Since the 516s are being discontinued by Sig, are they still worth picking one up at a discounted price?

Depends on the discount, but honestly I’d prefer another mainstream DI AR15 like a Colt LE6920, BCM, etc.

I saw the uppers on sig website for $499. I sure was tempted.

If you have Sig rifles, $499 is a good price. Sig says they will continue to support them, but I don't believe them. I think they're taking heat for dropping rifles and not supporting them, so they're saying support will be continued...only to be dropped quietly in a year or two.

So if I had other 516's I'd definitely jump on more at such a good price. If I didn't have any 516's, I don't see why I'd add what's likely to be an unsupported rifle with proprietary parts to my lineup.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
If you have Sig rifles, $499 is a good price. Sig says they will continue to support them, but I don't believe them. I think they're taking heat for dropping rifles and not supporting them, so they're saying support will be continued...only to be dropped quietly in a year or two.

So if I had other 516's I'd definitely jump on more at such a good price. If I didn't have any 516's, I don't see why I'd add what's likely to be an unsupported rifle with proprietary parts to my lineup.

Pretty much why I gave up on all my "proprietary" parts rifles. At some point everything gets discontinued. If playing the long game, you either have to invest heavily in the platform or go with longstanding platforms.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
So if I had other 516's I'd definitely jump on more at such a good price. If I didn't have any 516's, I don't see why I'd add what's likely to be an unsupported rifle with proprietary parts to my lineup.

This.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
So if I had other 516's I'd definitely jump on more at such a good price. If I didn't have any 516's, I don't see why I'd add what's likely to be an unsupported rifle with proprietary parts to my lineup.

This.

Plus 2!!

SIG seems to have gone too far to the sell as many different guns as possible and then make different ones to sell more of next week. I understand that they are in the business to sell guns and make money but In my personal OPINION they are destroying their reputation as high quality firearms. Now they are just expensive. Almost EVERY new SIG I've purchased over the last decade has been part of either breaking and needing sent back to service (which is at least good), discontinued or part of a recall. I have lost faith in them and I used to be a huge fan.

In my opinion they would be better off in the long run selling more fully developed WEAPONS that are reliable and worth owning long term instead of cranking out as many different guns to sell as they can.

The 516 is just one more example of too many guns too quickly rushed to market.

dj

I kind of agree with dj. But my 516 is anything but shoddy quality. It’s been rock solid since day one and a pleasure to shoot. My beef with SIG is that every damn new gun they seem to offer has propriety parts - and SIG won’t sell you spare parts, and aftermarket support is poor.

I’m keeping my 516, but they will get no more of my money for their new models. I’m sticking with guns that use industry standard parts, generally available, with good aftermarket support.

quote:

Originally posted by 2Adefender:
I kind of agree with dj. But my 516 is anything but shoddy quality. It’s been rock solid since day one and a pleasure to shoot. My beef with SIG is that every damn new gun they seem to offer has propriety parts - and SIG won’t sell you spare parts, and aftermarket support is poor.

I’m keeping my 516, but they will get no more of my money for their new models. I’m sticking with guns that use industry standard parts, generally available, with good aftermarket support.

Agreed, same here. I have a lot of SIG rifles, and this is very annoying.

I agree about the 516's quality; my two have been rock solid performers. The rifles for the most part are very well built. Sure SIG canted the gas blocks and as a result a mounted front sight is off a bit to the left on both guns. But both still shot well with irons and I stopped fretting over it years ago. And solid like only a quad railed, front heavy rifle can be.

The factory "support" for my first gen 516 went away long ago, one minute after LWRC launched its lawsuit against SIG for patent infringement. I have long known that I could've sent the rifle back to be fitted with a Gen2 upper at no cost, but the Gen1 ran so well that I had no real desire to muck it up. So I didn't. However my Gen2 FDE was not quite as forgiving at first (a bit of a break-in for that one), but it's been spot-on reliable since those first couple of hundred or so rounds.

It's not a great thing that the 516 is going away but I do think the handwriting was etched into the proverbial clay wall of SIG for some time, particularly so after the MCX came into being. Frankly I'm surprised that SIG hung on with the 516 for as long as they did given the relative speed of their past discontinuations and how hard they've been pushing the MCX platform in the past couple of years.

As I've discovered at the shop, the 516 hardly gets any glances from shoppers looking at obtaining an AR. The aforementioned quad rail is classified as 'outdated' and 'old-fashioned' right out of hand, and that weight that gives it that solidity is just viewed as being too heavy in this age of ultralight builds. And it like all of SIG's rifles past and present is oft seen as being too darn expensive, especially when one can pick up TWO Adams Arms piston builds for the same money...and those come in more "modular" M-Lok or Keymod.

In the end I can always build (or buy) another upper from someplace else to replace the 516s' if it comes down to that. It's still an AR after all, and mil-spec enough in the areas that keeps the serialized part relevant even when the proprietary bits start going off into the sunset.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
So if I had other 516's I'd definitely jump on more at such a good price. If I didn't have any 516's, I don't see why I'd add what's likely to be an unsupported rifle with proprietary parts to my lineup.

This.

Plus 2!!

SIG seems to have gone too far to the sell as many different guns as possible and then make different ones to sell more of next week. I understand that they are in the business to sell guns and make money but In my personal OPINION they are destroying their reputation as high quality firearms. Now they are just expensive. Almost EVERY new SIG I've purchased over the last decade has been part of either breaking and needing sent back to service (which is at least good), discontinued or part of a recall. I have lost faith in them and I used to be a huge fan.

In my opinion they would be better off in the long run selling more fully developed WEAPONS that are reliable and worth owning long term instead of cranking out as many different guns to sell as they can.

The 516 is just one more example of too many guns too quickly rushed to market.

dj

I disagree that the 516 was a problem. My 516 has never had a single problem in the 6 or so years've had it and the accuracy is excellent.

But for $500 for a Gen 2 upper....I went ahead and got the 10 inch. I hope I’m not disappointed.

The SIG 516 is the one rifle they made that never gave me any trouble.

It bothers me to think that I have over $8000 tied up in SIG rifles that have been discontinued and will be no longer supported. Three of these rifles were no longer supported in less than a year from when I bought them. Once my 716 is obsolete I will break the $10,000 mark.

If you have one and want a spare BCG this looks like a good deal:

https://www.cdnnsports.com/sig...__SID=U#.XFNuo1VKhpg