I posted a while back that I purchased a P229 Elite Dark in .40 S&W in 2013. Love this gun one of my favorites over 5000 accurate fun rounds no problems. Always planned on buying the .357sig drop in barrel and 9mm exchange kit but fund availability and life got in the way.

So things finally lined up right in June 13 of this year and I go to the Sig site find that the .357 barrel is available but the 9mm exchange kit is out of stock. I call Sig CSR talk with Tim (nice guy) to try and find out when they would be back in stock. He says usually its about 2-3 weeks and if I ordered now he would give a 10% discount I say okay. Ordered .357 drop in barrel 9mm exchange kit extra 9mm magazine as the kit only comes with one. I tell him to hold off and ship all items when exchange kit is in stock even though the barrel and mags were in stock.

So the wait begins. I check Sig site every morning for almost 3 weeks to see if the exchange kit shows available. Then I get an email from Tim says bad news and he's sorry but the exchange kit wont be in until some time in September. I didn't mind the 2-3 week wait he originally told me but now its 2 1/2 months or more that I'm not happy about.

I call Tim at Sig he apologizes again and says he checked with production on the lead time on the exchange kit and they were the ones that told him 2-3 weeks. Told him I wasn't happy going from 2-3 weeks wait to 2 1/2 months or more. That maybe he just told me 2-3 weeks to get me to place my order and I was considering canceling my order. He assured me that wasn't the case and if I didn't cancel my order he would comp me 2 9mm magazines. Told him that was nice and I appreciated it but I wasn't looking for compensation just the products that I ordered and was willing to pay for it the time frame I was told.

Told him to go ahead and send me the .357 barrel now that I could start enjoying it right away while I waited on the exchange kit and mags. A couple days later I get a package with the .357 barrel and the extra 9mm mag I ordered that I told him to hold till the exchange kit was in and that I couldn't use without the kit.

I go back to checking the Sig site every morning for the exchange kit to show in stock. Then one day they show in stock I'm happy and figure I'll get an email showing my exchange kit and 2 mags they comp me would ship. 2 days go by no email so I call Tim again. He tells me that my order was not entered right and he would cancel it and enter it again correctly while I was on the phone so it would ship that day which it did but that the 2 extra mags they comp me would ship later. I asked why not ship all together all products were in stock save on shipping he said that's just the way they do it.

Finally received my whole order and am very pleased with the products they all worked perfectly. In my original post I was asking for other members experiences in functionality with the .357 sig drop in barrel and the 9mm exchange kit and what it was like shooting those calibers. I have other 9mm pistols shot plenty of rounds with them but have never shot .357 sig.

Shooting the .357 sig recoil was less than the .40 and I find the .40 mild and easy to shoot. The .357 is just as accurate as the original .40 S&W I was a bit surprised how loud it was though and also how expensive and not as readily available as more common ammo calibers are. Have shot 300 rounds so far and ordered 1000 rounds online to save money as its to expensive to buy a couple of hundred rounds at a time for each range trip at local gun stores.

The 9mm exchange kit was such a soft shooter no recoil with the weight of the gun. Accurate and as an added bonus (for me as I pick up all my brass)spent cases all land one step to the right and 2 steps behind me in a 2 foot circle.

As I said my P229 Elite Dark in .40 S&W is my favorite gun (although my CZ P-01 and P-06 are giving it a run for the money are every bit as good and accurate) but with the edition of the .357 barrel and the 9mm exchange kit its now more versatile. It was cheaper than buying another new gun since I bought both the CZ's this year.

I wasn't really raggin on Sigs customer service but if I'm told 2-3 weeks wait time they need to honor that not change it to 2 1/2 months and expect it to be okay. All is good though