Let's begin with the lie to myself... a year or more ago I bought my first P230 and fell in love with it. Why? Because it was beautiful to my eyes, and it just felt so danged good in my hand! I also dearly love West German-made Sigs, so I convinced myself that this was the "cat's meow"! I later sold it to fund something else but got another one this past year, again thinking this was the greatest thing since sliced bread! I even put checkered Walnut grips on it to dress it up a bit, and boy was she a beauty!!!

But as we all SHOULD know, looks ain't everything. How does it shoot? Well, it was 100% reliable, no matter what I fed it, but I shot poorly with it. I convinced myself I just needed more practice, so more practice I did. I continued to shoot poorly, and on, and on. I just couldn't put the rounds in a tight group like I was used to doing with most other Sigs, but I kept lying to myself that this gun was a "keeper", despite knowing deep down inside I couldn't hit chit beyond about 15' with it if the SHTF ever happened!!!

Now let's add another to the mix; my SP2022 in 9mm. While I could group tightly with it MOST of the time, it shot much higher than any other Sig I've ever owned! Yes, I could get new sights to adjust POI, but since it had factory night sights, I would have to go through the expense of replacing perfectly good tritium sights with another set at a cost of $100.00 or more plus installation, and I just wasn't "feeling it" since the more I carried the gun, the more I felt at odds with its bulk!

For the past few weeks I've been agonizing over the realization that I really needed to part with both of these things and get something I could actually SHOOT WELL (I mean, that IS the primary purpose of the gun, right?), and one I could live with regarding size. I had looked at several options and had actually decided to sell both of these this morning and buy a new Springfield XDe in 9mm, which is a slim, single-stack, hammer-fired DA/SA piece that really fits my hand well. So off to my favorite LGS I went with both Sigs in my gun bag, along with several boxes of 9mm to try out the new one before I left the store!

Before walking over to the new gun counter to make the trade, since it was really crowded at that moment, I decided to peruse the used counter for a few minutes. Lo and behold they had not only one but TWO Sig P239's in 9mm sitting there, and I haven't seen any of those in a LONG time! One of them was even a two-tone and had the Hogue rubber finger-groove grips that I like, plus night sights!!! After a quick inspection of the two-tone model, and seeing absolutely pristine frame rails and barrel, it was obvious it had been carried a good bit but almost never fired, so I sold my two Sigs to them and bought the P239 plus an extra mag!

Now the part about correcting the past wrong... I used to carry a P239/9 on a daily basis and swore I'd never part with it as it was my "perfect" CCW piece. And it was... until the day I found a pristine P228 at Cabela's that had been seriously underpriced, and I used the P239 as trade fodder to snag the P228 before somebody else got it! I always intended to replace the P239 ASAP, but never could find another one locally in 9mm... that is until today, and that is when I righted that past wrong! Lesson learned.... this one is a serious shooter, 100% reliable so far, and extremely accurate in my hands, unlike the two that I parted with to get it!

The pics below show, first the pistol before any cleaning up. As you can see it shows signs of lots of carry on the SS slide. The second pic is the first 8 rounds fired from the gun at 25 feet at a small rimfire target, followed by the same target after 100 rounds at the same 25 feet. I put a quarter on the final target to show scale since my wife or daughter absconded with my tape measure from my shop...

Are the controls nickel? Did Sig ever make a 239 with Stainless controls? I wonder if someone just polished off the bluing or had them hard chromed. They don’t really look nickel plated to me but that could be the lighting.

Yeah, they’re nickel, with MIM hammer and trigger, and stainless mag release. Based on the date listing at the beginning of the pistol section, this one should have been made in 1997, or possibly very early 1998 at the latest.

You gotta find what suits you. It still bugs me that my pudgy hands have a real tendency to get hammer-bit by any classic SAO, and no matter what I do the trigger guard on the P6/225 is just that hair too small from top to bottom.

Yeah, it's the little gun that can...

If the slide really bugs you, the Sig bead blast is only $69.95. I've had five of my Sigs done, including the P239 .40. They did a very nice job on all of them.

Reading the thread title, I thought to myself, "Man, this should be in the Lounge."

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Reading the thread title, I thought to myself, "Man, this should be in the Lounge."

LOL... Well... the mods are welcome to move it if they wish, but it IS about Sig pistols!

quote:

Originally posted by Nipper:
Yeah, it's the little gun that can...

If the slide really bugs you, the Sig bead blast is only $69.95. I've had five of my Sigs done, including the P239 .40. They did a very nice job on all of them.

It looks worse in the pics than it does in person, so I’m not going to bother with it. Can’t afford to spend money for a bead blast anyway until I get a new job!!!

I have resolved myself to never sell any gun that I have bought. Reason being that I usually took such a bath in trading in, that I should just keep them, safe queens and all and once I have run out of space in my safe, which is happening already, I'd buy another safe. With my old habit of selling/taking bath on sales and later regret/rebuy, best to just keep them and save more to get more.

Apologies for the rant, because I love the 230.. too bad it didn't shoot well for ya.

Congrats on finding a SIG that shoots well for you. I wish that all of us, and especially me, could shoot like Bruce Gray.

If I weren’t basically unemployed I wouldn’t part with any guns either, but this brother be dirt poor, and the only way I can afford anything is to trade for it! Hopefully one day things will turn around, but it isn’t looking very promising any more...

quote:

Originally posted by bronicabill:

quote:

Originally posted by Nipper:
Yeah, it's the little gun that can...

If the slide really bugs you, the Sig bead blast is only $69.95. I've had five of my Sigs done, including the P239 .40. They did a very nice job on all of them.

It looks worse in the pics than it does in person, so I’m not going to bother with it. Can’t afford to spend money for a bead blast anyway until I get a new job!!!

Ouch...good luck on the job hunt. For touch up on SS, I've used Scotch Brite Hand Pads. Worked pretty well on an old M60.

Oh I see - sorry to hear Bill. Best of luck - apologies.

I had two in 9MM. Fine little pistols. One of mine had nickel slide and controls. Always thought it was interesting that SIG Nickeled stainless slides. Perhaps to better match the nickeled controls?

I’ve owned two of the .40 cal models in the distant past and really didn’t like them at all. I just figured the P239 was not for me until I tried a 9mm version with the finger-groove grips on it, then it immediately became my daily carry. It was one of my “must haves” until I foolishly used it for trade fodder a few years ago as described in my OP!

It’s not just a recoil issue with me on the 9mm either.... the slides on the 9mm versions are not quite as tall, and a tiny bit lighter also. While most people cannot tell the difference, for whatever reason, that tiny bit extra on top the 40/357 really affects the balance for me! It shouldn’t, but real-life prooves otherwise!

Several years ago I bought a two-tone P239 with the same Hogue grips for my wife. It's one of the sweetest shooting handguns I've ever held. I put a Wolff 16lb mainspring in it. 100% reliable with all ammo I've fired - hollow points and full metal jacket. I'll never let this one go - ummm...I mean my wife will never let this one go!

I’m not sure what the mainspring in this one is, but the weight feels pretty good to me in DA mode. I might go a pound lighter at a later date, but only if the spring needs replacing for some reason.

I did the same thing with a car back in 2009.

I really wanted to love this Pontiac G8 that I bought. But sadly as I drove it more and more it just didn't cut it.

So I sold it about 10 months later... and went back to a newer version of what I was driving previously.

The P239 IMO is a great gun - VERY accurate in 9mm as you mention.

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You know, I don't know if it's just me or not, but it literally takes me years to decide whether a particular gun is a true "keeper" or not!

For example... a few months back there was a discussion here regarding the SP2022. I made the bold statement that it was my "If I could only have one SIG" gun, and I explained that I'd basically been forced to sell off all of my other Sigs due to financial situations arising from being unemployed at the time! The SP2022 was THE ONE that I chose to keep as it fulfilled all of my needs and desires, and did them well, even though it wasn't as valuable as the ones I'd let go!

Fast-forward just a few months and I'm coming to realize I'm tired of hiding that big thing in my IWB holster and having the rough grip scrape the skin on my side. After another range trip or two I also came to the realization that I don't want to have to guess where to hold my sights regarding elevation and "walk" my shots into the bullseye! I want a SIG that sights like every other SIG I've ever owned... cover my intended POI with the front dot and that is where the bullets will impact! Without an expensive night sight change on either the front or rear sight, the SP2022 just wasn't going to cut it, and even if I did choose to try to fix the sight issue, my sight pusher won't work on the SigPro slide, so I'd have to pay to have someone else do the installation (yet another factor in my decision).

So, it took me from late 2014 when I first bought the SP2022 until the beginning of 2018 to fall out of favor with it and part with it! Needless to say, I never had that issue with the P239, and that's why I was so irritated at myself for ever parting with the last one... and I am NOT going to make that mistake again!!! I carried the last one for years and never found a reason to not like it; I did yearn for more magazine capacity a time or two, but not enough to part with the pistol over it as I had several double-stacks at the time.

I'm closing in on 60-years old, so I hope I've finally learned my lesson for good this time. One can only hope anyways...

I also bought a used P239 within the last few months, in my case a .40 caliber SAS version. And right after that I found that they were just discontinued by SIG.

So I recommend you start haunting internet sites and local gun stores for new or used magazines, until you are sure you have all you will ever want. And I mean do it right now.

It was a chore finding enough mags and I actually ended up with more than I wanted. But I am also using the gun in .357 SIG caliber and have some mags just for that caliber.

I ended up with a couple of .40 caliber magazines with the 8 holes for counting 9mm rounds! They were sold with that oopsie pointed out and were half the price of new magazines. Not sure of the story behind that.

Bart Noir