A couple of weeks ago I was making the rounds of the local gun shops, and like usual had my eye out for DA/SA Sigs. I got excited about a P239 at one shop, but it was priced kind of high and in .40. Then I went to another place and they had a couple of used 9mm P229s...a Legion for $1000 and an SAS Gen 2 with the long extractor for $670.


I asked to look at the SAS and it was pristine...like brand new. It doesn't even have any smileys on the barrel. It came with the factory case and 2 mags, and it all came home with me.








This thing is superb. I have a legacy P229 in .40 that was my first duty gun, and it has always felt top-heavy and brick-like. This SAS is nothing like that. It's actually better balanced than my P228. I'm not sure if it's the re-designed Gen 2 slide that isn't quite so tall, the SAS melt job, or a combination of the two that brings the center of gravity a bit lower, but it's definitely noticeable. You can see in the pic below how much thicker the .40 slide is. On the scale the .40 weighs in at 1.836 lbs empty/2.489 lbs loaded vs 1.669/2.291 for the 9mm SAS.





It came from the factory with night sights and an SRT trigger (but not the stupid short trigger), which are the two things I add to every classic Sig I buy, so no need to spend any extra there. The E2 grips leave something to be desired, but I had a set of factory plastic P229 panels in the parts bin that I swapped onto it. I did also try some Hogue Contour Classic G10s that unfortunately didn't work out. At this point I'm still going back and forth a bit on the Factory panels vs the E2s. I like the girth and the texture of the E2s, but prefer the arched backstrap and screw attachment of the plastic panels.





The trigger had a little bit of grit to it. A little polishing on the top of the strut would have likely fixed it for free, but I had a Grayguns strut with 19lb spring handy and swapping that in took care of it. It's now smooth, consistent, and free of any grit or roughness.


Shooting the gun is what you'd expect of a like-new classic Sig. Completely reliable, accurate, and naturally pointable. I shot it side by side with my P228, and the recoil impulse is notably less sharp with the P229. The target below is from the latest iteration of the postal match that has been kicking our butts for the past few weeks. This is actually about the best I’ve shot it with any gun so far…it’s harder than it looks.





I've been carrying a P220 Compact for a couple of years, and was a little concerned that the double stack would be bulkier and heavier, as I've found to be the case with my old .40 P229. I made a kydex holster for the new gun, though, and have found it to be almost imperceptible on the belt from the single-stack .45.





The 15-round P229-1 mags are the only thing I don't love about it. The two that came with the gun have a rough parkerized finish on them, and had quite a bit of surface rust. I think the previous owner left it in a basement or something and never shot it. The gun didn't rust, but the mags did. I cleaned the rust off and they're perfectly serviceable, but they are super tight. They're hard to load full (didn't help that I shove a piece of broken glass through the tip of my thumb doing the dishes last week, so I was kinda loading them sideways), don't seem to guide rounds onto the follower quite as smoothly as the legacy mags, and they have to be jammed really hard into the gun. Once in there, the slide won't strip the top round of a fully-loaded mag under its own power...you have to smack the back.


I have a couple of legacy 15-round MecGar P228/P229 mags that don't have any of these issues. Yes, they are a tiny (and I mean tiny) bit more wiggly in the magwell, but that's a small price to pay for a mag that has a better finish, costs less, feeds reliably, and holds the same number of rounds. I'm not sure how Sig screwed that mag design up so badly, especially considering the original P228/P229 mags were just fine, but at least the MecGars are out there as an option.

Nice pickup. The Grayguns strut has brought me back to the P22x fold.

2 things I have never understood. I have owned at least 3 classic 228’s and never understood the folded slide love affair some of you guys seem to have. Same with the long extractor. I have had both and I’ve never noted a thin dimes worth of difference but this forum hates the long and workshops at the short altar. Never understood that and yes I have owned the old stuff. (as an extra don’t understand, I have a couple of the 225a1’s and they are great, but the 225 guys hate them, hmmm).

A SAS P229 was the first Sig I really wanted. Fresh out of college & the $1,100 price tag was a no-go for me at the time.

Still wouldn't mind one

quote:

2 things I have never understood. I have owned at least 3 classic 228’s and never understood the folded slide love affair some of you guys seem to have. Same with the long extractor. I have had both and I’ve never noted a thin dimes worth of difference

My experience was limited to that Legacy .40 P229, which was a brick compared to my folded slide P6, P245, and P228. My milled slide P220 Compact wasn't really noticeably different than the P245, and this thing is marginally better than my P228.

Replacement firing pins and internal extractors are next to impossible to find at this point. The internal extractor also requires some tuning to work properly, IIRC, where the external one is pretty much plug-and-play. It works fine, and honestly is probably a more robust design than the internal one. It doesn't hurt my feelings that you can see it, either.

If the intent of ownership is to collect then I get the appeal of the original design. If you're going to carry and shoot it, the newer design is an upgrade both functionally and logistically, IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
A SAS P229 was the first Sig I really wanted. Fresh out of college & the $1,100 price tag was a no-go for me at the time.

Still wouldn't mind one

Ouch. I didn't realize they used to be that much. I thought it was funny that it was a fraction of the price of the Legion, as I'd rather have this one even if they were the same price.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
A SAS P229 was the first Sig I really wanted. Fresh out of college & the $1,100 price tag was a no-go for me at the time.

Still wouldn't mind one

Ouch. I didn't realize they used to be that much. I thought it was funny that it was a fraction of the price of the Legion, as I'd rather have this one even if they were the same price.

Would've been around 2009-10 I think

Nice grab. This might be the gun I've always wanted but forgot about. I own and love several 229's and a 228. I really like the 228 and think that it's one of the best guns ever made. But I prefer a stainless steel slide over a folded slide. This may be my next gun. If I can find one.

I just picked one up myself. Mine is built on the “old” frame (13 round mags standard) and has the short extractor. Sent it to Sig for x-ray sights and replacement of worn parts. Shot it Friday and it is going to go into the carry rotation. Ordered some Mec-gar 15 round mags. I also put in the Sig Armor super strut and G10 grips. Now to order a holster.

quote:

This might be the gun I've always wanted but forgot about.

It wasn't really on my radar, either. Honestly, I always thought the SAS melt treatment was more marketing hype than anything. Now having handled it, I still don't think it's absolutely necessary but it's definitely a nice touch, especially when you consider that when they were selling these pretty much every other P229 offering came with a rail.

Putting night sights (regular ones not that stupid thing they put on the P365SAS!) and an SRT kit in from the factory rounds out the package nicely.

I had a failure to extract with this gun last night. I was demoing a drill for a class and got a malfunction. The fired case was about halfway out of the chamber, and the extractor apparently slipped off. This was using Sig 124gr FMJ factory ammo, and the factory P229-1 mags. The failure to extract occurred on round 5 of a 6 shot string, and I'd started with a full mag.

The extractor claw appears undamaged, and retains a live round against the breech face. There's some wiggle, but it won't fall out. I can depress the spring with my finger, but it feels like there's pretty good tension.

I have about 400-ish rounds total through the gun at this point with no other issues. I put the remainder of the box of ammo I had with me through the gun (about 20-25 rounds) with zero issues. A bit early at this point to say if it was a one-off or if there's a problem, but this is my first long-extractor P-Series, I know there's some distaste for them online, and I've never had a failure to extract like that on any other Sig I've owned (all short external or internal extractor guns).

I keep coming back to this thread to look at the pistol I never knew I wanted until now. I'll keep my fingers crossed that your lone malfunction was just a fluke. I really like that pistol.

Hoping to get out and shoot some more this week. I'll keep you posted.

I put another 50 rounds through it today, rapid fire, out of stuffed-full, overly tight P229-1 mags. All of the conditions were there to get it to choke, but it was flawless. I'm going to blame the issue the other night on either the ammo or some other one-off fluke. The more time I spend with this gun, the more I like it.