Famae SG542 brass abuse

[Chuck]

I'm giving some thought to buying an SG542 but I've heard that they are very hard on brass. Now I don't expect it to be like a bolt action rifle but for those of you with experience with this rifle I'm wondering:

a) will I be able to find most of the brass?

b) will the brass be beaten to death?

I reload for an M14 already so I'm used to the general limitations of semi-autos for thr reloader. However I've heard that these rifles are particularly harsh on brass. The first hand experience of others would be appreciated. Having said that, I finally got to handle and SG542 a couple days ago and I was very impressed.

 

[canucklehead]

The mouths get dented a bit, but it's no different than the Black Special/PE90 series. The expander pin on your die will have no trouble removing the dent.

Even if the shoulder gets a little dinged (I don't recall if mine did that, don't think so!), it will reload fine.

Have you considered an FNAR for almost 1/2 the price? More accurate to boot...

 

[Master-G]

Mine tosses brass about 15 feet away at the two-o'clock position—I've not found it hard to track down afterwards. Here's what Hirtenberger brass looks like through mine:

I wrote a detailed post earlier this year with my impressions.

 

[Chuck]

Thanks guys, those are very helpful replies. I see nothing at all wrong with the condition or distance of the brass.

 

[Chuck]

Master-G nice review in the thread you had the link for. It was very helpful.

 

[LordEvilPepper]

mine threw it 40 feet on yonder.... bent the rims were the extractor grabbed it and cut the side wall of the case on the receiver....

 

[Master-G]

mine threw it 40 feet on yonder.... bent the rims were the extractor grabbed it and cut the side wall of the case on the receiver....

Was your gas setting correct?

 

[LordEvilPepper]

setting 1 and setting 2 did the same thing

 

[Tikkam65]

heres what i found, i have had my sg since the very first ones landed . i had the same experience with factory loads and norico rounds . i played with a few different loads and settings , as some ones else pointed out the gas setting dose not make, much of a difference.
i tryed all the standard auto loading powders and had the same results ..

my intent for my rifle was a deep timber elk rifle hunting the benches .
so i thought i would try the opposit a few very slow burning powders and down load it since i was only shooting max a few hundred yards .i ended up with 44 grains reloader 22 with a 155 amax must have got it right great accuracy very little case damage ,no problem using the brass again and no failure to extract

 

[mathew789]

Is there a way to have the gas ajustment ported out a little more...or less to reduce the gas flow