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- Thread starter Fred24
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2.- Weapon service life
2.1 Service life of individual components
The service life or individual components is classified into 4 groups as follows:
a) min. 10000 rounds for wearing parts of the bolt assembly
b) min. 15000 rounds barrel life
c) min. 15000 rounds for all other secondary components
d) min. 30000 rounds for major components.
2.2 Extended service life / Functional safety
- Experience indicates that depending on the grade of ammunition used, the barrel has to be changed after approx. 20000 up to 30000 rounds have been fired.
-15000 rounds for wearing parts of the bolt assembly are quite feasible: other small components will last for anything up to 30000 rounds.
-Major components such as trigger housing, bolt, receiver, plastic parts, the main components of the trigger action may readily be expected to withstand 40000 rounds.
-We have weapons at our plant which have major components still fully functional after firing 80000 up to 100000 rounds.
2.1 Service life of individual components
The service life or individual components is classified into 4 groups as follows:
a) min. 10000 rounds for wearing parts of the bolt assembly
b) min. 15000 rounds barrel life
c) min. 15000 rounds for all other secondary components
d) min. 30000 rounds for major components.
2.2 Extended service life / Functional safety
- Experience indicates that depending on the grade of ammunition used, the barrel has to be changed after approx. 20000 up to 30000 rounds have been fired.
-15000 rounds for wearing parts of the bolt assembly are quite feasible: other small components will last for anything up to 30000 rounds.
-Major components such as trigger housing, bolt, receiver, plastic parts, the main components of the trigger action may readily be expected to withstand 40000 rounds.
-We have weapons at our plant which have major components still fully functional after firing 80000 up to 100000 rounds.
It comes from Biggerhammer.net.
We had a cgn’er here who shot the piss out of his Swiss Arms, 5k plus rounds in a relatively short time. He even fired it full of water a few times ( over the beach test). Eventually he bulged the barrel doing this (which he replaced). I think he also replaced his extractor at that point.
Mine has about 4500 rounds on it and no parts have been replaced, still runs and shoots beautifully.
We had a cgn’er here who shot the piss out of his Swiss Arms, 5k plus rounds in a relatively short time. He even fired it full of water a few times ( over the beach test). Eventually he bulged the barrel doing this (which he replaced). I think he also replaced his extractor at that point.
Mine has about 4500 rounds on it and no parts have been replaced, still runs and shoots beautifully.
How exactly are you planning to expose a semi automatic civilian version of a fully automatic battle rifle to "hard continuous use" with 5 round magazines?
The SA classic green and black special are very robust rifles, when I had mine I was very impressed with the build quality and the size of the parts (no little tiny parts that looked like a weak point).
http://www.biggerhammer.net/sigamt/550/550techinspection/
Should answer all your questions
The rifle will last longer than you will and will happily eat more ammo than you can afford to feed it.
As much as I enjoyed watching those vids that was pretty much the stupidest thing a civilian could do to their rifle. Most people don't realize that firearms "engineered" to shoot full of water are only engineered not to blow up in your hands like a DI AR-15 would do but that doesn't mean that it's good for the rifle at all. Shooting a rifle full of water is a sure fire way to ruin a barrel in a very short time. Sure, if I was in the army and had a unit armourer on hand to swap out my barrel for me for free every time I screwed it up then I wouldn't think twice about doing it if I needed to during battle but to just do it to your own personal rifle is just plain dumb.
In civilian use restricted to semi auto only and with 5 round mags if you don't do dumb crap like shoot it full of water I would expect every rifle to make it to at least 20,000 rounds without any issues.
The SA classic green and black special are very robust rifles, when I had mine I was very impressed with the build quality and the size of the parts (no little tiny parts that looked like a weak point).
http://www.biggerhammer.net/sigamt/550/550techinspection/
Should answer all your questions
The rifle will last longer than you will and will happily eat more ammo than you can afford to feed it.
As much as I enjoyed watching those vids that was pretty much the stupidest thing a civilian could do to their rifle. Most people don't realize that firearms "engineered" to shoot full of water are only engineered not to blow up in your hands like a DI AR-15 would do but that doesn't mean that it's good for the rifle at all. Shooting a rifle full of water is a sure fire way to ruin a barrel in a very short time. Sure, if I was in the army and had a unit armourer on hand to swap out my barrel for me for free every time I screwed it up then I wouldn't think twice about doing it if I needed to during battle but to just do it to your own personal rifle is just plain dumb.
In civilian use restricted to semi auto only and with 5 round mags if you don't do dumb crap like shoot it full of water I would expect every rifle to make it to at least 20,000 rounds without any issues.
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FWIW we stock most parts here, including barrels. We have had some requests for extractors and firing pins over the years, we have also replaced a couple barrels, but there really isn't a lot of demand for parts to replace failed pieces, mostly people just buying parts "just in case".
There is a lot of info out there it's just a little more work to find. I'm guessing that you've read this thread? https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/513834-Swiss-arms-SAN-rifles-FAQ
They are a really nice rifle but I sold mine when I realized that there was about a 5 moa shift in point of impact if you switched from the bipod to supporting it on the magazine or right in front of the mag. I had the classic green flat top and at first it was "I'm never selling this, it's definitely a keeper" then it lost it's appeal when I found the POI shift was worse than I'd read it was. 100% reliable and built like a tank though, definitely not a rifle you need to worry about breaking parts on.
I would add that I feel the weak link in the system is the recoil spring. I noticed some broken strands in the spring on my black special so I got a new one and changed it out. The rifle was still working fine before I changed the spring. When I disassembled the piston and removed the old spring it came off in about 5 pieces. This gave me pause. I will add that I have yet to see this happen with any of my Carbines but they are newer. My 17.9 Classic green I've had since 2006 so it's about 2 years newer than my Black Special. I only got my 14.3 last year so I haven't had the chance to go crazy with it and start breaking things.
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Interesting. After shooting close to 6k rounds from my diopter top I have yet to experience a 5 MOA shift when changing the support point from the hand guard to the bipod. Yes, there is a slight shift in POI to the right by a few mm when transitioning, but it is so minimal that I have never had to bother about it going from bench to prone and vice versa. A 5 MOA shift would require me to re-zero my scope! There must be some other causal factor to account for such a drastic shift and must surely be a unique one off.
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Select fire issued SG552 at over 25K, still accurate and going strong. I would put the barrels at a life of at least 20K to 25K.....or more. This is just my personal experience.
Also the gun was taken to much higher temperatures than any rifle with 5 round mags.
Rich
Also the gun was taken to much higher temperatures than any rifle with 5 round mags.
Rich
It's a well know issue with the rifles, read through the SA thread and you'll find it repeated over and over. I guess some are worse than others though.
We have discussed this in a number of threads over the years. Yes there is a slight shift with the bipod depending how much it is loaded, but it is not that much.
That said, I binned my bipod years ago. It is junk and in my opinion, bipods do not belong on service rifles. My rifle shoots excellent off the magazine when prone (how we do it in the military).
Supporting it just ahead of the mag well has never changed POI for me and I shoot mine out to 500 yards. Have owned it for 8 years and put 4500 rounds through it.
The recoil spring deterioration sounds strange for sure. Did you keep the spring heavily coated in grease throughout its life? It should not come apart like that. Mine is still good 4500 rounds later andI am the 2nd owner.
I had two tubes of Automatenfett (black Swiss grease they lube Stgw's with) but when they ran out I started using Lubriplate grease in it, works just a slick.
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I didnt know we needed to keep the springs coated in grease
I removed the bipod as well once I figured out why it was shooting so high every time I tried to use it. Lightens up the muzzle end a bit as well. Beautiful rifles but I decided I liked my ACR better so I sold the SA.
