Prelude

I’ve always been a SIG junkie. I remember calling them and asking for a catalog to be mailed back in 1995 when I was a teenager. I ogled over that thing for hours. I still have it somewhere.

In 2002, the department I was working for in a non-sworn capacity issued me a S&W 5906 to go through the reserve academy. I didn’t appreciate that gun for what it was at the time and was envious of guys that had P220’s and P226’s. In 2003, the same department sent me through the SIG armorer’s class. I got the discount coupon to buy a gun, but at the time I was obsessed with 1911’s and the Glock 21. I was also young and pretty darn broke in those days. I foolishly never used it.

I joined Sigforum in May 2004 and immersed myself further (thanks Para!).

Act One: It Begins

Right before Halloween 2005 I was perusing a local gun forum and saw a pristine-looking 1991-proofed P226 with the black K-Kote finish for sale close to me. It was wearing a set of 2002 Trijicon night sights and the original grips. The seller was asking $350 for it because “something” was wrong with it. We met up at an FFL, I inspected it, and saw the breechblock pins were broken. I bought it, waited the requisite California ten days, picked it up, took it apart, cleaned it, and installed new pins the same night.



I was hired and put through the full academy by my current department the following spring. I shot the P226 quite a bit, but never carried it. Back then, if you chose to carry a 9mm, my department was issuing the super lackluster 115gr Federal 9BP. The 40 S&W issued round was the super-hot 155gr Federal Hydra-Shok. If you carried a 45 ACP they issued you 230gr JHP Remington Golden Saber, the same round the FBI issued in that caliber. I had participated in a couple ballistic workshops and had seen how the rounds performed, especially against auto glass. That meant no 9mm for me.

In December 2006 money got super tight. I listed the P226 and another pistol for sale. I sold both to the same older gentleman. That probably should have been the end of the story…. except I couldn’t get that P226 out of my head. I was without the gun for an entire year. In April 2008, I sent him an e-mail and as it turns out he had a stroke a few months earlier and was offloading guns. He very graciously sold me back both guns for the same price I had sold them to him. Neither had been fired by him. I was extremely happy to have it back.

Act Deux: Learning

In February 2008, I contacted Bruce Gray, who I had met at a Sigforum pistol shoot in Elk Grove over Thanksgiving in 2005, shooting the P226 of course, and sent him the gun. He had Scott Folk, who worked for him then, work it over with their Reduced Reset Package, remove the trigger serrations thinning the trigger a bit, and generally freshened things up. This included fitting a newer set of grips. I was really quite pleased with how it turned out.





In May 2009, I took a Blackwater USA class taught by the legendary Bill Go in Richmond, California. The gun I initially brought with me was a custom tuned pre-Series II Kimber 1911. Most in the class were shooting either 1911’s or Glocks.

I shot the first day and my pistol kept choking, to the point where I could barely finish the class that day (the gun was later sent to the late Dave Berryhill who went completely through it, but that’s a story for a different day). Bill was shooting a Glock 34 9mm and vigorously preached the 9mm. It was noticeable that first day how much faster the 9mm shooters’ splits were and how less fatigued they seemed.

The only 9mm back then that I had gear and enough mags for was the P226. I showed up with it the next day and used it, setting my duty belt up with a Safariland 6280 I had, and ran that for the rest of the class. It was flawless…100% reliable, extremely accurate, and more comfortable to shoot. I considered that a clue. Still, there was no way I was going to be the only guy in my department carrying a 9mm, especially with our anemic duty ammo.

I decided to go buy a Glock 17 later that month to play with. It was the Great Recession and Obama was POTUS and no one close to me had one in stock. I finally was able to find one a month later a couple hours away down at a Blue Label dealer in Santa Cruz. My wife and I drove down and picked it up and went to dinner near the Boardwalk afterwards.

We finally got our department to update ammo in 2012 to the Federal HST across the board (124gr +P for 9mm). In early 2013 I finally said screw it and I became the first, and for a time only, department member to carry a 9mm on duty…not my P226, but my Glock 17. I was a K9 handler working weekend graveyard at the time and one-handed shooting was on my mind. I wanted a WML attached with a DG switch and the most rounds I could possibly have onboard without having to reload.

Oddly enough, thirteen years later we now issue a 9mm pistol. No one carries 40 S&W and only a handful still carry 45 ACP.

I worked some different assignments, we had our first kid, and I got myself promoted. The P226 primarily lived in my safe only coming out “just for fun” now and then.

Act III: The Doldrums

In 2018, I picked up a used set of the older stippled Nill grips for the P226 from the Sigforum classifieds. Oh man, did they feel nice.

In June 2019, I picked up a Grayguns Dual Adjustable straight trigger and their pink recoil spring. I’m usually not a huge straight trigger guy, but it really works in this gun.

During the first week of Covid nonsense, I was bored and went to the range on my day off (since literally everything was closed except our police range). Guess what gun I took with me? Looking back at my records, I ordered a set of Warren fiber optic rear sights on March 25, 2020. I was impatient installing them when they arrived, used a sight pusher instead of a vise and punch, and broke the front sight while installing it. Back in the safe the gun went. Like most cops, I was pretty busy that summer and didn’t get around to ordering a replacement front sight and installing it until October of that year. Unfortunately, I ordered a Dawson that was way too short giving me too high of a point of impact.

Our department toyed with switching to 147gr HST or Hornady in December 2020 (we did not) and they wanted a few of us to test an array of different ammo in various guns. There were a bunch of Glocks and 2011’s represented. I decided to shoot the P226 and probably dumped a few thousand rounds through it in a week. I was suffering some bad tendinitis in my right arm that year and found the P226 surprisingly easier and more comfortable to shoot than my Glock. I fell totally back in love.

In April 2021, I went to qualify with the P226 to actually carry it on duty. For the first time ever, I started running into reliability issues. I kept getting double-feeds. Oh well, back in the safe it went. It’s probably the magazines. They’re old zipperbacks. I’ll get to it, eventually…

I spent the next few years as the department’s training manager and oversaw our selection of a new issued handgun with an optic attached. Then I got myself promoted again. The old P226 would just have to wait.

Act IV: The Now

I’ve been running our detective division for a bit and just found out last week that I will likely be transitioning back to uniform patrol as a watch commander in June. It’s time to get my gear squared away and I now have less than eight years until I retire from this profession for good. It caused a little bit of introspection.

I’ve been carrying a personally-owned Gen5 Glock 19 with a Trijicon RMR for the past few years. It works well, but for whatever reason I want to carry a 9mm DA/SA pistol with irons in uniform. I honestly don’t know why, perhaps its nostalgia, or just personal comfort. I’ve been split between an Inox Beretta 92 Brigadier that I setup with LTT goodies, an old department S&W 5906 that I now own, or my SIG P226. The P226 is the lightest, has a beautiful set of wood grips, and I’ve owned it the longest. In a strange way, I feel like I owe it to the pistol.



I went up to the range this past Saturday with four new factory mags (two USA made and two MecGar made). Double-feeds again. Not the mags. Crap…

I have had exactly one new spare extractor I’ve been holding onto for years squirreled away with my spare parts. I haven’t wanted to use it. They’re rare as hen’s teeth these days. I won’t be able to find another one easily. I literally had to say out loud, “What the hell are you saving it for? If not now, then when?” I drove home, dug it out, installed it, and drove back to the range. I ran one-hundred rounds through the gun. Flawless. We’re back in business. I passed the qual with zero effort.

I spent some time Sunday afternoon de-horning the magazine baseplates so they don’t tear up my hands and uniform.

I ordered a new Warren fiber optic front sight in what I hope is the correct height to fix my point of impact.

Will this thing finally make it’s way onto my duty belt?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Very nice. Premium content for our readers.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Very nice. Premium content for our readers.

Thank you for the kind words!

Interesting and informative and well written. Beautiful gun also.

I like your writing style. Maybe your retirement gig should be writing "this old gun" memoirs for one of the gun rags.

Regarding the P226, I understand your feelings. My first handgun was a used P226 I picked up at a gun shop in Hoover, AL. I've owned a lot of guns since then, but I'd sell every one of them before I let that P226 go. It's just right.

I enjoyed reading that! Thanks for posting it.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

My department issued Glock 19's, and for a few years I didn't know ant better than to believe they were the best guns for duty...until I found and shot a P228 and fell in love with shooting it. We weren't allowed to deviate from our issued gun (with a NY1 trigger), but the P228 set me on a course to get into collecting classic Sigs.

Stay safe brother!

Nicely written. I think it is time rather than concern yourself with needing spare parts to solve that by simply buying a spare 226 or two.

For me the gun I always come back to is K frame revolvers. Have owned carried and used just about every brand out there, SA,DAO,SA/DA, striker.

Very nice write up. I enjoyed it. You were lucky to get it back! Hard to beat a P226!

Great write-up! Love a gun with some history and you did a great job telling the story. I'd carry a P226 as a duty gun in a heartbeat if they'd let me (but probably a newer milled slide variant with an optic).

Where did you get the grips from?

That is a great story especially reading about the issued ammo.

I would be torn...
Inox Beretta 92 Brigadier setup with LTT goodies or the SIG P226.

I have carried a Beretta 92 through a good portion of my LE and military career, so that would be a tough call. (The other times were the P229.)

""the same department sent me through the SIG armorer’s class. I got the discount coupon to buy a gun, but at the time I was obsessed with 1911’s and the Glock 21. I was also young and pretty darn broke in those days. I foolishly never used it.""

Unfortunately I did this.. BUT... I was kind a old and dumb. I cannot claim being foolish.

Great write up and history with the Sig. I can relate to the story in many ways. I was the second to last one to carry a P series Sig at my Department, the last one being a cop who's still working the street at a bit past 45 years doing so! He finally got to the point that his eyes were struggling with iron sights, so they hooked him up with a Department issued Glock with a red dot sight.

I heard him go 10-8 on swing shift yesterday.

The 226 is what I started my career with and it's still one of my most treasured guns in the pile.

I carried a P226 my whole police career, patrol, burglary det, then back to patrol. Switched from 9mm to 357SIG (dept transitioned back to 9mm as I was retiring).

I wish the property guy woulda let me keep the safariland duty holster and the off duty Don Hume pancake holster… it he did slide me my 3 mags.

The P226 is just like Sig advertised back in the 90s-To hell and back reliability.

I started with the 226, dabbled in other guns and came back to the 226 until I got on regional swat in 2008. I shot the 226 in IDPA (the WNBA of the shooting sports) to about 2017. About that time I invested heavily in the Glock 17 and that’s where I have been ever since.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I shot the 226 in IDPA ( the WNBA of the shooting sports)) to about 2017.

Good stuff, KevH. I purchased my first Sig P226 in the 1990s. The P226 is easily one of my top 5 handguns of all time.

There is something to be said about mixing old with new. Your P226 has really done that well, with the old school wooden grips, paired with the modern flat trigger and fiber optic sights, all mated on a classic gun. Nicely done!

That's a great story, and good history.

I still carry my initial SIG purchase. A 229 in .40.

I know that isn't what the cool kids do, but I like it, and I trust it, and there you have it.

Congratulations on putting your pistol to good work. Those Nills will look good on a duty uniform.

Great story. Great gun. My absolute favorite!

quote:

Originally posted by jaaron11:
I like your writing style. Maybe your retirement gig should be writing "this old gun" memoirs for one of the gun rags.

Regarding the P226, I understand your feelings. My first handgun was a used P226 I picked up at a gun shop in Hoover, AL. I've owned a lot of guns since then, but I'd sell every one of them before I let that P226 go. It's just right.

Which gun store?