SIG-Sauer SG550 (Tokyo Marui)

by Matt

This is my first electric gun and I have always wanted to get my hands on one. I'm not disappointed, The look and weight of the thing are really impressive, The trigger, bipod, sights, flash hider, and various other bolts and trimmings are metal, the body is made of tough, well cast ABS resin. It's well over a meter long and has green furniture (fore-grip and stock).

It takes an 8.4 volt "torpedo" shape battery which is supposed to deliver 1000-1500 operations per charge although I can't vouch for this as I haven't bothered to count. Inserting the battery is simply a case of pulling out a retainer bolt, sliding the top of the fore-grip ,clipping the battery in place and attaching the connections. I have narrowed this operation down to about 30 secs from end to end.

The magazine that comes with the gun holds about 60 rounds using a normal tube with low-tension spring and follower system. In addition to this I ordered a hi-capacity magazine capable of holding about 250 rounds using a clockwork feeder system. It is worth noting that the mags have studs on the side that enable them to clip together side-by-side without the use of a seperate clipholder (such as is available for the MP5 series).

Firing the gun is a dream, the selector has options for safe, semi-auto, burst and full-auto. The number of rounds fired per burst is adjustable via a knob next to the battery contacts within the fore-grip and can be set from 2-8. Personally 3 rounds is my fave, mimicking the MP5 variants with 3 round burst options. Nice for picking off exposed limbs/heads/etc in a skirmish. in full auto the gun absolutly pisses ammo. Being used to either hop-up spring handguns and gas guns the firepower suddenly at my disposal is just awesome. I think I'm gonna have to buy a third clip and a second battery just to reduce the number of reload times to a practical frequency.

The only drawback I can see with the gun are that it doesn't use the largest battery going. This would mean you running out of juice 1000 rounds before your friends with guns that have the larger, longer lasting batteries. Apart from that, it's marvellous.

I'm going to use it in the summer with a Marui H'n'K USP Hop-Up handgun as a backup weapon. My review of the USP can also be found in the product review section on X-Ring's site.