Anyone else struggle to lock the slide on a Legion?

My new P229 Legion RX is a pretty nice gun but it's nearly impossible to lock the slide with that low profile lever.

What options are there to improve slide "lockability"?

The Legions use a low profile and smaller slide release to be easier to carry. The first thing that I'd replace on a Legion would be the slide release lever.

It will be fine with the standard (non-Legion) SIG slide release lever. The standard lever has a larger surface area and is angled slightly outward which makes it much easier to manipulate.

Bill

Thanks Bill. I have a standard slide lock lever on order. Sig says it won't work with the Legion grip but we'll see. I don't really want to modify the Legion grip so worse case I change grips.

Some day I may want to put it back to original. For now it'd be nice to easily lock it open to show clear.

quote:

Originally posted by MrMcGoo:
The Legions use a low profile and smaller slide release to be easier to carry. The first thing that I'd replace on a Legion would be the slide release lever.

It will be fine with the standard (non-Legion) SIG slide release lever. The standard lever has a larger surface area and is angled slightly outward which makes it much easier to manipulate.

Bill

I really agree with this. I get the fact that some people like the reduced controls because they can keep their thumbs off of them during live fire, but they never have been an issue for anyone making the gun harder to carry.

First thing I do with a Legion is dump the crappy reduced slide lock lever.

I generally overhand rack and release a slide into battery so it's not as big a deal to me. Sure it would be nice to have the option of having a sizable control surface if my off hand "isn't available", but the regular P-SIG slide stop is more problematic with my usual 'thumbs forward' hold. When shooting my P-SIGs I typically have to fly my strong hand thumb which runs contrary to how I operate almost any other semi-auto pistol.

quote:

Originally posted by soggy_spinout:
I generally overhand rack and release a slide into battery so it's not as big a deal to me. Sure it would be nice to have the option of having a sizable control surface if my off hand "isn't available", but the regular P-SIG slide stop is more problematic with my usual 'thumbs forward' hold. When shooting my P-SIGs I typically have to fly my strong hand thumb which runs contrary to how I operate almost any other semi-auto pistol.

My complaint isn't with releasing the slide, it's with locking the slide. Drop the mag and try to lock the slide. I find it extremely difficult. And yes, I realize this isn't really a concern in a defensive situation. But during practice, to me, it's an issue.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:

quote:

Originally posted by MrMcGoo:
The Legions use a low profile and smaller slide release to be easier to carry. The first thing that I'd replace on a Legion would be the slide release lever.

It will be fine with the standard (non-Legion) SIG slide release lever. The standard lever has a larger surface area and is angled slightly outward which makes it much easier to manipulate.

Bill

I really agree with this. I get the fact that some people like the reduced controls because they can keep their thumbs off of them during live fire, but they never have been an issue for anyone making the gun harder to carry.

First thing I do with a Legion is dump the crappy reduced slide lock lever.

The P239, P224 and the Legion series have the slide catch bent down to make them easier to carry concealed. It is also less likely to snag clothing on the draw from concealment.

The fact that it is easier to avoid riding the slide stop is gravy. Note that SIG didn't make that decision on the larger SIGs until the Legion series.

If you have another explanation why SIG bent the slide stops down on the smaller concealed carry pistols, I'd like to know what it was.

Bill

I was returning to a four day defensive handgun class last year which includes on the final test a number of malfunction drills which require you lock the slide back. I was planning on 'joining the legion' with a p226 until I discovered one of the 'improvements' on the gun was the smaller slide lock lever.

quote:

Originally posted by MrMcGoo:

If you have another explanation why SIG bent the slide stops down on the smaller concealed carry pistols, I'd like to know what it was.

Bill

These are just repackaged P224 controls. They were modified because they were the only thing that fit some of the reduced stocks that came factory on the failed P224 project, not because there was ever an issue with carrying the standard controls. The factory controls hung out too far to fit in some of the fitted ankle holsters that SIG wanted the P224 to shine in. However, sadly the project came a good 15 years too late. The controls had ZERO to do with making the gun "easier to carry" and everything to do with trying to make a P Series entry into the G26 ankle gun market. Smaller stocks were a must, so you had to have smaller controls to go with them.

Jeff Creamer was the project manager on the Legion series, to which I was around the project during pre-production during my time as a shooter for SIG Sauer. The standard controls were a bit cumbersome so he elected to go with the P224 controls because they had already had them in stock. That is how the P224 controls came to be repackaged as "SNAG FREE REDUCED CONTROLS".

From a practical standpoint of 25 years of shooting SIGs, seeing more SIG P Series guns in classes than any other outfit outside of the SSA, teaching at the SSA, being a competitive shooter for SIG, having an in at the major agencies carrying the P Series, I can without hesitation tell you that the reduced controls are an internet marketing solution in search of a real world problem.

I'm fortunate I guess in that I don't have a problem with it. I'm able to get my thumb nail under it to push it up.

Is there a member here who has replaced the low-profile Legion controls with standard SIG controls?

I remember reading concerns that the standard controls would not fit (specifically the slide lock) with the Legion grips without modification or replacement of the grips.

That would be a dealbreaker for me, as one of my favorite aspects of the Legion is the grip contour.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Decker:
Is there a member here who has replaced the low-profile Legion controls with standard SIG controls?

I remember reading concerns that the standard controls would not fit (specifically the slide lock) with the Legion grips without modification or replacement of the grips.

That would be a dealbreaker for me, as one of my favorite aspects of the Legion is the grip contour.

That is what Sig told me too but I have a standard on the way to try. If it won't fit I'll change the grips.

I tried to bend the low profile slide release and it broke. It actually works better broken. Not as a release, but to manually lock the slide, which was my goal so I may just leave it that way. I also have another low profile on the way so I can put it back to original before I sell it.

I had the same issue so when I sent it to Robert Burke for action work he installed a P226 one. Now it is perfect!

I don’t think it required any mods to fit and in fact he did it on an RX too.

I ordered and installed the regular slide catch (part 1201394-R) for my P229 Legion RX and I can confirm that, at least on my gun, it fits without any modification to the Legion grips. Since installation I've done numerous slide lock reloads without any issues. Changing out the part worked wonders, I could not use the Legion low profile slide catch.

My previous post shows the broken slide lock lever removed and installed. I set it on an anvil with a drill bit on the back side and rapped the drill bit with a hammer. It did bend a little and was better but I tried for more and it broke. The broken lever worked better than original for locking the slide but not very well at all for a release.

The next three photos are a standard lever installed. It's close but fits and works. In fact it works quite well for both locking and releasing. Notice the different knurl pattern.

Also notice how poor the alignment is between the back of the slide and frame. Is this typical of Sigs? All of my Berettas are perfect.

Yep, the slide lock levers are heat treated and they don't bend.. I ordered one with the plan of bending it to stick out even more to make locking the slide during a malfunction drill test easier and only managed to break it.... I guess you could heat one up first... but did not want to invest more in the trial.

quote:

Originally posted by Depami:
Also notice how poor the alignment is between the back of the slide and frame. Is this typical of Sigs? All of my Berettas are perfect.

It is on some of them. Kind of tacky in my opinion.

I recently went the other way and put the P224 SLL on my German P226, and modified the wood Hogue grips for clearance. No more failures to lock back, and I can lock the slide manually without issue. It is more difficult to drop the slide using the lever so I'm working on drilling the powerstroke method.