My experience. I have three (3) MCX Virtus rifles, two of which are 11.5 SBRs. The other is a standard 16" model. One of the 11.5's was a little finicky at first. The other two were perfect from round one. The one that seemed a little finicky I decided to give a thorough cleaning, and then lube and reassemble. It ran perfectly thereafter. You may already have, but if not, give it a thorough degreasing and cleaning, relube, and then see how it performs.
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MCX Virtus Patrol questions on mechanical break-in
Hello after 2 years of looking for a MCX Virtus (wanted a 11.5 but beggars can't be choosers lol) finally found one. Anyways upon cleaning and doing my normal function check i noticed the rifle is really struggling on the gas setting of - . Now I have tried Federal XM193, 855 and some 70ish gr ammo (can't remember exactly what ammo or brand NOT reloads), all struggle to lock back on empty mag. Tried Pmag Gen 2, Gen 3, Lancer, SOLGW, and OKAY mags. All have worked good in other firearms. Now on + the thing runs however after all reading I can find the firearm is suppose to be run in the - . Now I have found a few post of others describing similar things however NO ONE ever talks about if they fix it or send it back or just sell it off. Wanted to see if this rifle needs some form of a mechanical l break-in period, I can not find anything in the manual stating it. I tried to contact sig and after waiting on hold for 31mins I just hung up. Was recommended to ask here from reddit about it, just looking for some help before wasting too much ammo trying to get this thing to run Thank you for any help
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The Virtus needs a thorough cleaning and very liberal lubrication. There are minute metal particles left on the rifle after manufacture. They increase friction so removing them helps the rifle to function. The factory uses rust preventive instead of lube before shipment. Hence it was no help and increased function.
Clean and lube your rifle and it will be fine.
My Virtus upper came from the factory and was fired at the factory on the adverse setting, so situation normal.
Bill
Clean and lube your rifle and it will be fine.
My Virtus upper came from the factory and was fired at the factory on the adverse setting, so situation normal.
Bill
Thank you for the response! Are you running yours on - or + ? It was field stripped and cleaned the first time and Lucas Extreme Oil was applied. After that I deep cleaned it and used Cherry Balmz which didn't change anything. Reading around I found people are reporting that sig reps on phones tell people not to run grease style oils however I can't find anything in the manual about it. Going to take it back out and hope for the best. Didn't know if people are just keeping the guns on adverse or actually going to the -My experience. I have three (3) MCX Virtus rifles, two of which are 11.5 SBRs. The other is a standard 16" model. One of the 11.5's was a little finicky at first. The other two were perfect from round one. The one that seemed a little finicky I decided to give a thorough cleaning, and then lube and reassemble. It ran perfectly thereafter. You may already have, but if not, give it a thorough degreasing and cleaning, relube, and then see how it performs.
Thank you good sir for your response also, the gun was cleaned and stripped of all shipping lubrication's. I have tried Lucas Extreme Oil and Cherry Balmz, both have the rifle not 100% on the - setting. Does your upper run on the - setting? A lot of people just seem to keep them on adverse which is putting unnecessary wear on a firearm that a company can't even produce parts at any type of a decent time frame.The Virtus needs a thorough cleaning and very liberal lubrication. There are minute metal particles left on the rifle after manufacture. They increase friction so removing them helps the rifle to function. The factory uses rust preventive instead of lube before shipment. Hence it was no help and increased function.
Clean and lube your rifle and it will be fine.
My Virtus upper came from the factory and was fired at the factory on the adverse setting, so situation normal.
Bill
Guess trying to find out how big of a thing this is across them and what people are doing. I have had people recommend to stay away from grease oils however that is silly considering I have never had an issue from any rifle running Cherry Balmz it is not that thick by any means
I like the Lucas oil and use the needle nosed bottles. The owners' manual shows the points than need lubrication.
I go heavier on the bolt lugs, the cam pin and the recoil springs. The trigger pins also get a few drops.
The recoil springs are intended to last 20,000 rounds and are pinned in place. Hence, lighter recoil springs are not a practical option on the Virtus generation. The recoil springs have to deal with suppressed fire with super soniic ammo.
Bill
I go heavier on the bolt lugs, the cam pin and the recoil springs. The trigger pins also get a few drops.
The recoil springs are intended to last 20,000 rounds and are pinned in place. Hence, lighter recoil springs are not a practical option on the Virtus generation. The recoil springs have to deal with suppressed fire with super soniic ammo.
Bill
I have used Lucas oil in the past and found it worked well. Currently I am using the Geissele "Go-Juice" very thin lubricant, and where appropriate, the Geissele ALG very thin grease. For degreasing or heavy duty cleaning, I am still a believer in Hoppe's #9 solvent. Been using it for over 50 years and it hasn't killed me yet!
+1 on Lucas Oil, at least at first.
Clean the rifle well, which it sounds like you did, and then douse it in oil. Then run it hard.
My 11.5 initially was somewhat sluggish, but after ~200 rounds it smoothed out. Not sure if that's due to the cerakote they used (very thiccc on the fde variants) or what, but it's smooth as oiled glass now.
Clean the rifle well, which it sounds like you did, and then douse it in oil. Then run it hard.
My 11.5 initially was somewhat sluggish, but after ~200 rounds it smoothed out. Not sure if that's due to the cerakote they used (very thiccc on the fde variants) or what, but it's smooth as oiled glass now.
My 556R, 716I, 716G2 Patrol, M400 SDI Pistol, 516G2 Patrol and MCX Rattler Canebrake all had tolerances that were so tight brand new I could call them virgins! A few of them would occasionally smoke when the charging handle was pulled releasing an addictive metallic burning odor. Sometimes it can cause the gun to choke up a bit or run sluggish. A few weeks ago my 516G2 Patrol did not like being initially shot & broken in on a "normal gas" setting. It was very sluggish cycling so I opened it up to "adverse" and chugged through a few mags and after shooting a few hundred it was cycling fine. I did use CLP and SIG's prefer grease IMO. So either grease and shoot or grease and manually cycle to really smoothen out the action. I'd say between 200-250rds and your new Gas Piston or Direct Impingement SIG should be smooth as butter. Anything not within these boundaries for me will go back to SIG for inspection and repair.
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