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I Chih Shivan Enterprise Co.,Ltd. ( ICS ) Sig 551
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Reviews
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11508
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Fri June 5, 2009
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Description:
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ICS Sig 551 review by XavierMace
Discuss this review here.
Basic Information
The Sig 55x series is ICS's newest product line. At the time of this writing, two models are available from ICS, the 551 reviewed here and the smaller 552.
Real Steel History(from wikipedia)
The SG 551 carbine has a short pattern 363 mm (14.3 in) barrel, gas tube and piston compared to the SG 550. The handguards were also changed and the bipod removed. The SG 551 cannot be used with a bayonet or fire rifle grenades. The SG 551 comes in several specialized variants designed for use with security and special forces. Among those variants are the SG 551-1P police carbine (designed to engage point targets out to 300 m; equipped with a Hensoldt 6x42 BL telescopic sight and detachable cheek riser), the SG 551 SWAT carbine (coated with a corrosion-resistant finish and equipped with an optical sight mount used with a wide array of sights, for example Trijicon's ACOG 3.5x35; this variant can also accept mission-critical accessories such as a bipod, laser pointer or tactical light) and the SG 551 LB carbine with an extended 454 mm (17.9 in) barrel that enables the use of rifle grenades.
Product Description/First Impressions:
The gun is packaged in ICS's normal fashion with a colorful stylish box featuring both Sig offerings as well as the features of the gun. Inside, the gun is seated in felt covered tray.
The gun includes a nice color manual, 2 high capacity magazines, cleaning rod, bottle of BB's, and the gun. The gun was provided by AirsoftGI for the purpose of the review. AirsoftGI included several of their own little information packets which is a nice touch.
Externals
Externally, the gun features a metal receiver, barrel, and sights. The stock is industrial plastic with a metal hinge/locking system. The pistol grip, foregrip, and stock are a nice industrial plastic.
The grip is a standard Sig/SAW style grip. The grip has a very nice texture and is comfortable to hold. One difference between the ICS Sig 551 and the Tokyo Marui series is the motor plate.
The motor plate appears to be a heatsink plate and features a nice large flat head motor adjustment screw. The fore grip is made from the same industrial plastic as the stock and pistol grip. The fore grip firmly locks in place and exhibits very little wobble.
The grips are designed to hold a stick battery, but could also hold several other configurations such as a two or three panel lipo or maybe a split stick battery. Unfortunately it's not quite big enough to hold a mini style battery. The barrel is 1 piece and quite solid.
One welcome change over the Tokyo Marui is the standard threaded flash hider. This allows you to mount a flash hider or barrel extension of your choosing. The gun has a metal trigger and as with the Tokyo Marui, the trigger guard flips out of the way for use with gloves.
The metal body features Sig Arms trademarks. The receiver has a few notable new features over the other Sig's on the market. The bolt release on the left hand side is functional, allowing the mock bolt to return forward when locked back.
The mock bolt locks back when pulled all of the way back allowing for easy hopup adjustment. As with the real Sig 55x series, the receiver has rubber lining on the channel for the charging handle. The mock bolt has a very stiff spring and returns forward with a nice whack when the bolt release on the right is pressed down.
The biggest change over the existing Sig's on the market is the quick take down receiver.
Start off by pushing out the front receiver pin.
Then press the "ICS" button right behind the rear sight.
That's it, the whole upper receiver then slides forward allowing you to access the internals of the gun.
Internals
Internally, the gun has standard Sig series internals. The gun has a black V3 gearbox, plastic Sig hopup, and a medium Turbo 3000 motor. The gun uses the same QD connectors in their fore grip as their M4 series.
I immediately swapped the stock fuse assembly for one I had already wired for Dean's connectors. This was primarily done because almost all my batteries already have Dean's connectors. Plus, given the limited space up front, Dean's give you more room to work with. Since it uses the same QD connectors, it was a simply matter of pulling off the original fuse assembly and hooking up an existing one that had Dean's on the end.
The gearbox is pretty much a standard V3 Sig gearbox. The gearbox casing itself is black, with a standard ICS 2 hole cylinder and white polycarb piston. The lower receiver has a channel on the side to route the wiring.
The ambidextrous selector assembly is pretty much the same as the Tokyo Marui Sig's. While this is pretty much unavoidable, it still makes getting the gearbox out a bit of a pain.
The gun comes with ICS's Turbo 3000 High Torque motor. As with the Tokyo Marui's, the ICS Sig's use a Medium length motor. The Turbo 3000 is a good motor with a nice balance between efficiency and torque. The motor is one of the better stock high torque motors out there.
Internally, the gun is a standard V3 gearbox with ICS's steel gears, polycarb piston and piston head. The spring is a standard ICS M120 spring which gives the gun a solid velocity right out of the box.
The gears are nice steel gears with a decent amount of grease on them. Not too much, but not too little either. The shimming was also quite good for a stock gun.
The wiring is ICS's newest 16ga wiring. It's a little stiffer than I would like, but it's decent wiring. The wiring has little bits of shrink wrap in various places to help keep things manageable.
The bushings are 6mm and once again are made of steel. The bushings are quite stong and I would not have any concerns about them breaking. Over all, internally, it's a very solid gun and compatible with any V3 internals. The hopup chamber seems to be slightly modified compared to the Tokyo Marui but are very similar.
Power/Magazines
The gun includes two ICS 470 round "Long" Sig series magazines. The magazines are plastic, and have clips on side to allow you to clamp the magazines together. The magazines are translucent and a bit light. The mags however wind smoothly and as of yet have not displayed any feeding issues. Power wise, the gun is designed to use "stick" style batteries. At this time, MAG mags do not function in the gun nor even lock in place. Tokyo Marui mags, lock in and feed. I do not have any of the new G&G Sig mags at this time, but I have been advised they also function normally.
Performance Characteristics:
The gun was known to have an airseal issue before it was sent, therefore I opened the gearbox up to inspect it and reseal it before doing any performance testing. Gun was tested with an 11.1v, 20C, 4400mah Li-Po battery. Before re-sealing the gearbox, the gun chrono'd at 415-425fps with .20g BB's. After resealing, the gun shot 420-435fps which shows the stock seal was actually pretty good. With the above battery, the guns rate of fire chrono'd at 17.5-18.3 rounds per second (roughly, 1100rpm). The mags had no difficulty keeping up with the feeding.
Accessories/Modifications
The fore grip has a medium rail on the bottom and a small rail on each side for mounting flash lights or lasers. The rails are cut nicely and appear to be pretty close to spec. A variety of rail mounted grips and light mounts can be put on the sides.
The Tokyo Marui scope mount and rail mount function perfectly on the gun. The Tokyo Marui cheek rest also functions perfectly on the gun. The gun is not compatible with Tokyo Marui's Sig front ends. However, ICS has announced their plans to release their own scope mount and cheek rest. In addition, they are also releasing LB kits for both the 551 and 552. These kits feature longer inner an outer barrels (450mm and 340mm respectively) for both the 551 and 552. The kits will also include the appropriate LB flash hider and bayonet lug.
Upgrades:
The gun is pretty much a standard Sig 55x internally. This means any V3 gearbox internals will work. As with the other Sigs, the gun uses a Medium length motor. The gun performs great with a small LiPo in the fore grip. I dropped in a small 7.2v 900mah LiPo battery which performs at least as well as a standard 9.6v stick battery. Drop in a stiffer spring, add a barrel extension and you have yourself a nice little DMR. With the 11.1v battery, the gun cycles very fast resulting in the gun firing 2-3 round bursts on semi auto.
Skirmish Results
The gun has had roughly 2500 rounds put through it so far with the 11.1v Li-Po and has functioned flawlessly. The stock barrel seemed to have a factory defect, so it was replaced with an AK length Madbull V2 Black Python barrel. The gun is very solid with none of the wobbles you get with the Tokyo Marui and JG Sig's. The hop up on the gun is very consistent and has no issues staying adjusted.
Conclusion:
The ICS Sig 551 is in my opinion the best Sig 55x replica on the market today. It comes with a metal quick take down body for not much more than the price of the HurricanE body for the Tokyo Marui alone. That combined with it's compatibility with the Tokyo Marui externals and a reasonable price tag make it a fantastic bargain for people looking for a new Sig 55x replica. The 551 is available from Airsoft GI for $320 or you can also get the smaller Sig 552 for $320 as well.
End Notes:
Many thanks to AirsoftGI for providing the gun for review. Many thanks to the people who have come to me with questions about the gun which allowed me to focus on details that might normally have been missed. As always, additional pictures are available here.
Written by XavierMace, 3/17/09
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