I like . . . big bullets and I cannot lie. I find any AR chambered in 7.62X39 inherently bootylicious; holding one makes me feel like I’ve got angels all over my body. Yes, well, at the moment, I feel really bad for ripping this photo from thefirarmblog.com. It doesn’t seem right that they can build up a cadre of spies and informants and all I have to do is cut and paste. But it is right. Freedom of information is the first flippin’ amendment, mate. FAB’s free to return the “favor”; TTAG doesn’t retain copyright to any of our material. Why bother? Anyway, here’s the bottom line: you can’t put an AK magazine into this new SIG. Is that a big deal?
It would be a medium-sized deal for cheap bastards like me, but if you've got the cheddar for a SIG, you can probably spare another Benjamin or so to stock up on factory SIG magazines.
AK magazines pretty much define the words 'ubiquitous' and 'dependable.' In the entire history of 'feeding devices' , the only things cheaper and more reliable than AK mags are knives, forks, and spoons. For abso-frackin'-lute reliability and low cost, SIG should have used the ubiquitous AK magazines, but this would prevent allow drop-free magazine changes (although AK reloads can be blindingly fast) and given the gun a different operating drill than the 5.56.45 versions of the gun.
The mountain of AK magazines in circulation would deprive SIG of an income stream, but this probably wasn't their deciding factor because there's one more thing: style. SIG guns just plain look cool; it's one of their selling points, after brilliant mechanical design, graceful ergonomics and stone-cold reliability. I just don't think that Mikhail Timofeyovich's ugly magazine release lever, no matter how reliable, would ever look right on a SIG.
Well, Chris… I just handled one today and lo and behold. It had the ak style mag release. Lol! But still, ill take swiss engineering over eastern bloc.