Tag Archives: new Sig Sauer

Catching Feelings for a Centimeter

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As a 19th Century fella in an increasingly breaking down 20th Century meat suit, I feel like I cut my teeth on the classics regarding handgun calibers: .45 ACP, .38 Special, and .22LR. When I was in my teens, 9mm was still seen as kinda new, even though it had been around for 80 years, and the funs that fired them were high-tech and largely (except for those from S&W) European. Then came (and went) the 10mm.

It is 2022 and, while we don’t have jet packs and Mars colonies, 10mm has come back with a bang.

With that, I’ve recently added a new, Government Issue-sized, pistol to my T&E in-box, but it is in no way a M1911.

Left: old reliable. Right: The new Sig Sauer XTen, a modular new 10mm that runs the same size and weight but has a 15+1 capacity magazine, XRay3 day/night sights, and is optics ready.

Did I mention it is modular, with a fire control unit that can easily be swapped around to other slides and grip modules?

See why I am catching feelings?

Sig returns to the rimfire market…

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Sig Sauer has made some rimfire pistols in the past including the almost universally-hated Mosquito (made 2005-2014) and a Umarex-made 1911-22 (2011-2014). However, for the better part of a decade, the company has left the .22LR pistol category to the other guys.

That changed on 3/22 (get it?) with the introduction of the new Sig Sauer P322. Stylistically splitting the difference between the P365 and P320– feeling kinda like both but not being related to either– the P322 is a standalone platform for Sig.

Made and designed in their New Hampshire factory (not in Germany by Umarex like the FN 502 or Beretta M9-22), the new Sig has a lot of things going for it like being optics and suppressor-ready right out of the box, uses 20-round flush-fit magazines, adjustable fiber-optic sights, both a flat and curved trigger shoe included in the box, and a full M1913 accessory rail– the latter something P365 owners wish they had!

Sig had me down to Orlando earlier this month to give the gun a try, and I gotta admit, after putting about 600 rounds through one at the event, and another 500 thus far in a T&E loaner, there may be something to this thing.

More in my column at Guns.com.

SIG Goes Spectre

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New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer recently debuted a pair of new pistols from their Custom Works program, the P320 XCOMPACT Spectre and P365XL Spectre.

Both Spectre series pistols are 9mm striker-fired handguns that feature the all-new LXG Grip Module with laser engraving on all four sides, a deep trigger undercut, and extended beavertail. The Spectre slide has a distressed finish and custom lightening cuts. Both include XSERIES flat triggers, XRAY3 Day/Night sights, and optics-ready slides.

And they don’t look all that bad.

More in my column at Guns.com.

ZEV’s New Pocket Rocket

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Washington-based ZEV Technologies and New Hampshire’s Sig Sauer this week lifted the curtain on an exciting mod for the latter’s P365 micro-carry 9mm, the new Octane Z365.

As you would expect, the Z365 is packed with semi-custom offerings from ZEV’s catalog including a PRO Barrel, Combat Sights, and the optics-ready Octane slide.

It’s easy on the eyes, but is it worth it?

More in my column at Guns.com.

45 Years Down the Road

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In the late 1960s, Swiss arms maker SIG began working on a modern combat handgun, a double-action 9mm single-stack pistol, in an effort to replace the Swiss Army’s standard handgun, the Pistole 49, perhaps best known as the SIG P210 (SP47/8). The new model was successful and accepted as the Pistole 75 (P75) in 1975.

SIG then teamed up with West German gun maker J.P. Sauer and Sohn to produce the P75 in the FGR for easy overseas export as the Sig-Sauer P220.

These early guns were first imported into the U.S. by Browning, who branded them as the Browning Double -Action, or BDA. Offered in 9mm, .45ACP and .38 Super, it was pitched as a competition gun and soon appeared in the Bianchi Cup match.

Boom. For reference, $319 on BDA in 1977 is $1350 today

The gun was even reviewed in American Handgunner magazine in 1977, a magazine haunted by Col. Jeff Cooper, the man who would advocate for the 10mm Auto.

Now, fast forward to this week and the now-45-year-old P220 is available in a tricked out 10mm-chambered SAO model, which Cooper would likely approve of.

More on the latter in my column at Guns.com.

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