Swiss SIG 553 pistols have hit the US market

**Dirtyboy333** · 12-31-14, 23:33

How does the aluminum Swiss lower compare to the aluminum US lower in quality, fit/finish etc?

**PGT** · 12-31-14, 23:48

Both look excellent. The US-made one is matte Sig-grey while the Swiss one is black and shiny. Both guns have upper/lower play, which I've found is quite normal going back to my old 556 DMR. I'd buy the "Zurich wedge" if I didn't think it was an existing piece of hardware used in another industry and marked up 1000% with some "Tier 1/Tactical" BS marketing slapped on top. I might just try the old $0.99 Tier-1 O-ring from Home Depot to see if it fixes the problem.

**Dirtyboy333** · 01-01-15, 05:33

. Haha. Yeah I know what you mean. I might try the o-ring because right now I'm using a corner that I cut off of a blue sponge. It looks so stupid whenever I open my gun for anything. It's also not working as well as it used to.

**JoshNC** · 01-01-15, 08:07

Originally Posted by PGT

Not 24hrs after completing the 4473, we took the 553 out to a buddy's farm to break it in. I'll file the Form 1 tonight....wanted to make sure there were no issues before doing so.

Out of curiosity why did you add the 556/551a1 diopters to your 553? That is a bit like putting whitewalls and hubcaps on a Ferrari or a rubber Timex watch band on a Rolex.

**PGT** · 01-01-15, 11:07

Huh? What other iron sights would you use? They work very well and SIG sells a model with them equipped. I'll eventually add an Eotech as I don't like the Sparc I put on there to shoot this week.

sig-sg-553.jpg

**the_1iviper** · 01-01-15, 11:51

Originally Posted by PGT

Huh? What other iron sights would you use? They work very well and SIG sells a model with them equipped. I'll eventually add an Eotech as I don't like the Sparc I put on there to shoot this week.

sig-sg-553.jpg

i believe he's wondering why you put us (exeter) sig sights on a swiss gun , they are sorely lacking compared to their swiss counterparts.

if you havn't priced a swiss clamp on diopter though , prepare to pucker if you look it up

edit : the sights in the 553 pic you posted are different than yours. are those the sights that came with your 553 pistol or did you add them on ?

**PGT** · 01-01-15, 12:20

the generic pic is of an SG553 to show the Swiss-made version of the diopter. Yes, I agree the USA-made sights are not as nice (they don't index very positively) but they're better than the pop up irons included. As I said, this is just a holding pattern....I'm going to put on an Eotech and a tritium flip-up/hood combo from cogunsales. This route was cheaper than buying the diopter gun and sourcing the appropriate rail from .ch vendors.

I actually moved the rear over from my 551 as the rail was slightly wider on the 553 and couldn't get the new diopter on. Tolerance stacking perhaps.

**JoshNC** · 01-01-15, 13:38

Originally Posted by PGT

the generic pic is of an SG553 to show the Swiss-made version of the diopter. Yes, I agree the USA-made sights are not as nice (they don't index very positively) but they're better than the pop up irons included. As I said, this is just a holding pattern....I'm going to put on an Eotech and a tritium flip-up/hood combo from cogunsales. This route was cheaper than buying the diopter gun and sourcing the appropriate rail from .ch vendors.

I actually moved the rear over from my 551 as the rail was slightly wider on the 553 and couldn't get the new diopter on. Tolerance stacking perhaps.

You can get the 553 with an optic rail or with Swiss diopters for the same price - about $3k from several vendors. If you like the diopters, you may want to consider buying the diopter model. The difference in quality between the Swiss and 556/551a1 diopters is like comparing an S&B optic to a Chinese optic. There is no comparison. You can still add an optic to a diopter model by using a B&T optic rail.