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GWS SIGARMS 556 conversion kit for SIG 552

 

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_556left.jpg

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RS INFO

 

from the sigarms website:

The SIG 556 features a 16” military grade cold hammer forged barrel, chambered in 5.56mm NATO, with a twist rate of 1 in 7”. The flash suppressor uses a standard .5 x 28 TPI thread pattern, ensuring compatibility with after-market accessories. The forearm housing the gas operating system is a vented non-slip polymer featuring the SIG TriRail design with three integrated Picatinny rails for mounting accessories. The optional flip up front combat sight is adjustable for windage and elevation. The Picatinny rail equipped receiver is made of high strength carbon steel with a durable wear-resistant Nitron® X rifle finish. The Picatinny rail features an optional flip up rear sight that works in concert with the optional front combat sight, providing iron sight performance and a back up sight option for optics. Select versions feature a Red Dot style holographic sight. This sighting system provides quick target acquisition and features 4 different illuminated reticle patterns with adjustable intensity. The trigger housing is machined from an aircraft grade aluminum alloy forging with a hard-coat anodized finish designed to survive extreme conditions. The rifle comes equipped with a smooth two-stage trigger, ambidextrous safety and is designed to accept standard AR magazines. A 30-round magazine is supplied with each rifle. The collapsible buttstock features a rubber butt pad, multiple sling attachment points, and a waterproof battery compartment. The ergonomically designed pistol grip features an integrated storage compartment.

 

 

 

 

The Package

 

I paid 408$ (without shipping) for my Kit from Redwolfairsoft.

It arrived in a big box full of styrofoam pellets with the GWS box inside. The Kit comes in a big box that houses 3 smaller

boxes inside, one containing the handgaurds, another the receivers and the third has the barrel. Also included is a manual,

wich a A4 copies stapled togheter with a picture how to on assembling the kit.

That said, the manual is very good and easy to follow.

 

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What's needed to build the 556?

 

You will need some Sig552 parts to cmplete the build of the kit.

The newly released JG SG552 should make a nice cost effective alternative.

 

You can ty to source the needed parts seperatly, the 556 kit needs the following parts:

-gearbox

-pistolgrip + motor

-front sight block

-rearsight if desired

-longer innerbarrel + non vented cykinder

 

I used a TM SG552.

Edited by sturgis
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Run down of the parts

 

 

receiver

 

The Kit comes with a full metal receiver. Iirc it's a cast not, CNC milled.

That said, the metal looks and feels nice. I have only used G&P metal bodies (AR and AK) and once a CA one. the CA never

impressed me and i really like the G&P offerings. I'd say the metal on the GWS kit is maybe a little higher grade then say

a G&P body.

 

The only thing that surprised me is that the lower receiver is not a one piece design, they are two halves. this leaves abit

of an annoying seemline on the front on the front of the magwell amongst other things... more on this later

 

Also worthy of note, the plastic part that is behind the ejection port and hides the bolt assembly fell out. Not a biggie,

and should be easy enough to fix with some superglue, but still abit dissapointing.

 

 

Barrel

 

The barrel is also a two piece desing, however this is made out of steel.

The barrelsection in front of the frontsight is a seperate part from the rest of the barrel. The main barrel section is

attached to the parts that slides into the receiver.

 

IM000396.jpg

 

IM000404.jpg

 

 

 

Handgaurds

 

The handgaurd are made out of what seems to be a nice and durable material. I can't say what it is, but i suspect it is some sort of fiberglass composite, as it had a very different feel to it than any of the plastics i have come across in my ow guns.

It has 2 smaller siderails and one large rail running underneath. All 3 of the rails are molded onto the handgaurds, so you

can't take them of if you wanted to.

 

 

stock

 

The stocktube attaches very differently to the receiver then any TM compatible AR platform. It basicly uses the threading

on the stocktube to attach into the receiver.

The stock itself is made out of the same material as the handgaurds.

 

The build itself

 

Following the directions in the manual should pose no problems, everthing fits as it should, no filing or dremeling needed!

I did manage to strip one thread though...

 

Edited by sturgis
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The final Build.

 

DSC00737.jpg

 

IM000451.jpg

 

IM000453.jpg

 

Finished, the kit looks awesome imho. The gun has a great heft to it, mainly due to the steel barrel.

As you can see, if desired, you can install the Sg552s rearsight for a more old school look, instead of the supplied rail.

It's abit longer then a standard M4a1, and feels alot beefier to hold aswell.

 

compared to an M4:

IM000464.jpg

 

the toprail:

IM000467.jpg

 

Included is a standard A2 birdcage flashider wich should accept most QD silencer designed for them. Note that the threading

for the flashhider is the opposite of TM threading.

IM000465.jpg

 

Batterywise, stick batteries are the way to go:

IM000471.jpg

 

IM000470.jpg

 

Getting batteries to fit in crane stocks is not going to be doable without some serious drilling/dremeling.

 

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the bad stuff

 

There are a few things to note, i mentioned that the lower receiver are actually two halves and this led to a bit of a problem

on mine. When assembled the lower side on the receiver was split ope abit, as seen in the following picture:

 

IM000442.jpg

 

This also led to the triggergaurdbar falling out of it sockets because the triggergaurd had to much play in it aswell.

I fix this by putting a cabletie around the triggergaurd for the moment. some superglue/epoxy into the little hols of the

receiverhalves should remedy this.

 

 

There is slight movement in the handgaurds of the gun aswell, not much, but noticeable when applying pressure, i'm not sure

if this because of the weight of the steel barrel or caused by some play in the handgaurds.

 

because of the way the topreceiver fits ontop of the lower receiver, there is a small seemline on the rightside of the receiver

above the magrelease button:

IM000469.jpg

 

on the left side this causes no problems, because there is a small opening there for the boltrelease:

IM000459.jpg

 

there is also a little play in the frontsight, because of the way it attaches differently to the TM design. it won't move on it's own,

but you can jiggle it abit.

 

Sore middle finger syndrome.

Those familar with AR platforms will know that the groove between the pistolgrip and triggergaurd can wreak havoc to you middlefinger on a fully decked out heavy AR. Well the groove on the 556 is tenfold that! lol, i will need to see if i can put something there.

 

 

conclusion.

 

So it i worth shelling out for this kit + a donor 552 ?

 

Though question to answer... i was planning on buying a VFC SCAR, before i noticed these kits were not sold out yet, because of the reports on it's fantastic build quality.

 

I wouldn't rate this kit as beeing of the same standard of said VFC kit, and to qoute amateurstuntman, say it's a "garage" kit.

 

For me, the reason of getting this gun over the VFC SCAR was that i have always been fond of SIG rifles eversince i got to

play a skirmish with a 551 and 550 many years ago, however been an AR addict i never got one ddue to the need of having to buy different magazines,pouches, gearsetups,etc, and now with this hurdle removed and the fact that it is quite a rare gun. (for the time beeing that is, i wonder how long it will take before an ACM version arrives :P )

 

Overall i'm pritty happy about the choice i made, and while the SCAR might be of a better builquality, this has the uniqueness i was looking for while still beeing solidly built. Time will tell how it will hold up though.

Edited by sturgis
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thanks!

 

Well the front attaches the same way as sig 552 front does, infact i have the 552 front on it right now, and plan to order the proud RAS for it in a minute.

 

As far as putting a GWS upper onto the TM lower it looks like it might work, however the little tangs are alot bigger on the GWS lower. so i don't know how stable it might be. but i don't think you can have the original stock with it.

Edited by sturgis
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OK, I can add a few things to that.

 

1st, Some parts of my kit have flashing on them, to finish it properly I would have to file it off and repaint the receiver.

 

2nd, The lower receiver has horizontal holes in it and the kit comes with a load of pins to hold the two halves together. The instructions don't tell you to fit them so Sturgis and I didn't, next time I tear it down I will fit the pins and the lower will be a lot better.

Again, if you were going to re-paint it you could fill the gaps with car body filler and it would look lovely.

 

3rd, the gap between the trigger guard and the pistol grip - it is bloody irritating. I am going to try and find some pics of the real 556 and see what they do there and try to copy that. I don't believe that Sig would sell a rifle with such a glaring ergonomic fault.

 

4th, You can fit a marui stock to the 556 but there won't be anything for the long screw to screw into. That could be fixed with a bit of epoxy and an M3 (I think) bolt. Uppers and lowers should be interchangable but depending on the combination you use your stock options will be limited.

 

5th, the stock tube screws on the same way as the real steel and I think an RS buffer tube will go on, this is good since the GWS one is slightly too small leading to a tiny bit of stock wobble.

 

6th, Any front end from a Marui Sig will go on. I have tried the 550 front end and it went on, burst unit and sender included.

 

7th, the Proud RAS goes on very nicely, requires just as much fitting as it does going on a Marui Sig but looks good. Again and as with both kinds of rail available for the Marui Sig receiver (Hurricane and Marui) the top levels of the two rails are different, only a mil and a half out but annoying.

I am going to raise the receiver rail up a bit with a bit of ally plate I think.

 

 

Good kit but it is a typical low volume garage kit and need a lot of little things doing to it to be "perfect"

 

 

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cheers amateurstuntman ! Was hoping you'd swing by and give your thoughts aswell :)

 

What do you mean by flashing? off color spots in the finish or little metal rims that haven't been filed off after the casttinproces? I found neither on my kit. i've looked over all the metal bits and everything looks finished properly.

 

In regards to the pins in th elower receiver, there are pins present (atleast on mine) already, it's just that when i got it, the lower receiver was held thogheter firmly, it was onlt after refitting the kit for the second time i noticed the lower was actually 2 halves after it came apart.

 

just to recap, any M4 sliding stock will work, not their stocktubes or any kind of M4/M16 stock that requires you to use a long screw into a TM gearbox though.

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Sums up my thoughts. Lower receiver is just baaaaaaaaaad...

I have same problems with triggerguard and lower receiver. It's not a big deal but annoying.

yes, designwise it isn't the best.

however, having just refitted a shorter inner barrel from my N4, refitting the body, the pistolgrip is now nudging the cabletie, and everything fits togheter nicely now...

 

what did you end up doing to solve it?

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ic. i'll have a closer look at mine.

 

Also something i forgot to mention is that TM metal magazines don't click into the receiver all that smooth, not compared to say a MAG 100rounder or STAR 30 rounder, these click in very smooth.

Can't say how any of them feed, as one of the motorcage tabs arrived broken in the 552, so i haven't been able to shoot it, once the replacement motorcage comes in, i'll report on how those 3 brands of mags feed, i also have a diboys on in the mail aswell, so i'll be able to comment on them to.

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A real AR buffer tube will not fit the GWS kit. The layout is the same, but the threading is too small. The G&P 6 position buffer tube will fit, so it's likely all the airsoft replica tubes will fit. The only thing to be aware of is that the replica tubes were not meant to be screwed into anything, so the threaded length may not be long enough for some accessories.

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As you can see from the picture there is a gap between the trigger guard and the grip. So the gap while annoying as it is and making it a pain to hold/fire is really staying true to the real thing. Pictured is a Sig 556 RS.

post-16275-1202101889_thumb.jpg

 

heh, cheers for that, appearently the seemsline i mentioned above the magrelease is there on the RS aswell :)

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How do SIGs compare to M4s shooting wise? Are they decent? Any more accurate?

 

 

I find them to be better, the hop is better, a one-piece as standard with easier adjustment and it stays where you put it.

Plus the Sig series (including the 556) uses the V-3 gearbox which is stronger, easier to work on and has a more sensible wiring solution.

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Sig 556 is kinda big leap comparing to xm8-kit. But it still sucks monkey *fruitcage*. I'm having a second thought about this kit. Why did I choose this over a VFC scar <_<

Why's that?

 

Apart from the lower not beeing one piece and the seem it creates it's not that bad, the splitting wich should be easy enough to fix, i'm quite happy with mine... :unsure: glad i didn't get the SCAR instead/just yet.

 

Nothing is bent or wrong with the finish on mine, maybe i got lucky? (for once :P )

Edited by sturgis
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Why's that?

 

Apart from the lower not beeing one piece and the seem it creates it's not that bad, the splitting wich should be easy enough to fix, i'm quite happy with mine... :unsure: glad i didn't get the SCAR instead/just yet.

 

Nothing is bent or wrong with the finish on mine, maybe i got lucky? (for once :P )

Only problems im having right now are that TM mags wont work well and front sight is wobling.

These are repairable. Im just too lazy to do anything.

Perhaps after a little tuning I learn to love this gun :P

Another thing I noticed that paint is AWFUL. I was able to scratch big area of paint of by accident. At the same time I was able to made little scratches. Thank god I had black spray. Metal quality is similiar to tunafish can <_<

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4743/img1703wa3.jpg

Edited by Harvahammas
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