My sigs are all classic metal frame P types. This P365 is the first plastic Sig for me.
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The 365 is new out of the box. Removing and installing the slide is difficult... What I see:

With the slide removed

1. The takedown lever appears to have a spring driving it towards the horizontal position but not completely horizontal.

2. The takedown lever will not rotate downward unless the slide catch lever is raised to the lock slide open position.

3. When the takedown lever is released it will rotate back towards the horizontal position stopping at about 45 degrees.

Removing the slide:

4. When moving the slide forward to remove, you must physically hold the takedown lever in the vertical position because it is being pushed up by the spring force mentioned in 1 above.

5. The amount of force required to push the slide forward seems high to me but this could be a Sig plastic frame characteristic.

6. There are no signs of interference between the slide parts and the frame interior parts.

Rail area of frame

7. There is a small tab in the rail area on the right side of the frame which contacts the slide. In the slide there is a cut out area for this tab. The tab location appears to be at the same point the as the high force requirement starting point.


My question. There is a point when moving the slide forward that a strong force is required for a short distance and the same when putting the slide back on. I cannot see any points of interference other than the tab in the rail area. Is the required high force issue a 365 characteristic or am I missing something ?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hi-power man,

Your experience exactly mimics mine when I got to inspect/handle a friend's 365, although I did not take note of the tab.

I visited a range Saturday that has a P365 rental unit. I talked to the fellow that watches over and cleans the rentals. When we removed the slide on the rental, it did require a bit of push but not like my new one. He told me all the P365's require some force to remove the slide. He believes it is the tab on the right side of the rail that is the friction point. He didn't know what this tab is doing. I have not had time yet to determine what the tab is doing.

Is the tab that you are referring to the internal safety lever? See Figure 4 in Section 8.4 of the P365 operator manual. In Section 8.4, steps 3 and 4 for the P365 are slightly different compared to the steps for putting the slide back for other Sigs.

spwestern thanks for the tip but that is not the tab I'm talking about. You can see it on page 48 of the manual, figure 1, it is outside the rail at the same location as the safety lever. It must be part of the safety system.

Not having studied a 365 in detail, and not having one (yet), I'll take a wild guess. Based on your description of the tab and how it interacts with the slide, it seems like it's functioning just like the trigger bar tab on a P-series that disengages the trigger bar from the sear (i.e., pushes it down and out of contact) if the gun is out of battery. Perhaps this one is performing the same function?

JAFO - I agree it must be part of the trigger safety system. I can't see what is happening inside the frame. If this is culprit causing the high pressure requirement to remove and install the slide, I am surprised.

I have two 365’s. The March 30th build one takes a small tap by hand to get the slide to go forward off the frame. The second one, built on April 16th slides off without tapping. No difference that I can see between them.

My guess is a slight difference in thickness of the takedown catch.

beltfed21 thanks for the input. Mine has a date of 13 April on the box. It might be loosening a bit, shooting and cleaning five times so far. If it's a tolerance stack issue, it's only in the first inch of the slide travel forward when removing and the last inch when installing. My thoughts are still about the tab on the outside of the rail and the apparent matching cutout in the slide. The movement is smooth and there are no signs of wear, at this time. I'm just moving forward, shooting and cleaning, to get confident in it's reliability.