SIG 556 "Classic"

01 Sept 08

SIG 556 "Classic"

Friends at SIG tell me their existing 556 rifle, of which I have a copy, will be upgraded over the next few months to what amounts to the original 550/551 (with its wonderful iron sights and equally wonderful folding-stock) that accepts M-16 magazines. This is a great move on SIG's part, and I hope to be able to handle a copy at the 2009 SHOT show. This new version will be dubbed the "Classic" 556.

As I've diplomatically pointed out, iron sights on the current 556 are a joke, which is not problem, as the full-length rail permits me to replace them with LaRue's sights, that I have on most of the rest of my rifles. The 556's ambidextrous, manual safety is also easily corrected.

I still like my current copy of the 556, as I've indicated. With a few modifications, as noted in above, it is a purposeful, serious rifle, and I intend to hang onto it. But, the "Classic" version will be even better!

/John

Two Masters?

01 Sept 08

Serving two masters? This from a friend and instructor in PA:

"I attended Practical Rifle Match last weekend. It was well put-together, with reasonable challenges between twenty and three-hundred meters. Movement over rocky terrain was involved, and various demanding shooting emplacements added to the requirement for exigent problem-solving acumen on the part of all.

Shooters showed up mostly with AR-15, but Kalashnikovs were also well represented, along with FALs, Garands, M1-As, XCRs, and even M1 Carbines. Lots of Aimpoints, EOTechs, and iron-sights. Some rifles were equipped with ill-chosen, bulky, high-magnification scopes, which were, without fail, precariously mounted. Nearly all came loose, and some fell off. In this forum, they were all but useless anyway, as their owners discovered, to their chagrin.

I saw two classes of participants. (1) Gamesmen, and (2) Operators.

I am an Operator, but I was squadded with a group of the first category. They were mostly capable marksmen, but high-strung and paranoid! Their weapons were all tight, temperamental, impractical, prima-donnas! I witnessed one stoppage after another, including numerous auto-ejecting magazines. Several, in order to gain some imaginary advantage, were using forty-round magazines, which made shooting from prone all but impossible. These were the same people whose rifles were equipped with high-magnification optics mentionedabove.

From the beginning, and to a man, they whined and sniveled incessantly over scoring and rules, to the point of extreme annoyance. They made progressively distasteful company.

I was there to exercise my serious rifle skills and learn new things from other shooters. My "score" was of only casual/pedantic interest. Conversely, gamesmen in my group cared about their individual scores (in excruciating detail), and absolutely nothing else!

We were all there for our own reasons, I suppose, but the experience reinforced in my mind the impregnable divide between Operators and gamesman, between people who have weapons, and those who have toys!"

Comment: I know this is a touchy subject, but my friend nailed it! I know few people who can serve two masters and do justice to both, and I wish they wouldn't try! I know I can't.

"Choose your seat, and sit down!"

/John