SIG’s all-metal subcompact: The P224
Sig Sauer has carved out a loyal following around the world from Navy Seals to suburban homemakers with their classic pistols. However, one gun that has long been missing from this lineup is a true subcompact. Well SIG fixed that with the P224.
Swiss arms powerhouse Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG), with a history going back to the 1860s, cooked up their revolutionary “Pistole 75” in 1975 (hence the designation) for military and police sales. This, now classic, design is known as the P220 and it launched what was to become possibly the most admired family of combat handguns in use over the past forty years. With German firearms legend J.P. Sauer & Sohn providing overseas sales due to Swiss neutrality laws, the P220, and 226 was soon adopted by military and security forces around the globe. Heck the 226 only narrowly missed being the standard issue U.S. military sidearm, losing out to the Beretta 92F in 1984 over a bid price of a few dollars.
The P220 is SIG’s grandfather design from which their whole ‘classic’ series of pistols is based on
Today the slightly more compact 229 is a hit with law enforcement ranging from the U.S. Coast Guard and Secret Service to your local beat cops. All of these guns share the same overall internal design features of their Pistol 75 grandfather, giving the whole family tree and instant familiarity to those who have ever used one.
With a lineage like this to stand on, the only thing that SIG needed to complete the portrait is a subcompact model, which begat the P224.
Read the rest in my column at University of Guns
