Simple SIG components not unfamiliar to those with good taste. Extended frame rails, full-length guide rod that isn’t plastic, and one feature that should be in more handguns… a wound spring that provides a better control and more consistent performance with a longer service life than most types of springs. It’s the heart of SIG’s reliability and exceptional accuracy.
9mm Para isn’t a terrible cartridge. Any shortcomings of caliber are made up by rapid follow up shots with premium grade ammunition. Such as my personal choice for 9mm, Hornady’s Critical Duty. As with most firearms, I prefer ammunition that is loaded heavy for the caliber. If I have the choice between lighter and faster loads and the heavier slower loads, I’m taking the heavy. Ideally, it’s what I like to call “Hot and Heavy” and that’s the difference between the Hornady Critical Defense and Critical Duty loads. I find that the heavier loads are more reliable and do tend to be more accurate. Your milage may vary.
I remain, and all will be, a fan of DA/SA guns. I try not to jump from fad to fad, such as
SIG’s tend to be comfortable shooters as well. Any of the 22X Guns (Meaning P220, 226, 229, 228, and of course, the M11) are very reliable and very accurate. On Armed American Radio, Mark Walters asked how I’d describe them… I described them with one word. “Trust”. I trust SIG more than most makers. I trust the reliability, and I trust the accuracy. I also trust Metal framed handguns with Hammers more than I do polymer striker fired guns, because I know I can run them with confidence. This is a personal thing based on long experience with a wide range of sidearms.
I’ve always been a huge fan of SIG. Always will be. You should be too.
Now, I just need to gather about four more spare magazines and a couple good holsters for this one.
Just commenting on the 228 to 229 transition.
As I carried a 228, then a 229, then a 229R with NCIS. The 229 is not a 228 with a rail. The 229 was created when Sig put a stainless steel slide on the pistol. The 228 had a carbon steel slide with a stainless steel breech insert.
Both 228 and 229 were in 9mm, although we had some 228s in 9×21 for use in Italy and other countries that banned military ammo. We converted to the P229R-DAK, when we converted to .40 in 2004/5.
The M11 is a P228. The M11-A1 is a P229. Sorry
SIG changed the 229 back in 2014 I think it was. Now, remember, the 229 was specifically developed to be a .40 cal pistol. Sig was about 2 years late to the .40 game because they knew the .40 was something too hot to just rechamber a 9mm pistol for. So you had 228’s in 9 and 229’s in .40, and then later they came out with 229’s in 9mm as well. Then SIG dropped the 228. Later they brought it back with a single piece slide like the 229 was. And then in 2014 they went away from the 229’s original style slide and adopted the regular 22X style slide with the slide serrations going top to bottom.
My first pistol was a used German-marked P228. Never could manage to shoot it worth beans, so I traded it in towards a new CZ-75b. I love the CZ, and it’s frickin’ lazer beem accurate in my hands, but I’m still kicking myself for letting go of the SIG.
Shoot that Unicorn. They only get better with age!
I carried a P-228 for about 8 years until I retired from the service. I too missed it, it fit my hand better than the 92SB or the S&W. My P-226 was too big and my P-239 was too small. I finally got around to ordering a P-229R with the Legacy slide since I didn’t like the long extractors. Put the short trigger on it from my old P228 and it was just right. The SRT and E2 grips are just bonuses.