Fellow SIG716I aficionados,
Guess what I'm doing right now besides still watching this video.....?
I am laughing my ass off thinking of all the people who said pass on SIG junk and get the Aero Precision M5E1. They said it was the way to go and a much better rifle for the money than the 716I. They said that Aero uses Ballistic Advantage barrels and BA guarantees 1MOA.
Frankly I am at a loss for words and I don't know what to say.... I seriously thought they had it all figured out. I don't know anymore lol, I am starting to think that maybe they were wrong.
I understand this is a small representation of Aero's total M5E1 sales but I'm sure SIG has also distributed more AR-308's to date compared to Aero, and there exist no such video of a 716I struggling to make accurate hits or operate.
I'm sure
@Ravenworks or some other user will be over soon to remind me to mind my place when speaking of SIG716I's and show respect to real rifles, but I just found this video quite funny, and not in the laughing at Aero way either.
I seriously wonder how my 716I would perform. How do you think it would hold up?
True or false:
Aero conducted pyramid testing on complete M5 rifles, with at least 100,000 rounds like DPMS, ArmaLite, KAC, SIG, Daniel Defense, and Savage have done?
When I spoke with the production managers and engineers from the above companies over the years about extensive testing, the ammo budgets and testing schedules were quite substantial. KAC has been at it since the 1980s when they were still working with Stoner himself. Eagle Arms knocked-off the SR-25 when doing their work on their AR-10, but used a modified M-14 magazine and different lower that would accept that mag at an angle like on the M-14. They came up with some very cool innovations for dealing with the bolt balanced lug engagement, sprung firing pin to eliminate slam fires, and did overall really nice work (Karl Lewis and David Doerbeck did excellent work on developing the large frame further, which we know as the ArmaLite Inc. AR-10B and AR-10T).
When DPMS sat down around the table once Randy Luth sold it off to Freedom Group, the engineers and management people asked what they need to do to update the LR-308. Their production manager quipped, “We can start by making it work.” They listed 19 items that they wanted to improve or change, and determined they would basically need to start from scratch. That process resulted in the DPMS GII, which underwent extensive pyramid testing.
Pyramid testing involves at least 10 rifles for the start fleet, and 100,000 rounds. Numerous test employees are used and rotated through after basic mechanical safety of the pressure containment system is established, and then they move into the man-firing schedule, which is supervised by engineering staff.
Any time a malfunction is encountered, the testing stops, is assessed if immediate action, remedial action, or higher level intervention is needed to correct it, then documented. Higher-level intervention can result in design changes across the test fleet. This happened with the DPMS GII, when the feed ramps were getting beaten up, so they made a steel feed ramp insert that fits into a recess in the upper receiver, so that meplats of cartridges never impact aluminum.
As you progress through the pyramid-testing process, making design changes along the way, you will end up with 1 or 2 rifles that have climbed to the top of the pyramid with the least number of failures. That final rifle design is then evaluated by the engineers, and any changes they recommend are taken into consideration before nailing down the first production design Technical Data Packages.
Daniel Defense did this with their DDV5, and Savage did it with the MSR-10 series once they were merged with the Federal Cartridge company under the Vista Outdoor conglomerate. Savage still had to pay Federal for the ammo budget, and their engineers said, “I still remember the day I saw the ammo Purchasing Order. It was......huge and very expensive."
When you see things like firing pin heads breaking within several hundred rounds, and extractor pins shearing into pieces, you know that the likelihood of pyramid testing and any type of test-based TDP are non-existent. This is one of the several reasons I have personally avoided some of the companies cranking out large frame parts designed for DIY’ers.
This is where being a reputable rifle-manufacturer comes into play. Manufacturers get criticized by people for being assemblers, but when they specify a set of compliance orders for parts, take delivery of those parts, and do final QC based on the lessons from their extensive testing regimen, it produces a much more reliable, durable firearm. I would be shocked if SIG didn’t conduct pyramid testing on their 716I, or any of their firearms.