SIG 516 after 1030 rds of no cleaning

[Bluez]

Was doing an experiment with this piston gun.

I know some Carbine schools have famously gone much further w/o cleaning but this is as far I wanted to take it.

Also it's not just "how far can I take it and it still work" but also "It being a Piston, I am curious how dirty or not dirty it will be after all those rounds".

Cleaned it today at approx 1030 rounds.
There was not a single malfunction during those 1030 rounds.

At that it didnt look clean but it wasnt filthy either:

- Lot of oil from my original heavy oiling (for storage) still left over too.
- Barrel was quite dirty as expected
- Used my chamber stars for the first time. Not sure how to do it so I improvised ( check last pic)

Nowhere was there caked-on Carbon to work on. All the dirt you see even in pics 3 and 2 was spray and wipe, and mos tof it seemed to be a mix of lube and some carbon or dirt but nothing caked on by heat.

 

[Bluez]

............................

 

[Mockstar]

Sloppy wet.........i like it. looks better than what I've cleaned on my DI with half the amount of rounds through it.

 

[RangerDanger]

I've read and heard nothing but good things about the sig piston guns. Supposedly you can put 40k rounds down range before any parts need to be replaced. Makes me kick myself for selling the 556 I had

 

[Bluez]

I also sold a 556. It was a "Classic" and the handguard was so weak and the gun sqeeked every time I grabbed it I had ot sell it.
repolacing the HG w/ a SIG Quadrail would have been 200 bucks.
The 516 is a much better firearm IMO

 

[RangerDanger]

Mine was the swat so it had the quad rail. I just liked the fact that it was a good working gun but different. Bad thing about it was if anything broke nothing was interchangeable with a ar

 

[Bluez]

Mine was the swat so it had the quad rail. I just liked the fact that it was a good working gun but different. Bad thing about it was if anything broke nothing was interchangeable with a ar

I hear you on all of that

 

[kwo51]

What kind of ammo was it eating? My bushy fires most with no problem. I don't imbelish mine to much because it might get used as a club or canoe paddle. Piston may be in my future.

 

[Bluez]

What kind of ammo was it eating? My bushy fires most with no problem. I don't imbelish mine to much because it might get used as a club or canoe paddle. Piston may be in my future.

I was using mostly Ventura tactical 55gr 5.56 (40%), federal 5.56 55gr (10%) and this ammo (50%):

http://www.weaponsforum.com/f51/first-look-gun-wrangler-reman-5-56-223-a-1821/

 

[kwo51]

Pretty clean fodder.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I love piston rifles, be it an AR or other platform. I'm not saying DI guns are bad or anything I just like how clean and easy to maintain piston guns are.

 

[Bluez]

I am switching to my LWRC M6A2 as of this weekend.
Will run it for 1000 rds or so also in the next month or so and then post up results.

 

[Concealed 27]

I keep my ar pretty wet it seems to like it... I don't drench it in oil but when I clean it its pretty well oiled

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Damn that is a lot of oil. I have the big brother to your 516, the 716. I haven't done a 1000 round no cleaning run but can confirm that it is so much cleaner than a DI gun. My 716 has also been flawless.

 

[Bluez]

The 716 is a very cool rifle!:biggun:

 

[Bluez]

Update:


Took the Sig thru Maxvelocity tactical class (my second class)
Fired about 700 trouble free rounds of TulAmmo (!) in extreme winter weather (lots of snow came got onto and into the rifle from crawling in the snow)

Didnt even have to set the gas setting on "adverse", no problems.

Even with 700 rds of dirty ammo the rifle looked fired inside but I wouldn't call it dirty.
Took apart the gas piston and while not sqeeky clean it clearly could have soldiered on w/o a cleaning for many many more rounds.

The bad: the spring tightened upper I enjoyed before has gotten loose. the spring must have lost its... spring..
So now its more like a normal AR in that respect.