my Swissarms 551LB just died

Rich LPS said:
That's cute Epoxy 7, the same can be said of the 55X series guns.

Rich
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Well if you're going to be patronizing then I should bring up the fact his 551 LB died. I seem to recall LB stands for Long barrel. Ie just under 18". You brought up the shorty issue. Hey why not add another variable right? By the way I was joking with the OP because I know he's that fond of the AR.
 
Well if you want to split hairs, the comment made was that an extractor broke on a short barrelled SG552, you said that that doesn't happen on a AR DI gun. I agreed with you, in the case of short barrelled MK18 DI guns, more often than not the whole bolt head breaks.

Rich
 
Rich LPS said:
Well if you want to split hairs, the comment made was that an extractor broke on a short barrelled SG552, you said that that doesn't happen on a AR DI gun. I agreed with you, in the case of short barrelled MK18 DI guns, more often than not the whole bolt head breaks.

Rich
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Not really into splitting hairs. Was joking with the OP. I own a PE90 along with AR rifles and like them both. I was referring to the broken gas piston of the first post. I'm posting on an Iphone and quoted the much smaller quote. Obviosly I didn't read it well enough. My mistake.
 
Update: during a training session today the extractor-pin broke.

This is the third time that this has happened to me (only the first time with this rifle, though).

The good thing is: the bolt-head is already on his way back to the factory.

About time for a complete make-over, this rifle looks like it's been through hell.
 
Kampfhamster said:
Update: during a training session today the extractor-pin broke.

This is the third time that this has happened to me (only the first time with this rifle, though).

The good thing is: the bolt-head is already on his way back to the factory.

About time for a complete make-over, this rifle looks like it's been through hell.
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I had my extractor pin on my current CG break on me at around the 5000 round mark. When mine went, just enough of it stayed inside the bolt head to hold it all together and continue to function. I then ran a carbine course (about 500 rounds) with it like this before sending it in for a replacement.
 
we didn't fire it after it broke, so I didn't find out if it would hold for a while longer.

At around 5000 rds I think it is about normal for the extractor to break.

Didn't have to send it in, one of the guys with me works for SAN, he took the bolt head with him to get it fixed next week. ;)
 
Kampfhamster said:
we didn't fire it after it broke, so I didn't find out if it would hold for a while longer.

At around 5000 rds I think it is about normal for the extractor to break.

Didn't have to send it in, one of the guys with me works for SAN, he took the bolt head with him to get it fixed next week. ;)
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I actually didn't even notice mine was broken until I got home and started cleaning, then I found a piece of it all broken up and bent inside my lower.

IMGA0003-1_zps4bfdab09.jpg


I couldn't get it fixed right away, as I had a course coming up that weekend, but I had an old extractor pin that had been removed when I replaced the extractor pin on my black special. So I hammered this old pin into the bolt head, pushing the remaining piece out of the bolt, and then took the above picture. The problem afterward was that the old pin had not been press clamped, and so it was sliding around during shooting. I was scared it would slide out and break off again, so I really had to hammer it to get it to stay in there for the duration of the carbine course. As soon as the course was complete I sent it away for replacement. Turn around time for Markus was 1 business day.
 
Update: barrel is gone as well. Switched the bolt with the one from my PE90. On the 100m range after about 20 rds the grouping would open up as soon as the barrel gets hot.

That's going to be expensive this time.
 
Already have one of those, and I'm pretty sure that I can break that one, too. 20'000 and 8 years of hard use can do that.

My buddies started calling my 551 the "wandering whore", because it got used by everyone who was in need of a rifle during the past 8 years on courses, exercises and visits to the shooting range.
 
Kampfhamster said:
Already have one of those, and I'm pretty sure that I can break that one, too. 20'000 and 8 years of hard use can do that.

My buddies started calling my 551 the "wandering whore", because it got used by everyone who was in need of a rifle during the past 8 years on courses, exercises and visits to the shooting range.
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The absolute best thing you can do with any firearm is wear it out from use.
 
Another update: just got back from the factory where I dropped my rifle off.

The guy got his tools out and checked the barrel out. His reply: "Well, looks clean enough, but usually we change the barrels when they're as wide as 5,575mm. This one has 5,58mm all the way down until the middle of the barrel. It's more then dead."

The damn joker's even suggested turning the barrel into a caliber .308 or .300 whisper. Bastards :D

Get it back in two weeks all new and shiny.

/edit: according to the people at SAN, the barrel had the greater wear then a 553LB bbl after a 15'000 endurance test.
 
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Already ordered a standard 551LB bbl :D

A suppressed 551 in .300 Whisper or .300 Blackout would be neat though.

If I can lay my hands on a cheap ass army surplus 550, I could do the conversion
 
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