Last local gun show, and it was a pretty good sized one ... I was hoping to to find a nice used one, but after checking all the usual places all I turned up a couple new ones, a couple well worn police trade-ins in 40 and finally came across a 9mm Elite Enhanced on GunBroker for what seems to be a decent price ... I under stand striker fired pistols are raising to dominance ... maybe I'm just suprised.

quote:

Has the 226 fallen from favor?

Not sure why you get that impression?

Well, everyone wants smaller these days. The P228/9 and G19 size used to be considered "compact" but now compact size is smaller. Hell, now you have "micro-compact" like the P365. Add in that it's all metal and hammer fired (DA/SA) and yeah, it's not going to be as popular.

However, if you're not able to find them in stock, doesn't that mean they're being bought up? I guess if the vendors say they don't stock them anymore that's different.

Still the best pistol in this house. Doubt that will ever change.

I still prefer the p226 to the 228/229. I don't own any strikers fired guns currently. Have really only owned 3. None of them for very long.

The p226 looks dated from the guys of all the modular hand grips, low bore axis, can't handle DA/SA trigger pull change up crowd. I am not trying to start a fight with the striker fired guys, or single action only guys. Just repeating that many don't like DA/SA change up. Yes there are DAK and SAO varients, of which i have an SAO, and a DA/SA gun.

The manual of arms is more involved for a standard da/sa gun. That requires time, bullets, and a range. For some that can be exponentially larger amounts than a SA, or striker fired gun.

I love the p226, The size, the grip angle, just everything. In many things i prefer it over other guns. I carry my p226 sao elite, and my X5 AllRound quite often. I am an odd duck though. I carry a jericho 941, and ruger p85 just as often as i do my p226's or my Ted Yost browning hipower.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Still the best pistol in this house. Doubt that will ever change.

AMEN BROTHER!!!

I have yet to find a superior gun to the 226, it's perfect in every way (for me).

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Still the best pistol in this house. Doubt that will ever change.

Well... the P220 is no slouch.

I recently switched CCW from a P226/357 to a P220/10. I still love my old P226 though.

#dasaposse. The 226 is king.

Nope. I think most professionals and serious shooters know that is still a viable platform. The PD I work for has carried the p226 since the early 90s, and has decided to continue to issue the p226, but new recruits are getting our first batch of railed guns this year.

The drawbacks are weight and capacity. I would love for sig to provide the 18 rounders with the 9s and the 13 rounders with the 40s, but I doubt they will make any changes at this stage in the game. It stinks that we have to put extended mags in to match the capacity of the competition. Other than that, it's the perfect pistol.

I would love to shoot one in .357 Sig, as I have a feeling that a p226 in that caliber would be the perfect match.

So if I understand the OP, he didn't find as many P226s as he thought he would?

That may be because the people that have them aren't interested in letting them go.

(For P226 fans, Gabe Suarez recently did a nice short article on his opinion of the P226.)

If they were out of favor, you would expect to see lots of them for sale, like pretty much anything .40 S&W these days, so I don't follow your logic.

Not in my castle. When all the other pistols have gone to grandkids or friends, when I'm in the last hours of my time here in Earth, there will still be a P226 nearby.

IMHO, it is simply the single finest fighting pistol mankind has ever known.

IMO the 226 is the best DA/SA 9mm pistol on the planet. However, I think the DA/SA trigger system has “fallen from favor.” The industry is focused on polymer, striker-fired pistols because that’s what the market wants.

^^^ To be honest, I'm not sure that striker-fired pistols are "just" popular with the market. It's a whole new operating system, which essentially gives manufacturers a new field in which to compete and in which there may still be a whole lot of room for development.

Then again, that's one reason why I still love the 226 and think it's still competetive: I can live with the triggers I've encountered on the striker-fired pistols I've shot, but I like the triggers on 22X pistols a lot better.

quote:

Originally posted by Cous2492:
The drawbacks are weight and capacity. I would love for sig to provide the 18 rounders with the 9s and the 13 rounders with the 40s, but I doubt they will make any changes at this stage in the game. It stinks that we have to put extended mags in to match the capacity of the competition. Other than that, it's the perfect pistol.

MecGar already provides the two magazines you're asking for.

http://www.mec-gar.com/pistol-...8-High-Cap-Flush-Fit

http://www.mec-gar.com/pistol-...3-High-Cap-Flush-Fit

FWIW, don't rule out an ST in 357SIG. I love the combination myself, and the odd ST in .40 will pop up around where I live at a cheap enough price to take a lot of the pain out of the cost of a 357SIG barrel.

From a new gun perspective, we don't carry as many P226s as we used to. The Mk25 has lost its luster ever since the G19 became "their gun"; very few look at the SIG as 'the SEAL gun' anymore so it languishes in the display case. OTOH, we have far less problem promoting the Legion P226s (actually, Legions in general); with those guns many customers like and covet. The other models have been slugs, so we rarely bring in the SSE or other Elite models. Even the RX gets overlooked; most are frothing over the 320s instead. Even the P229 sales have slowed considerably for us, but they have been doing better than the full size variants.

Among new gun buyers the P226 appeals to a more limited audience. But I don't think it's primarily due to its design, heft or action configuration. I DO think that it's mostly due to its relatively lofty price points. When you can almost buy TWO 320Fs vs a single P226 (depending upon configuration), the alloy one becomes a damn hard sell for almost all but the most diehard DA/SA faithful. 'Value' becomes the linchpin in making that sale, and far too many folks aren't finding it with the alloy SIGs. In a lot of ways it feels like the same sort of market invisibility that new BHPs were suffering through before FNH pulled the plug on that classic.

I sometimes get the feeling that the manufacturers wish for only striker-fired, polymer framed guns. I think S&W would rather just forget revolver manufacturing altogether - just my opinion. I guess they are easier/cheaper to make.
I ventured into the P320 world last year, but I'm divesting myself of them and going back to what I knew. The only polymer, striker fired pistol I can warm up to is still the Glock (19).
However, my favorites are SIGs and CZs, of the full metal variety. Don't have a P226, but I'm all in for the P229 and M11A1.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
^^^ To be honest, I'm not sure that striker-fired pistols are "just" popular with the market. It's a whole new operating system, which essentially gives manufacturers a new field in which to compete and in which there may still be a whole lot of room for development.

Then again, that's one reason why I still love the 226 and think it's still competetive: I can live with the triggers I've encountered on the striker-fired pistols I've shot, but I like the triggers on 22X pistols a lot better.

quote:

Originally posted by Cous2492:
The drawbacks are weight and capacity. I would love for sig to provide the 18 rounders with the 9s and the 13 rounders with the 40s, but I doubt they will make any changes at this stage in the game. It stinks that we have to put extended mags in to match the capacity of the competition. Other than that, it's the perfect pistol.

MecGar already provides the two magazines you're asking for.

http://www.mec-gar.com/pistol-...8-High-Cap-Flush-Fit

http://www.mec-gar.com/pistol-...3-High-Cap-Flush-Fit

FWIW, don't rule out an ST in 357SIG. I love the combination myself, and the odd ST in .40 will pop up around where I live at a cheap enough price to take a lot of the pain out of the cost of a 357SIG barrel.

Yeah, I know. I just can't figure out why mecgar makes Sigs magazines, but sig chooses to use the ones with less capacity.

Not that I'm aware of. I love the P226. I have 5 in 9mm, 2 in .357sig, one being an ST and even a .40 in two tone with no import marks. I still like DA/SA pistols. I have Glocks, Sigs, USP's, 1911's and Berettas. I like all of them in there own way. In the end they all go boom. I say get what you like and are comfortable with.

I certainly hope not. I just ordered a P226RX
DA/SA. Will be here tomorrow. I have a P320RX, but just can't seem to like it as much as my DA/SA Sigs. I had a hard time deciding whether to get a 226 or 229 RX. I have both in non-RX versions and just couldn't decide between the two for an RX one, so I pretty much flipped a coin and ordered the "original" P226. I will probably end up selling the 320 at some point.

Thanks for all the fantastic feedback and opinions!

It almost seems like the 226 is following the path of other classics like the 1911, BHP, CZ75 and Beretta 92 to name a few, and I'm really not sure what took me so long to get one ... I love the SiG 55X's.

I think I only saw 3 CZ's at the show and they were striker fired too ... I'm just don't care much for the striker fired guns, although I've got a Glock a 19 and 23, they're just for keeping in the truck.

It was good to read comments from soggy-spin out as a dealer, and to answer 12131, there were only 5-6 new ones at the show, and there was a fairly big dealer there (and he had 3) but for SIG's he mostly had the 320 ... and as bigwagon pointed out, used 40's abound ... I almost bought a 40 thinking it was a 9, then realized what it was and put on the brakes.

Maybe the 22X Serise of pistols isn't too far behind the 55X rifles?
They are classics ... the younger shooters seem to be headed more towards the 320 and other striker pistols direction along with the MCX & MPX

We can cling to our hammer guns like our grandfathers clung to their revolvers ...