I own two 226s, one non rail police department trade in that I carry when working on the farm. The other is a Legion I bought on impulse that is my primary CCW.

The Legion has a better finish. What, cerakote? And I think it has a SRT. What else? It's the basic Legion SA/DA. It's not optics ready.

What makes the Legion better than the lower priced 226? Also, who is the target customer? SWAT?

quote:

Originally posted by Biker_dude:
The Legion has a better finish. What, cerakote?

Some are Cerakote; some are PVD. The finish is subjectively better if it aesthetically appeals to you. It does not wear nearly as well as Nitron.

quote:

What else?...What makes the Legion better than the lower priced 226? Also, who is the target customer?

Did you forget the Legion challenge coin?! You flash that coin among other gun-owners, and all the non-Legion owners will hang their heads in envy.

The G10 Legion grips are nice. The lower profile slide catch lever is a like/hate feature.

Legion is mostly marketing. The target customer is someone who feels good about paying a premium to be part of an exclusive owner's group. Depending on the gun, some Legion models have a lot more going for them than others. For example, a P320 Legion has a lot more meaningful upgrades than a standard P226 Legion.

The black Nitron finish Legion is supposedly only offered to SWAT and other LE.

Thanks. I googled the question and watched the Brownells' vid on the differences.

The finish, the ergonomics (beavertail, trigger guard undercut, et al) and the Gray Guns trigger.

Thanks for the response.

Brownells link

quote:

Legion is mostly marketing.

About sums it up.

The undercut, G-10 grips, make for a very good feeling gun. The great trigger, great sights, and accuracy was worth it to me. Didn’t get a gay coin, but didn’t pay for new either. It’s my best shooting hand gun

it is 300 over a standard 226.

When they came out they where a cheap way to own a custom gun at a production cost. Pretty good value at the time for custom pvd color, undercut, grips and sights. trigger WAS a grayguns trigger but the insides are a standard trigger.

Now that they cheaped out on the cerakote finish and trigger. I would rather own a standard 226

Mine is older. Now that you mention finish, I did have a 229 Legion that looked more green than grey.

It's not even a custom gun, just an "enhanced" production package, with fancy grips and an inferior finish. I do like the undercut, but you don't have to buy a Legion to get that anymore...heck even Matrix Precision includes it on their P226 frames.

Their target customer is the consumer who falls for shallow marketing tricks and is willing to fork over a bunch of extra cash for a few minor features and cosmetics.

They're not bad guns, but the Elite would give me everything I care about for a couple hundred less. And my Matrix Precision build is put together with exactly what I wanted for just a hair over half.

The biggest issue if the base P226 is right at $1K brand new. You might as well spend a little more for the extras, and right now the least expensive way into a SAO P226 is the Legion.

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The biggest issue if the base P226 is right at $1K brand new.

SIG no longer makes the "base" P226. The only base one offered is the CA compliant version. No one is going to pay $1k for that, unless he's totally ignorant. Or lives in CA.

Now, they have the Elite, as mentioned above, which has the Legion frame, SRT. Has the E2 grip instead of the G10. No silly Legion gimmicks or crappy Cerakote. That goes for $1k new.

The Legion of today isn’t where the Legion line started out.

Yes, marketing has a heavy play on its success. But, when the Legion first came out, most of the enhancements, you could not get without buying the package.

You couldn’t get the X5 undercut without having your gun ground on at GGI.

The reduced controls weren’t available (although TJs had some reduced controls that were nice at a price)

The HD sights were only available if you bought the package.

The GGI trigger was an actual steel machined trigger that came to SIG in batches from GGI Volcano base. You had people that swore Bruce massaged the gun prior to shipment because the triggers were “so nice”. You also remember in the day that SIG was shipping guns routinely with 12-14 pound DA pull trigger weights.

In its time the Legion was worth it. Now, you can get the sum of all its parts elsewhere. Most of the upgrades are now common features found elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
The Legion of today isn’t where the Legion line started out.

I bought mine in 2021 for $1189 NIB. Where does it fall in your timeline?

quote:

Originally posted by JDG:
I did have a 229 Legion that looked more green than grey.

Yeah, mine is green.

I have two Sig Legions, but I bought them due to their feature set. I couldn’t care less about the Legion name or coin. I didn’t even send for them. I do like the greenish gray color. I didn’t at first, but it grew on me.

P320 AXG Legion and P226 X-Five Legion. Both are comped and shoot excellent.

My X5 Legion was $2200, and it is the best 9mm I have ever shot and owned. With the Sao trigger, its silly accurate. Worth every penny. But, can't say whether a regular p226 would make someone just as satisfied. Having owned 4 or 5 226's over the years, of different variants, I can say that the X5 legion is way better for me

quote:

Originally posted by longjohn:
My X5 Legion was $2200, and it is the best 9mm I have ever shot and owned. With the Sao trigger, it’s silly accurate. Worth every penny. But, can't say whether a regular p226 would make someone just as satisfied. Having owned 4 or 5 226's over the years, of different variants, I can say that the X5 legion is way better for me

Yes it shoots great and with the comp, it shoots softer and flatter than any other X-Five in my collection. At least until I pick up the X-Five Reserve.

OP is talking about the original P226 Legion vs the plain jane P226. Not talking about the X5 Legion.

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Originally posted by Biker_dude:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
The Legion of today isn’t where the Legion line started out.

I bought mine in 2021 for $1189 NIB. Where does it fall in your timeline?

It’s still a good pistol. But, it does have the MIM GGI trigger.

Is that a bad thing? I thought GGI was GTG.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Is that a bad thing? I thought GGI was GTG.

The early Legion guns had a tool steel GGI triggers, but was replaced by MIM copies later on. It's annoying, but nothing serious.