ICS SIG 551 Review/Discussion

tonycombat

Been meaning to put this up for a while

Picked up 1 of these AEGs last year in a trade on Boards, SG also stock them for about €300

The gun has a very nice stamped metal body with a polymer handguard, rails on the bottom & both sides. The working bolt catch is a nice little feature although slamming it forward too many time may cause the tab that holds the charging handle to break.
Best thing to do is to set your hop up before playing, then remove & store the charging handle so it won't be lost.
The breakdown is also quite nice, just 2 pins & a tab to split the 2 receivers, then can just slip the hop up & barrel out (standard M4 length). Unfortunately there isn't a version of ICS's new spilt gearbox in the gun, but the has been no issues with reliability of the box to date.

The gun fires consistantly around the 300fps mark, the range, accuracy & rate of fire are excellent.

So, a nice looking, well made, good performing gun....

Except for the mags that is.
To date I have tried both the ICS & JG hi caps & found both to be pretty poor.
The ratchet mechanism in the ICS mags (currently not feeding at all) are not strong enough & have had to be bent back into place several times, pretty bad for mags over €20 each.
The JG mags unwind at the slightest knock & cause plenty of misfeeds.

Hoping to try the ICS midcaps ( €90 for 6, before shipping :eek:) next, although some reviews I've read say they're not great either.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with this gun?

Inari

Yup have the ICS 551 and 552.

For mags you're looking at modifying the MAG mid caps - they feed perfectly; just takes a bit of doing.

tonycombat

Inari wrote: »

Yup have the ICS 551 and 552.

For mags you're looking at modifying the MAG mid caps - they feed perfectly; just takes a bit of doing.

Is there not an issue with the bb release tab being behind rather than in front of the feed?

Inari

As I said, takes a bit of doing :P

You need to file away a bit at the back, as well as removing as much of the top retaining part as possible. But they're cheap and work

My camera's battery is dead, but I'll try get pictures up for you if you'd like?

tonycombat

Inari wrote: »

As I said, takes a bit of doing :P

You need to file away a bit at the back, as well as removing as much of the top retaining part as possible. But they're cheap and work

My camera's battery is dead, but I'll try get pictures up for you if you'd like?

Yes please

Inari

tonycombat wrote: »

Yes please

Just a heads up that I've not forgotten about this - I'm in Woodenbridge for a wedding, and the gun + mags are back in Leixlip. I should have it sorted tomorrow night, if that's alright with yourself?

Sorry about the delay on this

tonycombat

Inari wrote: »

Just a heads up that I've not forgotten about this - I'm in Woodenbridge for a wedding, and the gun + mags are back in Leixlip. I should have it sorted tomorrow night, if that's alright with yourself?

Sorry about the delay on this

No worries, haven't ordered any new mags yet anyway

Inari

It took me ages to find this thread - I was searching for titles such as "Mag problem" etc :rolleyes:

Anywho, the modifications for this magazine are very simple. I couldn't find any information on what to do when I bought them, so I just took my Swiss Army knife to one dedicated "Trial" mag and hacked away until I got it to work.

Basically what you do is remove as much material from the top as you can, so as to avoid pushing the gearbox upward, and remove a small amount from where the mag engages with the magazine catch. That's all there is to it!

Hacked to shreds on left, standard on right


Modified on left, standard on right


What needs to be filed


And that's it! Just remove as much as you can from the top - including a small bit of the circular part where you load the BB's. This is to make it easier for the hopup chamber to release the BB's.

For filing the part of the mag that engages on the mag-catch, simply take off a small amount of plastic by running a file along the underneath.

I do hope this helps, and sorry again for the delay

tonycombat

Nice one, will be trying this soon