Help select 5.56 semi under $2k
- Thread starter EXPAT556
- Start date
Id say buy a NEW SU16F (gotta be new to get the must have just in case lifetime warranty) and use it until you can afford a 3k plus gun OR maybe by that time the OIC Ban has been miraculously reversed. The SU16 in reality suits a vast majority of Canadian semi auto .223 owners needs...short of varmint hunters wanting sub 1.5moa accuracy and avid shooters who dump more then 1000 rounds of .223 downrange every year and want to LARP like a flannel daddy.....
The SU16F is ridiculously nimble, comfortable to shoulder, decently reliable, adequately accurate and easy to disassemble. Its a wicked timed competition gun. Me and a friend have been sharing one as our primary 3 gun rifle for like 6+ years. The trigger is often decent out of the box and with some careful modification can be tuned to function like a 250 dollar AR trigger. Paired with a bolt release mod, maybe a Zukorov forend mod and an aggressive muzzle comp, the gun dances like a concussive tinnitus producing airsoft gun that can be bump fired with a cyclic rate so fast that you become concerned with whether or not the time even exists in space to allow the bolt to go into battery lol
The SU16F is ridiculously nimble, comfortable to shoulder, decently reliable, adequately accurate and easy to disassemble. Its a wicked timed competition gun. Me and a friend have been sharing one as our primary 3 gun rifle for like 6+ years. The trigger is often decent out of the box and with some careful modification can be tuned to function like a 250 dollar AR trigger. Paired with a bolt release mod, maybe a Zukorov forend mod and an aggressive muzzle comp, the gun dances like a concussive tinnitus producing airsoft gun that can be bump fired with a cyclic rate so fast that you become concerned with whether or not the time even exists in space to allow the bolt to go into battery lol
DaveMachine
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- That one place with a cowboy complex
An SL8 with a turned down barrel (which still holds acceptable accuracy) and a Hera lower would be my pick but that may or may not fit in your budget.
I think that asking peoples opinions are irrelevant. You’ve got lots of people who seem like they would die on the hill for whatever rifle they ended up purchasing. Every gun on the internet will have some kind of bad review citing issues. Literally every gun. It’s about the price you want to pay and your own research. Watch honest reviews online. Don’t read the key board warriors
I was having similar issues with the wife’s SU16. Replaced the extractor claw with one from an AR, and no issues since.
richmyster
CGN frequent flyer
Also nothing is future proof...
It really depends on what you want this rifle for.
If you want this for general range use, plinking, that kind of use where having to troubleshoot and remediate failures isn't a huge deal (ie it's more of a "hobby" gun) then the BCL Siberian is the best of the Canadian 180s under $2000 ($1600ish iirc), at least that I've had experience with. You can't "mag-pod" it without inducing failures, it tends do get the occasional unexplainable light strike, the handguard isn't properly vented and the piston takedown is retarded (but only really matters if you hit high round counts as the gas system really only needs to be cleaned maybe every 2k rounds) but it's light, relatively accurate, has good ergonomics and is enjoyable to shoot. It doesn't seem to suffer from the catastrophic failures of the early WKs, the excess fasteners of the MCR/Crusaders and their rough machining.
If you want a rifle that can sustain hard use and remain totally reliable, then the X95 is the best value in a NR semi available to us these days, imo. It's not particularly precise but is still capable past 500 yds (with appropriate optic and ammo) and fast and well balanced up close. Most importantly it just runs.
If having a restricted doesn't bother you, then as mentioned above, restricted length Brens are often quite near that $2k mark.
There are other robust, reliable rifles available in NR such as the SL8 which can be found close to the $2k mark but in it's factory configuration it has some serious downsides (proprietary mags, thumbhole stock, heavy un-threaded barrel). A few mods make them far more suitable, like a Hera lower (to take AR grips and stocks), a Stanag magwell (to take AR mags), having the barrel turned down and threaded but the costs quickly escalate...
If you want this for general range use, plinking, that kind of use where having to troubleshoot and remediate failures isn't a huge deal (ie it's more of a "hobby" gun) then the BCL Siberian is the best of the Canadian 180s under $2000 ($1600ish iirc), at least that I've had experience with. You can't "mag-pod" it without inducing failures, it tends do get the occasional unexplainable light strike, the handguard isn't properly vented and the piston takedown is retarded (but only really matters if you hit high round counts as the gas system really only needs to be cleaned maybe every 2k rounds) but it's light, relatively accurate, has good ergonomics and is enjoyable to shoot. It doesn't seem to suffer from the catastrophic failures of the early WKs, the excess fasteners of the MCR/Crusaders and their rough machining.
If you want a rifle that can sustain hard use and remain totally reliable, then the X95 is the best value in a NR semi available to us these days, imo. It's not particularly precise but is still capable past 500 yds (with appropriate optic and ammo) and fast and well balanced up close. Most importantly it just runs.
If having a restricted doesn't bother you, then as mentioned above, restricted length Brens are often quite near that $2k mark.
There are other robust, reliable rifles available in NR such as the SL8 which can be found close to the $2k mark but in it's factory configuration it has some serious downsides (proprietary mags, thumbhole stock, heavy un-threaded barrel). A few mods make them far more suitable, like a Hera lower (to take AR grips and stocks), a Stanag magwell (to take AR mags), having the barrel turned down and threaded but the costs quickly escalate...
x95 for sure. I have that, the SL8 and a WK180. The WK is garbage, the SL8 is awesome but she's a heavy girl (And I have done the Hera conversion which is a pain to do). The x95 is heavy, but being a bullpup the weight is much more distributed, and I always gravitate back to the x95.
I was where you are a few years ago. TL;dr SU-16f.
My first 556 was an SL-8, which I love and still shoot. I bought a 3K Lupold scope for a different rifle (which is still a year away from being in my hands), so I put that on the SL-8. From leaking sandbags on a wobbly polymer table in the middle of the woods, sitting on a Coleman folding footstool, its not unreasonable to knock quarter sized aluminum blanks off of our metal stand at 100m. In short, the rifle is better than me. But it weighs... So shooting it off hand results in reduced accuracy as a result of the weight. But its still not unreasonable to hit an 8" gong at 100m off hand.
Now, I wanted to do high speed, cool guy, stuff with my friends. The SL-8 was a ride on the struggle bus for a fat jerk like me. So I picked up an SU-16f. Super light weight, cheap 10rd mags, very good. I had an eotech laying around that I put on it, just to upset everyone. It felt like a toy, but it ran like a champ. No bolt release sucks, and the cross-mags had over-insertion problems if you got manly with your mag changes. Still hits the 8" gong off hand at 100m, even without magnification. The eotech moved on to a more offensive firearm (a turkinelli) and the SU-16 got a bushnell 1-8x LPVO. 8x is more magnification than the firearm deserves but the extra weight wasn't the end of the world. Much cheaper optic that probably belongs on the rifle and it did work well for the cool guy stuff.
At the end of the day, its a great toy and I'm not a super solder. My buddy has a WK180 with a holosun/magnifier combo, hes in better shape but still sets better times on our carbine course with the SU-16. We have another buddy with a Raven that hes in the process of getting dialed in, I'm curious how that goes. Either way, everything I have mentioned are all toys. If you want to go to war, get a go to war rifle. They're expensive, I bought a T7 for that. So if you'll excuse me I need to go for a jog so I can be fit enough to use it.
My first 556 was an SL-8, which I love and still shoot. I bought a 3K Lupold scope for a different rifle (which is still a year away from being in my hands), so I put that on the SL-8. From leaking sandbags on a wobbly polymer table in the middle of the woods, sitting on a Coleman folding footstool, its not unreasonable to knock quarter sized aluminum blanks off of our metal stand at 100m. In short, the rifle is better than me. But it weighs... So shooting it off hand results in reduced accuracy as a result of the weight. But its still not unreasonable to hit an 8" gong at 100m off hand.
Now, I wanted to do high speed, cool guy, stuff with my friends. The SL-8 was a ride on the struggle bus for a fat jerk like me. So I picked up an SU-16f. Super light weight, cheap 10rd mags, very good. I had an eotech laying around that I put on it, just to upset everyone. It felt like a toy, but it ran like a champ. No bolt release sucks, and the cross-mags had over-insertion problems if you got manly with your mag changes. Still hits the 8" gong off hand at 100m, even without magnification. The eotech moved on to a more offensive firearm (a turkinelli) and the SU-16 got a bushnell 1-8x LPVO. 8x is more magnification than the firearm deserves but the extra weight wasn't the end of the world. Much cheaper optic that probably belongs on the rifle and it did work well for the cool guy stuff.
At the end of the day, its a great toy and I'm not a super solder. My buddy has a WK180 with a holosun/magnifier combo, hes in better shape but still sets better times on our carbine course with the SU-16. We have another buddy with a Raven that hes in the process of getting dialed in, I'm curious how that goes. Either way, everything I have mentioned are all toys. If you want to go to war, get a go to war rifle. They're expensive, I bought a T7 for that. So if you'll excuse me I need to go for a jog so I can be fit enough to use it.
Siberian, maybe I got lucky...mine runs just fine. I replaced the trigger right away, and locktited everything, no issues at all. If I hadnt bought the Siberian, then my options would have been in this order. t97 gen 3, raven, templar, x95.
