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JG Sig SG 552 first impressions/review


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Just got a JG Sig SG 552 in from AirSplat today and figured I'd share my initial thoughts on it.

 

The packaging is pretty similar to that of the Marui 552 for those who are familiar with it. The gun is held in place with foam inserts on top of it and then foam inserts underneath a layer of cardboard supporting it from the bottom. The package arrived in good shape and the gun was fine, so it does its job. After all, this is a cardboard box we're talking about, not high-end art.

 

box3.jpg

 

After opening the box I was under the impression that the gun's receiver was a flat black. This was really disappointing to me; I like the grey finish on the Marui. However, this was simply a result of the lighting. The color of the receiver really depends on how the light is hitting it and the light source itself. Anyways, the finish itself is nice and the grey tone of the receiver is actually quite good. It's similar to the Marui if not actually a bit better. It feels solid as well and I initially thought it might have been metal until I looked in the magwell and scratched a bit of the plastic off the inside.

 

There are a couple complaints though. The gun really does look plain without the trademarks found on the real steel and Marui versions. I understand this is for legal reasons, but I would've liked to have seen at least the "Made In Switzerland Cal .223 Rem" and "For Law Enforcement / Export" text on the left and right sides of the receiver. Oh well. Also annoying is the lack of actual holes in the handguard. The Marui and real steel both have holes there, but the JG for some reason does not. I assume this is so the battery can not be seen. However, I would've preferred the holes to be there and to have handled it on my own with some electrical tape if I felt it necessary.

 

accessories.jpg

 

Speaking of which, the battery is brightly colored and is at least better aesthetically than a lot of the batteries I've seen in clones. It's 8.4 volts and 1100 mAh and has a label on the cells informing the user how long to charge it for. The charger claims to output an actual 8.4 volts as well and functioned fine for the initial charge. It's a pretty standard accessory bundle here, charger, battery, manual, and BBs. The BBs are highly polished and showed no noticeable imperfections and fired fine. The manual is pretty good as well and written in a mix of Chinese and English. It also pictures a SG 550 and 551 as available models, this may be a result of cloning the Marui manual, however I do not have one to confirm this with.

 

hicap.jpg

 

Disappointingly, there is no speed loader included to fill the single hi-cap magazine with. The magazine seems to feed okay, I had some times where it appeared to be skipping shots, but I'm not sure how much of this was due to me not winding it properly. I don't have a lot of experience with hi-caps as I choose to avoid them whenever possible, instead opting for mid-caps or real-caps. The mag is the standard SG magazine and includes the clips for attaching it to another mag. Like most hi-caps, there's no fake bullets behind the transparent plastic which I feel really hurts the appearance. I'll be purchasing a Marui mid-cap for it soon, however I wish clone manufacturers would start shipping their guns with mid-caps instead.

 

sight.jpg

 

Moving back to the gun itself, the gun features a rotating drum rear sight like that found on many HK weapons. The sight also has a "SG" logo behind it, sadly the only marking on the gun. It rotates from position to position easily and securely and gets the job done. I'm personally a big fan of this style of sight and find it easy to use. However, if you disagree with me, there's three rails on the gun - one on the top of the receiver, the bottom of the handguard, and right side of the handguard. I've opted to install a 40mm red/green dot sight on the top rail and a vertical foregrip, leaving the right side rail open to laser or flashlight in the future.

 

silenced2.jpg

 

As you can see in the picture above, the hideous orange flash hider can be removed and replaced with anything with a 14mm counter clockwise thread, in the picture above it's replaced with the SOCOM silencer which came with my Marui P90 TR. The flash hider was not glued on and was easily removed with my bare hands. It's a solid piece of metal but is coated in a rather thick layer of paint which makes it feel almost rubbery. There appears to be no paint beneath the orange (which is rather difficult to remove). Due to the thickness of the paint, I suggest fulling removing the paint first if you feel the need to paint it black.

 

The stock of the gun is excellent. It unfolds and locks into place beautifully. No wobble whatsoever, the thing is 100% rock solid. I was really impressed and it feels great. Likewise, the stock stays in place when folded and does not interfere with the operation of the weapon assuming you are right handed. Even the hop-up remains accessible.

 

hopup.jpg

 

Out of the box, the gun severely over-hopped with the provided BBs. I don't know if this was the BBs' fault or not, as I didn't have much time to actually fire the gun. I had to turn the hop nearly all the way down before I could it to function appropriately. Thankfully it's a simple process - you pull back the handle on the ejector port and turn the dial to adjust the hop. With the hop adjusted, the gun seemed to be achieving decent groupings and going out a good distance. Again, I unfortunately did not have much time to actually fire the gun (I had to leave home to go back to campus, and obviously I can't bring it with me), so I don't have any solid numbers or tests for you.

 

Speaking of vague descriptions without numbers to support them, I was a bit let down by the power of the gun. A Coke can test resulted in the gun piercing one side of the can with a small but noticeable dent on the other side. Not bad by any means, but a bit disappointing given all I've been hearing about 380 - 450 FPS JG guns. I guess the 330 FPS number on the outside of the box was accurate. I'll test again and get a photo using some Excel BBs (given I can find them in my room). However, the gun does have a pretty solid rate of fire with the included battery and the gearbox sounds smooth - similar to my Marui P90 TR and noticeably better than my CYMA Cm.028s (UTG rebranded).

 

Unfortunately my knowledge of gearboxes is somewhat limited, so this is hardly an experts opinion. I'm not familiar with how to strip the gun down any further than removing the handguards, so no gearbox pictures yet. Anyways, that's all for now and I'll try to do some more tests this weekend if anyone's interested. Oh, and here's a couple extra pictures:

 

snow.jpg

 

snow2.jpg

Edited by DWells55
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DWells55, what can you say about the sturdiness of the gun's frame/body. I held one briefly a few years ago and I remember it as being very creaky and poorly constructed. The gun seemed to have a lot of flex to it. Has this issue been addressed by the JG variant? The gun that I handled may well have been mistreated, but it didn't seem very solid. Can you comment on this?

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DWells55, what can you say about the sturdiness of the gun's frame/body. I held one briefly a few years ago and I remember it as being very creaky and poorly constructed. The gun seemed to have a lot of flex to it. Has this issue been addressed by the JG variant? The gun that I handled may well have been mistreated, but it didn't seem very solid. Can you comment on this?

It sure seemed to be sturdy. The stock was absolutely rock solid, that's for sure. The body felt solid as well. I didn't purposely try to flex it, but I can when I get home this weekend.

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The body flex on the TM SG552 is minimal to none compared with say a TM SG550 and even the SG550 the body flex is not enough to affect accuracy when bipoded. But on the TM SG550/SG552 there is still a little movement. The HurricanE body gets rid of the tiny movement but was difficult to install as the two halves had one area where they misfit and normal assembly of the SG55X would be impossible.

 

So yeah a lot of playing around when you disassemble them. I would highly recommend NOT to take one apart.

 

But I am keen to see a JG or a Warrior SG552 some time, given this review :)

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my warrior 552 arrived yesterday and after a hundred test shots it began to missfeed and it didnt fire anymore. it had the sound of when the battery is flat, but the battery was working with other guns, so I took it apart.

 

I believe its pretty much the same as the TM or JG, only without coloration. flashider colored yellow, though we have no laws for that... the body is a bit plasticky (cause of the missing grey color), yet solid. metal is probably pot metal overall. brass inner barrel. TM compatible hop up, with v-shaped rubber.

 

finally I didnt find the problem, cause after I stripped it down to the gearbox, Ive connected the motor and it was running fine. Maybe it was a switch problem. well see if it happens again. (hope not)

the gearbox is painted nicely, flat black. its got plastic bushings and uses the same "grey" motor as the Dboys/Kalash series guns. wiring is almost as nice, thick and soft as like the CA sportline series wires.

 

sorry for the hijack, thats all for now. :)

Edited by waxxer
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If anyone wants to point me to a good guide for taking the gun apart (assuming it's a fairly simple takedown), I can get some shots of the gearbox this weekend. Nothing inside the gearbox though, it's technically my brother's gun despite me paying for most of it and I'd hate to ruin it due to lack of experience with gearboxes.

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I just got one of these a few weeks ago and I've played with it twice so far. Bravo, JG, for making a high-quality weapon! No flex, the high cap has not misfed once (excluding the times I forgot to wind it) and it's very accurate. However, eHobby Asia glued a crappy orange plastic flash hider to my barrel.

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hey, thanks for that!

I've got a TM 552 coming tomorrow and a conversion kit for it, that will come in very handy!

 

Dwells, keep us posted on how the JG holds up, if its any good in the long run, i might have to get one to use my leftover TM body and furniture.

Edited by sturgis
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it's had enough rounds through it to need a few battery recharges and it's still firing perfectly. Hi-cap is still a bit inconsistent though, needs a lot of winding. And apparently I was wrong in the initial FPS tests (bad BBs I guess). Here's a video showing that it is in fact a lot more powerful than I initially thought:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EY0W8hze08

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