Hi folks, I’ve been out of the SIG game for quite a few years. I gravitated away to other brands about ten years ago, but I still have an appreciation for SIG’s designs and their beautiful classic pistols. I just didn’t feel good about the quality control and reliability issues that people started reporting in the early 2000s, and this seemed to be borne out in the issues that I experienced with a new P226R (9mm) that I bought around January 2005. Right off the bat, I had issues with misfeeds, failures to extract, and a couple stovepipes. I put 680 rounds through it back then, with a mix of PMC, Blazer, Winchester, UMC, and American Eagle. I think I actually asked about these issues here at the time, but it’s been a long time now. I vaguely recall some people suggesting that the recoil springs were too strong in some pistols from that time period (like they might have put some .40 springs in 9mm pistols). My recoil spring seems to have some green paint marking on it, FWIW. Anyway, I put that pistol away and hadn’t touched it in years. I bought a very lightly used P226R in .40 about a year later that, in contrast, was flawless and became the HD pistol for a while. I sent the .40 in for SIG’s spring replacement and night sight install, which might have helped, but it looked almost as new as my 9mm when I bought it.

Flash forward about a decade, and I decided to take the 9mm P226R out to the range again this week. I’ve switched back to 9mm for carry purposes, it’s still a beautiful pistol, and I wanted to see if maybe the old issues were ammo related, or maybe it needed a little break in. I shot 100 rounds of 115 gr Remington UMC and had two failures to extract, one of which caused a jam when it attempted to feed another round behind the empty casing. The second one was on the last round and just ended up with the slide locked back and the casing still in the chamber. After that, I fired 20 rounds of SIG 124 gr V-Crown JHP, which functioned flawlessly.

I know there are lots of SIG fans here, but also plenty of people who have seen some of the issues they’ve had in the past. I’m just wondering if these type of issues (stovepipes, failures to extract) are in any way typical of issues that SIGs produced in the early 2000s may have had. I’d also appreciate any advice on the fix. Replace the extractor and spring? Send it in to SIG for the spring replacement / night sight package? Call them for warranty support almost 13 years after I bought it? Just shoot a lot more rounds through it to break it in (doubt that will address the failures to extract)? To be honest, this won’t be a primary pistol, so I won’t want to sink a lot of money into it, but if I can get it running reliably, I’d like to at least put night sights and a light on it so it can function as an extra HD gun.

Thanks for any advice you all can offer!

I have trouble following everything you posted, but if the recoil spring in your 9mm P226 has green paint on it, the first thing I’d do is replace it with a proper spring that should have orange paint.

I would be surprised if a too-heavy recoil spring caused extraction failures, but it’s a quick and easy thing to check. If it still has those problems then I’d contact SIG; the extractor could be defective or damaged.

I concur with sigfreund that you should install the correct orange recoil spring. That said, I don't think that is your problem. You wrote that the empty case remained in the chamber twice and that sounds more like an extractor or chamber problem. Be sure that your gun is clean and well lubricated. Disassemble the magazines and clean the insides of the tubes. Also, the UMC ammunition may be a contributor. Try some other brands, e.g. Federal.

Sorry about that, I just cleaned my .40 P226 also and got mixed up - the .40 has the green-marked recoil spring, and the 9mm spring is not marked at all (no orange markings). I mentioned the recoil spring because some of the issues (stove piping and misfeeds) I experienced in 2005-2006 gave me the impression that the slide was not fully cycling, possibly due to the recoil spring being too strong.

I’m definitely still having extraction issues, but I didn’t have any stovepipes during this most recent trip to the range. I cleaned and lubed the pistol before that session. I’ll contact SIG and ask them about the possible extractor issue.

I’ll try some Winchester NATO and Speer Lawman on the next range trip. Thanks!

Slide velocity and stroke are certainly things to consider, however, you mentioned the slide picking up a new round and locking back on an empty magazine, so that seems to indicate that the slide is working as it should.

There were some quality issues in the time frame by which you speak. Most had to do with poorly formed MIM parts. The problems have since been rectified. The big piece of advice I give people is to use enough LUBE. These guns aren’t meant to have a drop of lube on the barrel to be spread out with a Q tip. Lube the barrel and frame rails like you mean it with a good quality lube of your choice. A .40 recoil spring in a 9mm Pistol will still cycle without issue as long as the gun is properly lubed. . It just causes the muzzle to dip when the slide goes back into battery.

I took the pistol back to the range again today and put 100 rounds of Winchester 124 gr NATO ball through it. No issues at all with feeding or extraction, but the firing pin bolt walked out the right side of the slide about 1/8". I can push it back and forth a bit with my finger. That seemed kind of odd.

I'll periodically put a few more rounds of quality ammo through it to see if it continues to function reliably. Thanks again for the feedback.

op,

I'll gladly send you a spirol pin.

eMail is in my profile.

quote:

the firing pin bolt walked out the right side of the slide about 1/8". I can push it back and forth a bit with my finger. That seemed kind of odd

Probably not good as I suspect that means your FPPP is broken, did the piece sticking out look like it had splines on it? Did the left side stay flush while the right side slid out? If so it's broken. This is assuming you have an SS slide with a solid pin.
Not sure the spiral pin is a direct replacement since the original pin would have been tapered.

I have a 226R from that era. I can’t remember exactly what year it was bought, but its old enough to need the night sights to be replaced soon. I am the original owner and other than grips and a light, the pistol is as it came from Sig. I haven’t kept exact round counts, but the 226R has been on HD duty for over a decade and has been fired regularly. I would estimate it has 5-6k rounds fired. I have had zero malfunctions of any kind. In addition to the 226, I have a few other Sigs with the same performance history.