Tag Archives: SIG P320

A New Carry 10mm?

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Earlier this year SIG Sauer followed up on its first striker-fired 10mm handgun with something a bit more compact – and I’ve have all the details and some insights after kicking one around for a couple of months.

In early 2022, SIG debuted the new caliber option for its hugely successful P320 platform of pistols: the 15+1 capacity 10mm XTen. I extensively evaluated one with box after box of punishing 10mm loads and was impressed with it, the biggest complaint being that its size limited carry options.

Well, the company has an answer to that with the new XTen Comp.

Still chambered in potent 10mm Auto and using the same 15-round flush-fit magazine as the full-sized XTen, the (gently) smaller XTen boasts a 3.8-inch bull barrel instead of the standard 5-incher as seen on its big brother. This also shortens the slide and takes some weight (a quarter pound) off the scales.

Compare in size the XTen Comp, left, with the full-sized XTen. Note they have the same height and width but a shorter frame and top half in terms of length.

Plus, it has an open-top “integrated expansion chamber” that runs past the muzzle of the 3.8-inch barrel, a design that turns it into a ported compensator that cannot come loose with firing. SIG uses this on lots of its Comp model pistols, including 9mm P320s and the P365, and the company says it drops felt recoil by as much as 20 percent.

In initial testing, I found the compensated slide on the XTen Comp to have a better recoil impulse than either the full-sized XTen or the FN 510 Tactical which I tested recently.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Scoring a 10: SIG’s XTen

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SIG Sauer recently announced a new caliber option for its hugely successful P320 platform of pistols– the 15+1 capacity 10mm XTen.

It’s a serious handgun that provides a great option for sportsmen in the field or even in home defense. It really feels and shoots like a big 9mm, something that a lot of 10s can’t say. However, while lighter than a 1911 by a good bit, it is still every inch as long, wide, and tall, meaning that the XTen isn’t really an option for those seeking a compact concealed carry piece– but that isn’t what the gun was designed to accomplish.

I’ve been evaluating this big thumper for the past several weeks and have all the details in my column at Guns.com.

So, SIG let me film at the factory…

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In Guns.com’s ongoing Select Fire series, I somehow talked SIG Sauer into letting us into its expansive and modern facility in Newington, New Hampshire.

While SIG Sauer had its origin in a 1976 team-up of Swiss-based SIG with West Germany’s J.P. Sauer & Sohn (which itself dates to 1751), by 1985 a U.S. spinoff, SIGARMS, was up and running in Tysons Corner, Virginia. After moving to New Hampshire in 1990, the latter company started domestic production here in America– turning blocks of steel and aluminum into firearms.

And they haven’t looked back, now making over 1 million guns per year in the “Live Free or Die” State.

Check out the video if you have 10 minutes to kill.

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?

Wilson Combat meets Sig polymer. Amazing ensues

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Arkansas-based custom gunmaker Wilson Combat has joined forces with firearm icon Sig Sauer to produce an enhanced P320 pistol collaboration.

Dubbed the WCP320, the 17+1 capacity 9mm semi-auto comes with a raft of upgrades over the standard Sig Sauer P320.

The WCP320 is loaded with features including a beveled X-TAC slide, Wilson Combat battle sights with a red fiber optic front, WC’s carry grip module, and a beveled mag well. 

More in my column at Guns.com. 

M9, relieved

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The Beretta M9 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier variant has been used to conduct over 100,000 wreath-laying ceremonies and has been carried by NCO Sentinels on 279,850 Guard changes. It has been replaced by the new Sig Sauer M17 Tomb variant.

In this video, Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) received brand new ceremonial M17 Pistols replacing the M9. The pistols were specially made to uphold standards of the Sentinels of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

More on the new Sig in my column at Guns.com

This can’t be good for the Army’s XM17 program

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The U.S. Army earlier this year awarded a contract estimated as being worth up to $500 million for the Modular Handgun System (XM17 & XM18 pistols). The winner of the competition was a variant of the Sig Sauer Model P320.

Now Andrew Tuohy with Omaha Outdoors (yes, the VuurwapenBlog guy who tested FireClean and said it was basically Crisco) found the P320 under certain conditions will go boom when dropped at some angles and with some triggers.

Yikes.

And did I mention that a Stamford cop is suing Sig in federal court because he picked up a bullet from his holstered P320 after it went off when dropped?

Double Yikes.

SIG Out-Glocks Glock to get Army Modular Handgun System contract

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After the 7-year pistol search was brought up no less than 4 times during the recent confirmation hearings, the Army awards Sig a contract for $580 million for the XM17 (an FDE SIG Sauer P320 in two different configurations with a thumb safety).

A total of nine bids were submitted, including from Beretta, FN Herstal, Glock, Smith & Wesson and their partner General Dynamics Ordnance Tactical Systems (GDOTS), according to a separate Pentagon statement. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, is the contracting activity

m17-xm17-sig-p320

From SIG:

SIG SAUER, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Army has selected the SIG SAUER Model P320 to replace the M9 service pistol currently in use since the mid-1980’s. Released in 2014, the P320 is a polymer striker-fired pistol that has proven itself in both the United States and worldwide markets. The P320 is the first modular pistol with interchangeable grip modules that can also be adjusted in frame size and caliber by the operator. All pistols will be produced at the SIG SAUER facilities in New Hampshire.

The MHS Program provides for the delivery of both full size and compact P320’s, over a period of ten (10) years. All pistols will be configurable to receive silencers and will also include both standard and extended capacity magazines.

“I am tremendously proud of the Modular Handgun System Team,” said Army Acquisition Executive, Steffanie Easter in the release. “By maximizing full and open competition across our industry partners, we truly have optimized the private sector advancements in handguns, ammunition and magazines and the end result will ensure a decidedly superior weapon system for our warfighters.”

IPSC World Champion Max Michel set a Guinness World Record last week, splashing six plate targets from the draw in less than 2.5 seconds with a SIG P320RX. Granted, it’s a supped up gun in the hands of a world master, but still..

Of course, a lot of people are butthurt that Glock wasn’t chosen, as many G19s are in U.S. military use already.

“Do you mean to tell me that the DOD just spent $580M on a pistol that has barely been on the market for three years? A gun that will be carried by US soldiers for at least a decade, more likely two or three, that has only been issued to a handful of law enforcement agencies in the United States? (Love ya Hooksett, NH Police!)” reads TFB.