Sig 716 Patrol Fde 308 Win/762 Rifle Reviews

There's a debate raging in the AR15 community. The point of contention: operating systems. Traditionalists favor direct impingement. Designed past Eugene Stoner, DI harnesses the power of the gasses trapped in the barrel to cycle the rifle'due south action. It's a remarkably simple organisation with one critical flaw: the gasses blow directly into the rifle's upper receiver and commodities carrier. Over time, this leads to a dirty burglarize. In a gas piston arrangement the propellant gases push a solid rod that pushes the carrier to the rear. That makes for a cleaner running gun. While the controversy continues, SIG SAUER has covered its bets with their piston-driven 516 and, now, the 716 . . .

The SIG SAUER 516 (top) is chambered in the most popular AR flavour: .223. The 716 (beneath) steps-upwards to the plate firing the bigger, badder, more than lethal .308 Winchester cartridge. Although the ii rifles share many similarities, the 716 isn't simply a scaled-up version of the 516.

Obviously, the 716'southward gas parts and push rod are heavier; beefed-upward for utilize with the heavier .308 cartridge. While the 516 uses Magpul MOE furniture, the 716 ships with the Magpul MIAD pistol grip and ACS buttstock. Both rifles transport with a Magpul magazine in their respective calibers and both rifles ship with a nylon sling and folding fill-in-type iron sights.

The SIG 716 features a hammer forged barrel with a one-in-ten twist. This relatively fast twist rate works well with most everything bachelor in factory .308, including heavyweight match bullets. To add corrosion resistance and immovability, SIG'south chrome-lined the 716'due south chamber and bore. The rifle butt's threaded in the 5/viii-24 pattern; it will accept about aftermarket flash hiders and cage brakes.

A gratis-floating railed handguard—running from the 716's front sight/gas block to the upper receiver—surrounds the barrel. The handguard is firmly bolted in place. At the same fourth dimension, it's hands removable for inspection and cleaning of the butt'due south exterior surfaces.The handguard's elevation rails sits flush with the flat upper receiver, creating miles of uninterrupted mounting surface.

The SIG 716 has four gas settings: an off position, a suppressed position, a normal operating position and an overgassed setting. The latter is handy for underpowered ammo or heavily fouling. You tin access the gas system's parts through the front of the gas cake. Different some competing piston designs, you lot don't take to remove the 716's rail to clean the gas parts.

The 716'southward lower receiver is milled from aluminum with QD sling hinge sockets machined into the left and right sides. The magazine release is ambidextrous, just the selector is on the correct side merely. The buffer tube is backside the carbine length, MILSPEC bore lower.

The tube's castle nut is properly staked; information technology won't come loose. The burglarize'south controls operate smoothly. The selector clicks from SAFE to FIRE as crisply as a well-laundered shirt, with extra starch. While the trigger's a trivial on the heavy side (7.half-dozen lbs.), the standard military-type go-pedal breaks cleanly with little over-travel or creep.

The 716'southward bolt and carrier are massive chunks of machined steel with the carrier tapering downwards to standard .223 diameter backside the firing pin retaining pin. This reduced diameter "floats" the carrier in the buffer tube—obviating the need for anti-tilt recoil buffers (to continue the carrier from striking the bottom of the buffer tube due to carrier tilt).

The .308 Win is an efficient cartridge rightly credited with outstanding accurateness regardless of bullet weight. I fired a number of five-shot groups from 100 yards that hovered in the 1.5″ range. While these groups aren't acceptable for precision match rifle competiton, they're more than close enough for a defensive rifle.

In the 716's defense, I didn't endeavor a huge selection of lucifer ammo. The rifle might shoot more accurately with some experimentation and a load it really likes. In addition to lucifer ammo from Federal and Remington, I as well shot several hundred rounds of steel cased Russian ammo from WOLF and Brown Deport. Steel cased ammo can be problematic in some guns. The SAUER 716 Patrol Rifle gobbled it up with no bug.

I tried the rifle using steel magazines from C Products. The mags fed like pigs at a trough but they didn't lock into the rifle easily when loaded to their twenty round capacity. Of the four steel magazines tested, one would only have nineteen rounds.

The SIG SAUER 716 will likely make its way into the three-gun contest syndicate as a "Heavy Metal" burglarize. This additional power comes with merchandise-offs. Mag capacity is generally limited to 20 rounds, and there are only a few companies making compatible mags. At $xx – $25, .308 they're generally more than expensive than their .223 counterparts.

The rifle is too something of a beast. The big SIG tips the scales at most 9.5 pounds; two pounds heavier than the SIG 516. While well-nigh .308 military-way modern sporting rifles are around nine pounds SIG could have put the 716 on a nutrition. A thinner, re-profiled butt and different furniture would accept shaved off a off-white amount of weight.

SIG should also have reconsidered the handguard's length. Thanks to the 716's carbine length fore-end, the handguard stops just behind the gas block. If it was long enough to cover the gas block the handguard would add a bit more rail surface for accessories and allow the shooter to assume a more than "straight arm" shooting position. Information technology would also cover the gas block, adding a welcome measure of protection against adventitious burns.

In brusque, the SIG 716 is a not bad gun firing a round that's ideal for hunting or 1-stop stopping. But why bother? Why not buy a cheaper DI .308 AR?

Fooled ya. I'one thousand non going to get defenseless upwards in the reliability debate. Let'southward merely say this: SIG'south piston drive doesn't make the 716 any less reliable. Yeah, it adds a few boosted moving parts. Simply those beefy bits aren't easily damaged. Any corruption astringent enough to render the piston parts inoperable would probably break other more vital parts of the gun, too. And boom a Stoner gas tube, besides.

Speaking of broken bits, spare parts for the various piston designs aren't interchangeable between the various makers. Luckily, major wear parts like extractors aren't unique to the 716; they tin be purchased from any decent parts supplier.

At a non inconsiderable $2,132 (seen on the street for $1700), the SIG SAUER 716 sits below the price range of comparable rifles from ArmaLite, Springfield Armory and DS Artillery. If you don't buy into the Internet piston hate, the SIG 716 is a lot of rifle for the money. Y'all become a clean-running operating system and the ability to accomplish out and cease someone. What's not to like?

SPECIFICATIONS:

Quotient:                .308 Winchester
Butt:                  sixteen inches, 1:x twist
Weight:                nine.3 lbs.
Performance:          Brusque stroke pushrod, rotating bolt
Finish:                  black
Capacity:             20 rounds (takes standard SR-25 magazines)
MSRP:                  $two,132

RATINGS (Out of Five Stars):

Accuracy: * * *
1.5 MoA is pretty practiced, just there are guns that'll do ameliorate. Non necessarily improve for less, only still.

Reliability: * * * * *
Thank you to the pushrod piston arrangement, the 716 gun stays clean and lubed longer after more rounds downrange than the competition.

Weight: * * * *
Four stars since all pretty much all .308's are heavy. But this gun is nine.v pounds empty.

Treatment: * * * *
The controls are good only the gun needs a longer fore-end.

Overall: * * * iii/4

dacombhictis88.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-sig-sauer-716-patrol-rifle/

Share this post