe queen anyways)

I prefer to shoot my Sako 95 and my Diemaco c8a3 clone

Cheers

Vincent
Click to expand...

I guess we have to know what they mean by "performance issue". Are they performing and then dropping off the cliff? or they just won't shoot all the ammo the same?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom