Today I had the chance to shoot the SIG Sauer P226 full-size pistol, in 9mm. The link I provided is to the Wikipedia article which gives some great information. The most interesting part to me is that this gun was one of the two finalists under consideration by the US armed forces in 1984 when they were deciding on a new pistol to replace the M1911. The M1911 had been used by US armed forces for almost 75 years at that point. The best new designs came from the Italian gun manufacturing company Beretta and the Swiss company SIG. The Beretta won out, and most US servicemen are now provisioned with a Beretta M9. But some US forces, including the US Navy Seals, and many military units around the world, use the SIG Sauer P226.
I was way impressed with the gun! I won’t talk about the details of the gun itself as these can be easily found elsewhere. I’ll just talk about how it felt and behaved for me.
From the moment I picked it up, I could sense a beautiful and solid construction, and that it felt very comfortable in my hand. Great balance. Upon pressing the magazine eject button, the metal magazine ejected effortlessly. I loaded 14 rounds of 9mm Parabellum. I was then surprised at how easily the slide pulled back to chamber the first round. I set up my target at 7 yards and popped 5 relatively rapid rounds into the five inch target. I didn’t expect that kind of accuracy, as I’m not that good a shooter. [Not yet anyway ;-)] So after that, I set the target at 10 yards and left it there for the rest of the session. I was shocked that even at that distance, nearly all my shots were within the five inch targets I was aiming for. Two shots out of 50 were just outside the target. I give the entire credit for this accuracy to the gun, as I have shot several others and have not had this kind of success. The only gun I have fired that feels about the same is the Springfield XDM.
SIG Sauer makes many variations of this gun, and they are all pricey. Expect to pay a street price of about $700 to $900. Just another example of the old saying, “You get why you pay for.”
I can so see why the US Navy Seals chose this as their handgun of choice. This is an excellent gun and it was really fun to shoot!
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