I've got an opportunity to get a new CA compliant P229 9mm (E29-9-BSS-CA) at a most perfect price (free!). It's actually from SIG themselves as part of their dealer rewards program. Why I need yet another P229...well, I don't rightly know but it and the long discontinued P228 continue to be my favorite classic DA/SA P-SIGs and pretty much all of the other qualified options offered in the program didn't really float my boat.

The one hiccup in this choice is that I don't know some of the specifics about the gun, which sort of give me pause. For instance:

How long ago was this gun added to the CA roster?

That question leads to the next:

Is this model based on the older narrow P228-style magwell, or is it built off of the current P229-1 frame with the wider .40S&W magazine well?

I did see from SIG's own images that it has the equipment rail so it's not something that tries to mimic the railless M11-A1 or the original P228/early P229 frames. It comes with the E² style grip that I detested on a P226. And I'm guessing that it comes with the fugly long extractor since its slide has the P228-style serrations but SIG's product page doesn't have a pic of the right side of the pistol to confirm.

At this point I've come to the sad conclusion that this gun's frame is based around the P229-1 magazine, which unfortunately thanks to WA State's 10rd limit I don't have any of those 15rd standard cap mags since all of my existing 9mm P229s are based on the narrower P228 13rd magwell. Yeah I know the older narrow 9mm mags for the P228/229 which I have healthy amount of, and even the P226 (which I even have more of) will still lock in and function in the P229-1 magwell, but I've never been fond of that resultant 'wiggle', and my psyche always wonders if the darn mag won't at some point find itself detaching from the gun at some inopportune moment.

I suppose I can call SIG CS and quiz them about the gun, but I was hoping there might be some current and former CA members who are owners of this model that can provide their own views and knowledge about this CA variant of the P229.

TIA

Current Kali-compliant P229 is 229-1.

That was the conclusion that I kept coming up with. Wishful thinking that it wouldn't be.

However that gets me back to the question on when the P229 was originally added to their approved roster. And more questions like was the P229-1 judged as being close enough to its earlier iteration to get a pass on crap "safety" additions like the mag disconnect and all of the plastered legalese nonsense that's mandated for guns that are trying to be "new" additions to the roster? (circa whenever that garbage was mandated to be on such guns). Sadly I never paid any mind to those shenanigans since when those requirements never affected me, at least until now as I consider choosing this particular SIG.

I mean a Glock is a Glock, but over a decade ago Californication took one look at the then-new Gen4 Glocks and called those "new designs" that were purportedly far enough different from earlier generations. And therein lies the big reason why Glock kept Gen3s around instead of having that generation riding off into the sunset of discontinuation: the headache and bullcrap of that state's red tap compliance. I'd like to make certain that the current CA P229 avoided all of that.

Far worse than me having no P229-1 15rd standard cap mags, I'd certainly hate to have a P229 billboarded with a bunch of 'safety' and lawyer crap. Or a mag disconnector.

Oh well, free is free...or maybe I should get a (mostly) free-state P226 Legion instead, only with WA-friendly, dumbed down mags. Though the idea of joining The Legion is just so revolting...

And don't be surprised if your gun comes with an ugly, comically oversized and indicated chamber loaded indicator.



This is why I refuse to buy one of these newer/current "CA compliant" models. I'll pay premium for an older vintage gun.

^^^^ Thanks for the salvation! Exactly the kind of info I was after. WA State is blindly heading down this sort of darkest of paths, but we aren't there yet. No need for me to rush things.

Yeah this is in part SIG's own screw up, the P22x series had long been on the CA roster (which requires annual renewal to maintain, that's a whole nother topic).

Well some years back some new hire in charge of that at SIG screwed up and let almost the entire line to expire and drop off of the roster. This forced SIG to have to recertify all their models. The problem is, now these models are subject to the new certification requirements which now includes having a CLI.

This is why companies like Beretta and Glock continue to offer their products in CA without any special CA BS features but SIG cannot.

It's BS all around.

That's one hell of a screw up. Does sort of explain why the current CA P229 is built on a P229-1 frame instead of based on the older narrow magwell frame, and uses the current full height P228-style slide serrations. If they're forced to do the recertification anyways...but such a damn fool travesty.

As for my "freebie" from SIG, I decided to pick a 10rd compliant P320 X-TEN, which apparently SIG values equally to the P229. I don't, but I can at least directly compare it against my current G20 woods gun, and I suppose one can't have too many 10mm options. I was warming up to the idea of choosing the P226 Legion DA/SA, but I soured on the notion of waiting to build up more points in order to qualify "joining the Legion" (said in a Big Booming Voice with lots of plaster-rattling reverb).

I do really detest SIG's marketing department.

quote:

Originally posted by darkest2000:
<snip>
Well some years back some new hire in charge of that at SIG screwed up and let almost the entire line to expire and drop off of the roster. This forced SIG to have to recertify all their models.
<snip>

I hope that new hire never gained senior status.