Definitely miss those days. Makes me sad.

Yeah, I do.

Back then you could get a P-series in about six different calibers if you wanted them.

There wasn't much aftermarket support. The grips cracked. The cost was high. Lanyard loops went missing. Extractors were iffy. Their tapes wouldn't play in my VCR...

Okay, maybe not the last one.

Feels good to start waxing poetically about the past, but considering as time and trade-offs go, these might just be the good ol' days as well.

I think I need another P228...

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I don't think the new designs are any more complex. The P320 is actually remarkably easy to detail strip...much moreso than a P22X gun.

The problem lies in the physics of a pre-tensioned striker. On a gun like the 320, all of the energy necessary to fire the gun is stored and contained within the action any time the gun is loaded and chambered. Firing the gun simply involves releasing that energy, so the design of the gun is all about avoiding that release until the user is ready for it to happen.

Contrast that to a DA platform, where pulling the trigger loads the spring and creates the energy necessary to fire the gun. That energy isn't there when the gun is loaded and chambered (decocked) in the holster, so apart from internal drop-safeties (energy imparted from outside forces through impact/inertia), you don't really have to worry about it.

If a part fails in a DA handgun, most of the time that means that the gun isn't going to fire when you want it to. When a part fails in a pre-cocked striker action, there's a very real possibility that the gun will fire when you don't want it to.

Add to that the short, light trigger pull, and you're also introducing a greater chance of user-induced error.

I have a lot of rounds through both platforms, and in my experience, the P320 has been just as reliable if not more reliable than the P226/P229/P220. It goes bang every time we ask it to. The concern is the greater likelihood of it doing that when we don't.

Absolutely spot on. This is quite possibly the best post that I've read in a long time.

The other notable thing about this thread is the registered dates of most of the posters. Mostly all in the early to mid 2000's.

quote:

Originally posted by blindref:

The other notable thing about this thread is the registered dates of most of the posters. Mostly all in the early to mid 2000's.

Yeah . . . that! Dang ol' codgers anyway!

I do remember the good ol' days. Days when people talked about the P245 and to have a pistol worked over by Teddy Jacobson was cool.

My first Sig was a Nitron P226, followed by a KK coded P228 that I still have and is in the same condition as when I bought it in the mid-2000's.

Tony.

My SIG days ended around 2005 (after 15 years of primarily using a SIG for duty, off-duty, training, matches, instructing, etc..).

Looked at the P320 shortly after they came out, but after trying one at a local range, decided that it didn't offer me anything that my Glock 19s didn't, so I never bought one. Tried out the 365 and several of its other versions too, but again; not anything that made me want to buy one.

Don't know if the period of my SIG usage was "the good old days" or not, but I did enjoy the SIG DA/SA pistols that I owned/used during that time.

Yesterday, I switched from the P320 to the P226 SAO.

I'm hoping Sig will remediate the issues with the P320.

Also, I'm hoping they come up with the P365 Fuse with a 4" barrel.

Guess I'm "too dang old". My duty gun on Oakland PD in the 70's was a Colt Python. The bad guys had us severely outgunned. After 25 years of mostly ignoring guns while building a company, I discovered DA/SA Sigs, P229's etc. in 2005. No plastic strikers for me.

I miss those days.
I've owned many a Sig pistol; P226s, P228s, P229, P225, P220, P239s, P250, P320, and P365XL.

The beginning of the decline of Sig for me was offering the same pistol in a dozen variations and colors, as well as buying and immediately selling the P250.

I had a WG P228 but gave it to my daughter as a wedding gift.
The P365XL was sold in favor of my Glock 43.

These 2 are the only Sigs I own now.
I'm not likely to purchase another Sig pistol.
Maybe another used WG Sig, but not a new one.





Here are my smilies with Slide Glide lite..



Although I wish I had kept my 2008 Gen 1 P239 SAS and Garrity holster...

I understand that the company had to do whatever necessary to get out of their hole and be profitable again, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and yes, I sure do miss the “good old days”.

I miss the 90’s when SIG had only a few different models P230, P220, P229, P226. 2-tone pistols with nickel slide and controls county be had. SIG released Velocity magazine. Quality was paramount. You knew that buying a SIG was buying a high quality service pistol.

quote:

Originally posted by rat2306:
[...] my 320s are normally used as bedside guns in a Sticky holster, so the risk of a discharge is even more remote than a maintained service pistol. I'll keep them.

Same here.

I absolutely miss the gold old days, back when the German factory still existed and was cranking out folded slide pistols, once that was factory was gone its been all over for me and SIG.

I remember gun of the month which was basically all sold on this forum.

I got some amazing guns through that, first P229ST's (50 in .40 caliber iirc), P220 9mm Euro release (I know Para has/had one too), P232 Nightmare (first Nightmare type ever black with nickel controls).

I guess I'm the odd duck on the forum.

I still have a gigantic collection of P220/P224/P6/P225/P225A1/P226(WG, G, MK25, "Elite"), P227, P228(real one), P229 (fat slide), P229-1, P232, P239 (many), P245, P250SC (I liked it honestly it has a hammer), P290RS (I'll pretend I like that one, price was about free new though).

I never bought a P320, mainly because my GLock 19 sized Glock 32 fills that niche alongside my HK's/other brands.

I do have a P365 XMacro (not tactical, not comped, just regular) and even though its slimmer than my Glock 32, has not replaced it for carry.

I think SIG's previous leadership doing things like violating German export laws did SIG Germany worse than anything else.

The USA company using the SIG name honestly isn't all that connected to original SIG Sauer in Germany/Switzerland anymore to me.

They make striker fired polymer pistols and that's how they've profited, P365 is their money maker.

My opinion is that SIG Arms USA only make's versions of a few of the original SIG's so the nostalgia buyers like me still consider them the same company at all.

quote:

Originally posted by Austin228:

The USA company using the SIG name honestly isn't all that connected to original SIG Sauer in Germany/Switzerland anymore to me.

This x 1000

When I was at SIGarms in Exeter in 2006, it struck me as a gun making operation. Almost everything that made up one of their pistols was made by SIG. They were very technologically advanced, and very much a modern gun manufacturer but there was a definite feeling that you were in a facility that was unapologetically a gun maker.

When I was at SIG Sauer in Newington in 2018, I got a very different vibe. Their manufacturing technology had increased even further, and their capacity was far greater. Their manufacturing methods for what they made in-house were spectacularly modern and I have no doubt that the stuff they were making was of excellent quality. But all they make now are slides, barrels and frames. It honestly felt like a combination of a UPS distribution center and an OEM auto manufacturer. There was so much product coming from other facilities all over the world that the logistics of keeping all the incoming parts sorted was clearly a significant effort. The whole operation just felt like a regular manufacturer and they could have been making anything there. They had lost the vibe of just being a gunmaker. Yeah the pro shop and conference rooms full of product made it clear that they make guns, but the feel on the factory floor was distinctly different. So yeah, I really do miss the good ole days. I hope to some day see a return to the “Hell and back reliability” era when making some of the world’s highest quality firearms came first and absolute profit maximization came second.

I bought my first Sig in the mid 90's and most of the others within 10 years.

Many of the issues then were around triggers, better finishes, rail wear, larger capacity in a smaller lighter gun, etc, things that aren't that big of a deal for most anymore.
When you factor in inflation, guns have gone way down in price.
Issues like having a CCW are no longer an issue in most places.

Most of the discussions on this and other gun boards are more around social issues. Discussions between people with a like interest but not as much about that interest. Just look at the post and thread count on the main page for proof, the forum dwarfs this page.

I'm fortunate in that I can indulge directly in the nostalgia of becoming very familiar with Sig Sauer back in the late 80's, by purchasing Sig Sauer handguns, and getting the free subscription to Sigarms Quarterly. I have all of the issues. Similarly I have all of the issues of the short lived magazine Velocity, put out for a couple of years by Sig in the early 2000's.

From 1989 to 2015 I've owned seven Sig Sauer handguns, two P220's, a P225, two P226's one 9mm, one .40 S&W, and two P228's. With the exception of the .40 caliber P226, they were all West German guns. It was the purchase of my first P228 in absolute mint condition back around 2002 that got me here onto Sig Forum.

I do enjoy looking at those issues of the quarterly, and seeing advertisements for all FIVE of Sig Sauers offerings in either 9mm, .45, and .380, shortly followed by SIX with the addition of the P228, and by the early 90's the addition of two more calibers in .40 and .357 Sig.

Yes, I miss the German made guns, being a purest I want to know that some of that magical German pixie dust was sprinkled on my guns. A trip up to the Sig Experience in New Hampshire two years ago, brought up this opinion with one of their veterans working there. Though he and I were pretty close in age, and shared a similar sentiment, he bluntly stated, in reference to the DA/SA P series guns, that the current renderings based on metallurgy, technology, and manufacturing were simply better guns, than their 80's and 90's counterparts. Though in my head I know he's right, my heart still prefers the triple serial numbered, German proof marked guns of that era.

As to Sigforum, after selling my second P228 in 2016, I took a several year long break from the forum. I came back about a year and change ago. I guess the thing that strikes me the most is the amount of threads about non Sig guns, particularly the Glock. I still remember when Para posted the thread "You Will Buy A Glock," waaaay back when, (and still going btw). I don't want to say it was "controversial," because that seems too strong, but I know more than a few Sig purists were not on board. But time and perceptions move on.

I'd like to have a nickel model of P226 and if they made them also P225, P229 and P239.

quote:

Originally posted by LDB:
I'd like to have a nickel model of P226 and if they made them also P225, P229 and P239.

Post "WTB" in the classifieds.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by LDB:
I'd like to have a nickel model of P226 and if they made them also P225, P229 and P239.

Post "WTB" in the classifieds.

If only I'd been born rich instead of so good looking.

Like some of the members above, I also barely associate SIG Sauer Inc. with the old Swiss and German companies these days. I actually barely associate SIG Sauer Inc. with its SIGARMS Inc. predecessor. This actually brings me to my point. Even though we all blame Ron Cohen for most of SIG’s woes today, has anyone else but me ever thought that the original turning point may have actually been when SIG Arms AG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft) sold the entirety of its firearm business (to include all Swiss, German, and USA brands) to L&O Holding (Lüke & Ortmeier) in 2000? From what I’ve been able to learn, it seems this is also the year when the USA company actually totally independent (aside from still being under L&O of course) from the German company. It’s all speculation since we don’t know the internal workings at SIG, but I’m no longer of the opinion that Ron Cohen is the only one to blame.