is much like a comparison of the BMW and the Audi automobiles. In each case, both machines operate at the highest level of reliability and performance. Little things will dictate the choice. If you prefer to carry your pistol on-safe, you want a Beretta 92F. If you prefer to carry off-safe, you probably want a SIG P226, because it can’t be found unexpectedly on-safe at the worst possible time. While Beretta offers the decock-only G-series, I don’t find its operation nearly as ergonomic as the SIG’s.
Once you appreciate a SIG-Sauer, you won’t be satisfied with just one. Firearms instructor Steve Denney with just the three SIGs he takes on the road while teaching; cases contain spare .40 S&W and .357 SIG barrels for further versatility.
While I am one of those who likes the idea of an on-safe pistol, primarily from the handgun retention standpoint, the absence of that feature is not necessarily a deal-breaker. The selection of any firearm is going to be a balance of perceived needs with the features of the given gun. The SIG has a lot going for it, and should not be discarded from consideration because it does not have one particular feature.
Warts And All
This book will cover each of the SIG-Sauers, no holds barred. The good, the bad, and the ugly. No one has ever accused a SIG-Sauer of being a sleek or pretty gun. It’s a tool, and a heavy-duty one at that. There is the occasional ammo incompatibility with this or that model, and these will be discussed with a view toward prevention and rectification.
SIG has been good about listening to constructive criticism and responding to it positively. One model would sometimes cycle too fast and fail to pick up the next round when loaded with +P+ ammo. That model is no longer imported. Another came with magazines that could jam during a slide-lock reload when wide-mouth hollow-points were used. Those magazines are no longer furnished with SIGARMS pistols.
SIG-Sauer evolves the product as they find better ways to build guns. Left, an early P226 with separate breechface block, internal extractor, hollow pins. Right, current P226 with accessory rail, milled steel slide, solid pins, heavy-duty modern extractor.
Note that you can see daylight through the hollow slide pin of this older SIG. Current production uses stronger solid pins.
It’s a stretch to call the SIG-Sauer “southpaw-unfriendly,” and this book explains the left-handed manual of arms for this pistol.
One model was known to occasionally suffer frame cracks when fired extensively with hot loads. It was beefed up and the problem was solved. The hollow slide pins on the P226 used to start to work their way out in the course of long shooting sessions – I remember pounding them back in place with a plastic Kubotan – but SIG replaced them with solid pins in the mid-1990s and cured the problem. SIG grips screws had an irritating habit of loosening up in the course of intensive firearms training…and damn it, they still do.
In their first incarnations, the P220 American and the P226 had magazine release springs sufficiently light as to be occasionally culpable in unintended dropping of magazines. For years, I advised students to replace them with aftermarket springs offered for the purpose by Trapper Gun in Michigan, and did so with my own. SIG fixed that problem quietly in the mid-1990s.
Some criticisms levied against the SIG-Sauer are simply unfounded. A good example is the allegation that they are not southpaw-friendly. I think we can prove in this book that it’s no trick at all for a left-handed shooter to manipulate the SIG-Sauer swiftly, positively, and effectively. Some make a big deal out of transitioning from a double-action first shot to single-action follow-ups. It’s easy, and this book will show you how to do it. It’s all a matter of knowing the correct techniques.
Have It Your Way
Europeans as a group can sometimes be arrogant about what they choose to sell to Americans, vis-à-vis what those Americans ask them for. The people at SIG and Sauer have listened to the Yanks better than most. Those of us who’ve watched the SIG-Sauer pistols evolve over the years see this in a number of ways. Nowhere is it more graphic than in the development of no fewer than three significantly different trigger systems.
The standard SIG duty pistol is a traditional double-action (TDA), the first shot requiring a long, relatively heavy pull of the trigger. Subsequent shots offer a short, light trigger pull as the pistol cocks itself with each cycle. This is the overwhelming preference of military and civilian purchasers. It has also proven to be the most popular among police, though by a lesser margin.
Three SIG P226s. Top, early production with internal extractor, folded chrome molybdenum slide. Center, current production, milled and blackened stainless slide, traditional configuration. Below, current production with integral accessory rail.
ATF, FBI, DEA, IRS, Secret Service, Air Marshals, U.S. Marshals, and others have acquired SIGs by the thousands, and to the best of my knowledge all or virtually all have been TDA. Back around 1990, Supervisory Special Agent John Hall – then head of the FBI’s elite Firearms Training Unit, and the man most responsible for bringing semiautomatics to rank and file Bureau agents – explained to me his rationale for favoring the TDA firing system. Recognizing that the main reason for double-action in a service auto is to reduce the likelihood of accidental discharges, he said, “The great majority of accidental discharges occur with the first round. When it comes time to fire a second shot, the agent is in a gunfight, and I want that shot to be as easy as possible to put in the right place.” Frankly, I find it hard to refute that argument, and all the SIGs I personally choose to carry are in the TDA format.
SIGs are designed to function – and to interface with the human hand –in the nastiest weather. The author has just come in from firing a60-shot qualification course in freezing rain, but the target score is a perfect 300. Ergonomics of the P226 were critical to success; Blackhawk combat shooting gloves helped too.
Next came DAO, the double-action-only trigger system. Where TDA is self-cocking during fire, the DAO is self-decocking.For decades before autoloaders replaced revolvers in the holsters of most American cops, police departments of New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and others rendered their sixguns double-action-only. They had discovered that the hair trigger effect of a cocked gun could precipitate an accidental discharge, and that even the presence of single-action capability could bring a false accusation that an officer had cocked a gun and set the stage for a negligent shooting. The double-action-only concept was soon applied to autos.
Thoughtful accessorizing enhances the pistol’s abilities to perform its missions. This P226 “rail gun” mounts InSight flashlight, pre-ban 20-round magazine, SIGlite night sights.
