SIG-Sauers have commonality of operating controls. Behind the trigger guard: magazine release. Above the trigger guard: takedown lever. At top of left grip panel, slide lock lever (not present on P230 and P232 models). Above and behind trigger: decocking lever (TDA models only).
A Very Brief History
This particular book was never conceptualized as a history of SIG, the SIG-Sauer collaboration, or SIGARMS. It’s a user’s guide, not a collector’s reference. Schweizerische Industrie Gesselschaft (meaning, literally, “Swiss Industrial Company”) of Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland built a long and honorable history as one of the world’s most respected arms makers. Their first, classic pistol, in production for more than half a century, is the beautifully crafted and famously accurate P210. Though the SIGs have a Teutonic aura today due to the Sauer influence, there’s also a Gallic thread in its history. A key element of the P210 is a slide that runs inside rather than outside the frame rails, and SIG licensed the patent for this, originally granted to Charles Gabriel Petter of France’s Societe Alsacienne de Construction Mechaniques for the 7.65 mm French service pistol of 1935. The P210 is often called the “SIG-Neuhausen” by American shooters. (Yanks tend to pronounce it “New-howzen,” but those who’ve been there say “Noy-hawzen.”) SIG began arms making in 1860, producing muzzle-loaders, and around 1865 perfected a breech-loading military rifle. It was SIG that manufactured the bolt-action Vetterli rifle, which changed the face of military small arms in 1869; before WWI, SIG was building the Mondragon automatic rifle for international military contracts. The P210, which was born in 1947, was actually SIG’s first handgun.
Left, heavy-duty sheet metal stamping was the method of production for this early P226 slide; the slide on the new production pistol at right is machined from a solid block of steel.
These were the first P226 grips. Checkered plastic was well liked by shooters and considered good looking. However…
… SIGARMS felt that these stippled grips gave better grasping security, and they’ve been standard on the Classic models ever since…
… and these extremely ergonomic, non-slip, and adjustable stocks are a keynote feature of the ultra-modern sig pro line.
J. P. Sauer & Sohn (not “Sauer & Son,” as commonly misquoted in the U.S. gun press) is located in Eckenfoerde in what at the time of their link-up with SIG was known as West Germany. They had produced modern, high-quality pistols before WWII. Sauer stood ready in the early 1970s when SIG approached them with a design for a highly reliable, modern service pistol which could be cheaply mass-produced but whose reliance on sheet metal stampings would be antithetical to the “Swiss watch of the pistol world” image that had been so carefully cultivated for the P210. The SIG-Sauer collaboration was born.
SIG absorbed the famous precision gun manufacturer Hammerli in 1971, and annexed J. P. Sauer in 1974. The SIG-Sauer concept was now locked in place.
In turn, SIG-Sauer begat SIGARMS as an American branch for sales and, ultimately, manufacturing. Much assembly is now done at the SIGARMS plant in Exeter, New Hampshire, and slides and frames for the P226 and P229 pistols are now manufactured there. (That had been true of the P239 as well, and may be again, but at this writing SIGARMS tells me that they are so overwhelmed with production demand for the 226 and 229 that the P239 components are currently being produced by Sauer.) Hammerli, famous for the accuracy of their precision target pistols, produces the barrels. This is doubtless one reason why the SIG-Sauer guns are so accurate. By the 21st Century, the Mauser trademark, the exciting Blaser rifle, and assorted shotguns had also come into the SIG family.
As the years went on, the European Community concept encroached more and more around and even in what some consider the last truly free country on the Continent, Switzerland. There were those among the decision makers at SIG who felt that the future did not bode well for either the political correctness or the profitability of the gun industry, which was only a part of SIG’s business. Enter Michael Lueke (pronounced Loo-Kay) and Thomas Ortmeier, German entrepreneurs who had become wealthy in the textile business, establishing the flourishing European firm TWE Technische Weberei GmbH & Co. Rifle enthusiasts and hunters, they at first wanted to purchase the rights to the ingenious Blaser hunting rifle. They ended up with a package deal, purchasing SIGARMS, Blaser, Hammerli, Mauser, Sauer, and the SIG assault rifle line. Those assault rifles are, in my opinion, quite possibly the finest in the world. It is Lueke and Ortmeier who are steering the SIG-Sauer pistols through their second quarter-century of triumphant performance.
From The Author’s Perspective
If we’re going to show the subject warts and all, we should do the same with the author. I’ve been shooting handguns for about 45 years at this writing, and SIG-Sauers, since they came out in the U.S. I’ve carried the P226 9mm and P220 .45 in uniform, and those and others as a plainclothes officer and off-duty armed citizen. I’ve taught the use of the SIG on four continents (including the nation of Switzerland). The very first Lethal Force Institute class I taught included one, a Browning BDA .45 in the hands of a capable student of the gun named Shelley Ivey, and the SIG has been a constant presence among the student body ever since.
I’ve shot matches with them, legally carried them concealed in the four corners of the United States and in between, and monitored their large-scale use in more police departments than I can remember. I’ve taught shooting classes, and taken them, with the SIG-Sauer. I’ve come to respect these pistols. The first fully automatic firearm my younger daughter ever fired was a Sturmgewehr 90, the splendid Swiss assault rifle produced by SIG, when she accompanied me to Switzerland at the age of 11 while I was teaching there for the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. When I was gone on long trips, the pistol my gun-savvy wife of 30 years chose to keep at her bedside was my SIG P226 DAO with an extended magazine loaded with 20 rounds of 9mm +P+. You could say that I have a lot of positive memories of SIG-Sauers.
This book focuses on the development, selection, and safe and effective use of the SIG-Sauer pistols. There will be only brief attention paid to the other SIG handguns: the legendary SIG-Neuhausen P210, the sweet little Hammerli Trailside .22 which is so particularly well suited to smaller sport shooters, and the latest, the well-conceived and executed SIGARMS GSR 1911. The Mauser M2, which has been marketed by SIG, is left out entirely. Despite its excellent accuracy potential, its poor human engineering, second-rate workmanship, lack of reliability, and minimal projected service life don’t make it fit to appear in the pages of book concerning SIGARMS. I don’t have any say what goes into the SIGARMS catalog, but I do have a say on what goes into this book, which is why we’ll focus on the proven and enduring excellence of the true SIG-Sauer pistols.
Massad Ayoob
Concord, NH, U.S.A.
November, 2003
Ayoob testfiring SIG-Sauers.
Chapter 1
