First Review- SIG Sauer P320

I picked up my SIG Sauer P320 yesterday and took it to the range for a quick 150 round workout.  My initial impressions were very positive.

This morning, I put another 300 rounds through it and it confirmed my initial thoughts.

The P320 is SIG Sauer’s first entry into the striker fired world for those of you that do not know.  Basically, it took the P250 line of DAO pistols and adapted it to striker fired.  I’ve owned a P250 or two for years, and the mechanics of the gun made it one of the most accurate pistols I’ve ever owned.   The long DAO pull of the P250 made fast follow up shots nearly impossible for me, as I missed the reset point more than once under stress.  The guns were reliable, and accurate to the extreme.

About 4 or 5 years ago, an engineer at SIG Sauer showed Bruce Gray and me the concept plans for what now is known as the P320.  I looked at it and thought “Meh, all they did was rehash the P250”.

The P320 came out with much fanfare and I told my LGS to save the first one for me.  It came in Friday.  I took it out to the range before work for some initial shots.  I did most of my work from the 25 and 45 yard line.  I found the P320 to be easily controllable shot to shot at that distance.  The trigger pull weighed out at about 7.5 pounds but broke very clean.  The sights would rise and return with boring repetition.  For those of you that care about things such as a “Glock like positive audible reset” which is apparently a major failing of some HK pistols and the Smith and Wesson M&P, the P320 doesn’t disappoint.  The reset is very firm and those of you that like such a thing won’t find the P320 lacking in that area.

My P320 came with two magazines, a kydex holster, and a certificate for a gun bag and two more magazines on a mail in rebate.  The offer for the gun bag and extra magazines runs through August 1, I believe. The P320 also came stock with SIG night sights.

The second range session consisted of 300 rounds on a warm, humid Kentucky day.  I shot Bill Drills from the seven yard line to the 50 yard line.  I experimented with the gun to see what exactly I could get away with in driving the gun hard.

The P320 doesn’t appear to be sensitive to side load.  Glocks are pretty notorious to grip pressure from side loading.  If I right handed shooter puts too much side load pressure on his strong hand, it drives the group to the left.  A left handed shooter pushes the group right.  Some people call this milking the grip, but it is actually side pressure.  I found that I could side load, and death grip the P320 all I cared to and the round still hit point of aim/point of impact out to 50 yards with good trigger control.

I settled down and found the amount of pressure that was right for me and the gun ran like a top.  With the factory sights, I noticed that the gun hit about an inch high at 50 yards for me.  I’m used to Glocks hitting 2-4 inches higher than point of aim, so only having it hit an inch high was refreshing.  With remanufactured Freedom Munitions 115 grain ammo, my best groups at 50 yards were in the 4.5-5 inch range.  I didn’t consider that to be bad at all.  Bruce Gray is reporting getting about a 3 inch average with Bianchi Cup hand loads, with the gun in a factory configuration.

I need a little more dry fire and live fire time on the gun to get used to it.  I honestly believe that once I do, my times will start to smoke my usual times with a Glock.  I averaged clean Bill Drills at the seven yard line in around the two second mark.  The groups shot produced clean neat, little piles of bullet  holes as the sights rose from the same spot repeatedly.

I’m going to spend this summer training and competing with the P320.  I’ll report back as I see progress/problems with what appears to be SIG’s biggest winner to date.