I load by hand, and consider that I am a decently strong individual. It was physically impossible for me to get more than 10 rounds in my 357/40 mags the first time. I even dented the casings of the top rounds with the rim of the round I was trying to load. Once I finally DID muscle my way into getting it loaded, it would not fit in the weapon due to the sides of the mag bulging until I unloaded it/re-loaded it half a dozen times. After that, smooth sailing, and I have NEVER had a malfunction of any sort with my P226/357SIG. Granted, only 500 or so down the tube though.
As I said, we’ve had good luck with the magazines and pistols delivered to the agency. My personal 229R and the included magazine have worked great.
I was surprised when the magazine I purchased did not work. It is marked as made in the United States, but there is no indication of the manufacturer that I can find.
Proving by my description that I am not an armorer, the stub that fits into the magazine floorplate is too wide to re-assembly the magzine.
Unless you purchased it in the last couple of months, that magazine is not an official Sig magazine or a Mecgar. Until real recently all Sig mags for the P226 or P229 were either made in Italy, or in rare cases Germany.
And I don’t believe they’ve switched any of the production except the SCT to US made magazines. My P226 that I purchased earlier this year came with German made magazines. And my P229 Caliber Xchange kit that I purchased last month came with Mecgar made Italian mags.
I can’t visualize that for some reason. Sig mags are made pretty stout, what part of the mag was bulging? The only time I never could insert the mag into a Sig was when I tried to insert a P229-1 magazine (designed for a 40/357 framed P229) into my P228R.
Anyways it should work well if you keep it lubed, I have two Sig with excess of 10,000 rounds through them, and another that should reach 10,000 rounds in a month.
We’ve had some breakage issues with 229Rs: takedown levers, ejectors. Not a lot of high round count training.
The P229s we first issued to detectives c. '96 always ran well if lubed and mine saw a couple of high round count trips to MISS with no issues. The finish on the SS slides wore off and they looked ugly, but bought mine when dept. traded for new ones for all couple years back.
Personal Rule of Thumb: don’t get one made since they changed to marking the frames with electric pencils. Rollmarked 229s and 226s I’ve handled and shot always ran like Mercedes.
I’ve since sold my old SIG; the pawnshops around here are full of low-mileage Glocks for hundreds less than a new SIG, too.
Worked fine after I broke the springs in on the mags. Before that happened, they would not drop free when fully loaded, and required a bit of muscle to get inserted past the 1/3 point. The left and right walls of the mag were buldged out, based on what I could see corraborated with the issues inserting it and the subsequent rub/wear marks created by the issue. I have heard of this before but didn’t believe it myself until it occured.
I was initially hesitant to purchase a Sig due to the outlandish claims of “smoothness”, “reliability”, etc., etc. Then Sig came up with the P226 Navy and I tried it. Holy Sheisse!! The pistol was a smooth and reliable as everyone had been expounding and it is spookily accurate (3 magazines full of Winchester White Box at 25 yards into a 3 inch target). I sent that pistol back for an SRT trigger and it was awesome. Sold it. For a P226R with Navy markings. Placed the SRT parts into it and it, too, has been phenomenal. Very accurate, very smooth, very reliable, little felt recoil. The SRT parts reduce the trigger reset to be slightly less than that on a Glock. If you MUST have a Double Action pistol it’s hard to beat the Sig P226.
There has been an increase in MIM parts - extractor, for example - and I’ve been told by a gentleman who used to work there that Sig is undergoing a QC Program, for lack of better terminology, that will require QC checks for every component as they do in Deutschland. Hopefully, this is happening.
I agree, and stuff can/does break. However, as long as the frame/slide/barrel are G2G, the rest is a 5-minute job to replace. IF you get 500 rounds through the gun and nothing breaks, I doubt it will any time soon. Kindof like the non HPT AR-bolt, imho. Just as good as HPT…if you get 2-400 rounds through it.
My issued pistol is a 226RDAK in .40 caliber. We got them around 2005 maybe 06. They have been flawless. I also have a 220ST from early 2000 maybe. It’s also flawless. Can’t speak for the newer stuff coming out. My 226 probably has 10000 or more rounds through it with not a problem.
I agree. I try to do 500 rounds plus several mags self-defense ammo, the vast majority running various drills, through any new (to me) pistol on the first range session.
I was told by some Army Marksmanship Unit guys that “Sig Sauer P226 9mm frames are good until around 250,000 rounds - and then they crack.”
That’s more rounds then I can afford to run through it - well, not really but you get my point. I consider them good to go with one caveat: get the SRT trigger installed.
