The Sig P226 coated in Robar Guns’ NP3, an excellent finish for lubricity and corrosion resistance.
In keeping with our recent series, we’ve been looking at various commonly issued practical service weapons that don’t get a whole lot of love. The Sig P226 certainly falls into that category. Most of us who have been around for a while know this pistol very well, but it seems the new generation of shooters don’t give this pistol much love. Originally designed to compete with the Beretta 92 to replace the M1911A1 pistols, the P226 has been adopted by countless domestic law enforcement agencies and has also been in use by the US Navy SEAL Teams since the 1980s. The P226 also saw service in the FBI, DHS, and served as an interim weapon to replace the Browning Hi Power. Many of the design features came from the P220 and P225. A double column magazine holds 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition. In its decades of service, P226 has developed a reputation of being a reliable and robust pistol.
These days, DA/SA format pistols aren’t nearly as popular as striker fired, polymer pistols, but the P226 holds its own even today. The Sig P226 features ergonomic controls, with a slide release lever that can be easily manipulated by shooting thumb (assuming a normal, right handed shooter.) While the grip is somewhat large, with new thinner grips and a short factory trigger, even those with smallish hands can make do with the pistol. The P226 is certainly a bit more accommodating to the pygmy handed shooter than say, the Beretta 92. The DA trigger is long and heavy out of the box, but significantly improves as it wears in. In SA mode, the trigger is crisp and fairly light.
The SIG P226 has a reputation of excellent reliability. It feeds modern hollow point ammunition without issue. Mechanical accuracy of the pistol is good; it is certainly capable of head shots at 25 yards, as long as the shooter is up to the task. The decocker setup is certainly superior to the slide mounted safety of the Beretta 92. Easily manipulated with the strong hand thumb (again, right handers favored,) I certainly appreciate the lack of the superfluous safety.
In the area of durability, the P226 performs. My sources report they typically go 100,000 rounds before any frame breakages. I find this somewhat impressive especially since the frame is aluminum. In addition, the gun is not sensitive to lack of lubrication or cleaning. However, the standard finish from the factory is not the most corrosion resistant. One of my buddies who worked beach patrol with his P226 complained that it would turn fuzzy and orange in very short order. He had his pistol refinished with Robar Guns’ excellent NP3 finish (seen above.)
Unlike the Beretta 92 or whatever model Glock, Sigs are expensive. A new P226 will run you close to a grand, and magazines aren’t particularly cheap either. But the upside is that for the most part, you can take one out of the box and put it right to work.
The new generation shooters are chased away from Sigs by guys with inferiority complexes. “Eww…is that an American made Sig? My West German Sig is so much better…Hooray for me” So new gen shooters dont give Sigs a chance.
I am fairly new(<1 year) to Sig myself. I find them to be great pistols. Yes the American made ones. So much in fact Im seriously considering replacing all my poly guns with an all Sig lineup. I find it very rewarding when shooting 9mm from a 30+ oz full sized gun.
Im not used to the DA/SA triggers but after about 1600 rounds through a P229, Ive embraced it. The single mode is the best, right behind my SA Trophy Match 1912.
It has nothing to do with inferiority complex. Many of us have LONG and very deep SIG history. I worked for their west coast L/E distributer in the late 80’s, and supported them as a department armorer for a place that issued them exclusively. I’ve carried them as duty guns (including using one in a shooting), shot them in competition and run huge round counts through them. I also sold them in large numbers when I owned my own store. What I saw was a massive change in quality control with the U.S. made Sig’s that got progressively worse as time wore on. To the point that I don’t trust them. This is not a “stuck up” thing, its an experience thing. For what its worth, I have both German and U.S. made HK45’s, and was glad to see that there is no difference in the guns or QC at all. I am also shooting a U.S (Vltor) made Steyr AUG that shoots better than my Austrian guns. Glock is another one that has suffered from issues lately with U.S. guns versus the all Austrian guns. Essentially, I have zero issues carrying and using a U.S. made pistol IF the are to the same standards that the originals are. In the case of SIG, I have not seen consistently good pistols across the board to trust them, and I was burned hard enough by getting an order of SIG’s at my agency where 50% of the guns would not go “bang” right out of the gate and then dealing with a company in which that didn’t bother them. It was at that point that we went to HK’s and Glocks and I have not seen any reason to change that.
I bought a 2nd hand personal 226 in fall ’92 and carried it ’95-’97 in my 1st stint in Narcs till my agency decided to issue detectives pistols. It was and is a totally reliable sidearm. Oddly, never used it in three trips to M.I.S.S. despite it being the “national” pistol of that facility due to the .mil group that trained there frequently.
Our first issued gun for dicks were 229s and they were BMWs, not Caddies! Got mine set up w the factory short trigger and used it to air out a Monte Carlo SS occupied by truculent sorts one night more than a decade ago during Narcs Part Deux.
Bought it when we traded for 229Rs for all 250 sworn c. ’06. Problems arose (at least one puked at every training or qual) and we finally went to Gen4 w23s in ’12, the rest of department went G22 last year.
Still have my old 229 in the go-bag and would take it to war; need to run some rounds through the 226, too. SIG needs to revisit those roots fast!
I meant 1911 🙂
One of my all time favorite pistols…….as long as its the older W.German variant. I’ve owned a bunch over the years and they are the reason I never grew any affection for the Beretta 92 series. The only issues you had to stay on top of were grip screws and the long trigger. Either a factory short trigger or a TJ’s custom polished and rounded short stainless trigger was really the only thing I felt the gun “needed”.
Seems I’m reading more about the P226 since Sig brought the MK25 to market as a standard item.
I purchased my P226 in the fall of 1985. I carried it daily until 1997 when my agency began issuing pistols. It has about 19k rounds through it and I had it refinished by Robar about 4 years ago. I still carry it off duty regularly and would still carry it on duty if I could. It fits my hand better than any other pistol I’ve ever held and it has held its accuracy over the years. When I do my part, I still can do 25yard head shots with it.
NICE! Thankfully someone has thrown the 226 up there as a ‘worthy’ duty gun. I shot the hell out of mine in the late 90’s, kinda dating myself. When we looked hard at replacing them, we found that most of our guns were over 100,000 rounds and really were still going strong. I still have fond memories of that gun……
Of all the pistols I own, my P226 is the one with which I am the most accurate. By far. It’s just sort of a Cadillac.
I own a pretty decent amount of Sigs, and I guess I would be considered a younger shooter. Its all about how it feels and points for me. I could care less about the DA/SA thing. 500 rounds and a few hours a solid training, and all issues with the DA part of the trigger should go away if you practice correctly. Of the 4 Sigs I currently own (220 carry, 239, 229 9mm, and 226) I have had all of 1 malfunction. And that was due to me putting to much pressure on the side with my hand, and resulted in a FTE that was very easily cleared. Also it was within the first 20 rounds fired from the pistol.
Also as far as left handed operation goes a good friend, and left handed shooter swears up and down that the Sig is accidentally made to be better for left handed guys. When I try to argue that it can’t be he shows me how easy the decocker is to use left handed, and his reloads are very quick with slide lock as well using his right hand to hit the release from under the gun. Looks a bit goofy to me, but I guess if you use the wrong hand you have to get used to things like that. Great article! Now please ask Hilton to make a 10-8 Sig rear sight.
Unless you know someone who wants to prepay for 1000 pieces, I don’t see a sight for the Sig pistols forthcoming. product development is expensive, especially for a small business. But you never know!
Haha I know I knoooow. Sig doesn’t ever get much aftermarket support it seems. I wish I could take the gamble and order them all and sell them myself! Either way keep up the great work, and sweet articles!
I love the P226. I went through my first academy back in 1990 and we started on revolvers, but the second half of the firearms training was on semi-autos. All the school had were 3rd-gen Smiths and I wasn’t particular keen on them, so I bought a buddy’s West German 226 that he carried during his brief stint in LE. That gun ran 100% during my training and while I never got a perfect score on that course of fire I felt it gave me a boost over the other students since it fit my hand way better, and had better balance and a better trigger than the school’s 5906s did. I had that gun for about a decade and the only failures I had with it were when I was using cheap aftermarket mags. About five years ago I picked up another trade-in P226 and this one has way more wear, but I ran it for a full season of IDPA (practice every week and a match every month) with no cleaning and no further lubrication (after initially putting a little grease on the wear points). I was going to keep going without cleaning but at the end of the season we shot in a rain storm and the slide, barrel, and controls developed a healthy coating of surface rust, so I finally broke down and cleaned it. That was more than 2500 rounds after its last cleaning, and zero malfunctions. I currently own a newer .40 P226 and I’m just not feelin’ it. It’s been reliable, but it’s not nearly as fun to shoot as the older 9mm gun.
I have seen about 15 broken frames on the P226 in my life. They all occured within a three week block of training. When talking to the armorer about it I found out most of the guns where well above 150k rounds. Some had already easily passed the 200k mark. We at the time were using the hand me down sigs that had reached the end of their life.
As for the US made ones, I can’t speak to the past but the MK25s we have been issued the last few years have had no problems, I have talked to our armorers about them and they have yet to see any problems with our newer sigs.
As for being lefty, I absolutely love the ergonomics of this gun, being left handed prevents my thumb from resting on the slide stop. And we have found using the slide stop def increases the rate of malfunction on dirty guns especially with salt water and sand.
The new generation of shooters stay away because SIGs suck in comparison to modern firearms. Why would I choose a Sig with a da/sa trigger that stacks terribly when I could have a M&P or glock with a consistent pull for half the cost? Why have this giant chunk of almost square metal in my hand when I could have a CZ or a M&P that is actually molded to fit the human hand?
Merely having a reliable, accurate pistol isn’t enough to really compete in today’s handgun market. Even Glock realized this and started issuing guns with removable back straps to try and stay relevant…. And they’re still being out sold now.
To say that Sigs suck in comparison to modern pistols is a pretty big statement. The Sig 226 is a work pistol thru and thru. I’ll be honest most people don’t need a Sig. Glocks, MPs and CZs work just fine for the average shooter. But look at what pretty much all Western SOF forces use. Glocks, HKs, and Sigs. And DA/SA systems have a lot of advantages once you learn the system. Again most people will never see them though. Try during a OTB into a environment that is sub 0 degrees F and then shoot your pistol after a week of being there. I have seen this first hand. The glocks from our partner force had a lot of trouble firing there first round, once they were cycled once they ran, our sigs fired right off the bat.
HAHAHA! I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not!
I’ve never picked up a P-Series SIG with a trigger that stacked horribly on the DA pull. They seem quite smooth and much better than most other DA triggers, including many S&W revolvers. The triggers in both M&Ps and Glocks feel like junk compared to the smooth SA pull in a SIG.
The SIGs have always been ergonomic, they just don’t fit everybody’s smaller hands. Funny, a Glock has major shortcomings for many people, doesn’t it? The M&P certainly is ergonomic, but it still doesn’t fit larger hands well. The large palmswell just makes it feel like a lump of clay thrown on a narrow chunk of plastic. The entire pistol’s grip needs to be enlarged to fit best, not just the palmswell.
You are correct in saying that just having a reliable, accurate pistol isn’t enough to sell thousands of units. That’s why Glock has such an intense marketing campaign and practically gives pistols to police units.
I’ve owned Glock 17, 23 and Sig 220 229 in 9mm and 40.
Never had any issues with any of those weapons.
Would someone be so kind to explain or show me where to find some information about the Sig Issues in the past? Please.
I went back to Sig because it was my first auto and that initial training always sticks.
I do like the exposed hammer on the Sig so I can thumb it back into the holster. Both weapons worked flawlessly.
The only issue I remember with Sig’s was the breach block pin would come loose so it needed to be inspected. The first 229’s seemed to have solid pins but the new ones now look like the old(90’s) pins. If the pin was loose just get the armorer to replace it. NBD.
I just purchased the 229 Dark Elites and they function as designed, but would appreciate what to look out for.
“The Air Marshal Service, as part of their expansion following the 9/11 terror attacks, adopted the SIG P229 handgun and has used the system across its ranks, which swelled to nearly 5,000 agents. Bray accepted the position of director of the agency in 2008. The following year the AMS announced a switch to the SIG P250 despite the fact that other federal law enforcement agencies rejected the gun after it failed performance testing.”
That is from a press release two hours ago.
Many of us who worked for agencies that issued SIG’s saw a huge shift in QC at SIG over the years. The SIG P-250 won numerous domestic and international contracts and lost them when the guns were delivered with horrific issues. I have seen first hand at a local very large agency where the SIG rep has kept them in the game by hand delivering numerous parts to replace the plastic parts in guns delivered to the agency (common theme…….good Reps taking care of QC issues). seans may be able to answer this, but I believe there is a TDP on the MK25’s that I am sure is why they have far fewer issues that are seen elsewhere. SIG can certainly build great guns, but like many places decisions have been made to use cheaper parts, cut other costs and it is reflective in the product. My first hand issue was calling SIG with 11 newly delivered L/E guns that would not fire, and not having anybody give much of a crap at SIG (and I was very willing to let it go as a “bad day” at the factory issue, but not after the phone call and their response). Have things changed……maybe, but I am still hearing about enough issues to come back to a company that “quit me”.
Great pistol. This was my first pistol I ever bought. Accurate as hell. I wish I would never traded it.
We (my old agency) used Sigs for almost 20 years, with overall excellent experience.
One thing in the article kind of jumped out at me… the part about Sigs not being affected much by lack of maintenance or lube.
Well… perhaps the latest generations aren’t… but those pre-95 pistols would rust while you watch, and you had better keep it wet if you wanted it to work right.
The second batch of P220s we got had one of the various iterations of K-Cote, and therefore didn’t rust as easily. But they still liked to be wet internally. Two of my old comrades who were there with me during that transitional period from revolvers have recently informed me that they have “gone back” to the good old days, dumped their Glocks, and acquired each a P226 and P239.
I’m not about to dump my HKs, and I’m still wondering about all the Sig QC horror stories that abound… so they are welcome to their epiphany/renaissance/whatever. But I can identify with their attitude…
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I suggest reading more carefully as the article mentions the corrosion issue.
Right now Pistol-Training.com is doing a stress test on a Sig P229 very interesting to follow.
http://pistol-training.com/archives/category/range-reports/sig-p229r-9
A total of five new Sig 226R pistols in .40 SW, with the E2 grip, have had the ‘sear spring pin’ work loose, rendering the pistol unusable. The slide will be stuck to the rear and requires a mallet to move the slide for disassembly. Four in one day and one in a previous academy class. All guns from the same agency.
More as I get it.