I take it the common thread here is the .357 SIG round? Slide velocity to high? Wear issues? Putting a cartridge in a design never intended to handle the pressure?
I hear you. I researched this and there is just too much evidence that Sig under Cohen is more interested in making guns that look like they belong in the next Call of Duty game than guns that actually work.
I own, Glocks, Berettas, Colts, & HKs; I’m going to give CZ a try. I like what I’m hearing about them.
Don’t know the answer to your first question. Sounds like the guns are new, so wear shouldn’t be an issue. I don’t think it’s any real secret that .40 wears out guns faster than 9mm and .357 wears guns out faster than .40. At least that’s the way I understand it. And yes the P226, or actually more appropriately the P220, was designed as a 9mm; but, Texas DPS used the P226 in .357 for a number of years and to my knowledge didn’t have any out of the ordinary problems with the guns. In fact last I read, they were back using Sigs because of the issues they were having with the M&Ps. Haven’t heard anything since then, so I would assume that’s the case.
I personally like Sig classic series pistols, but they can’t keep having this type of thing happen. And it isn’t just them, others are having issues as well. I get business is about profit, but there’s a line to walk between profit and quality. Finding it sooner rather than later might be a good idea.
I carried a German built P228 (folded sheet metal slide) as a duty pistol for several years and had absolute faith in it’s reliability and accuracy. That later became a P229RDAK in .40 which was OK. A Glock 19 has the duty now.
I was at Ground Zero when a large agency in my state experienced a series of failures with the P226 with E2 grips. The ‘sear spring pin’, part #27 on the exploded diagram from Sig (circa 2011), would fall out and allow one of the tails of the sear spring to become lodged between slide and frame. Locked up the guns pretty solidly. These were brand new from the box. All agency guns were checked over the course of three days and a new, tapered, sear spring pin was installed. No known issues since then, but I should know more as the guns come back around for extensive live fire. Sig had armorers on the ground within a week to effect the fix. A very recent graduate of the Sig Armorer’s Course (prior to the problems experienced here) stated that an ongoing fix was going to be a new, tapered pin. This agency was very displeased with Sig over the issue and it will likely affect their future choice in handguns.
Not to let the P220 off the hook, as I’ve seen numerous instances of the hammer reset spring failing. I had occasion to check rental pistols in a very large number of commercial ranges and it was a regular thing to find that failure on the P220, even pistols less than a year old. I’ve inspected dozens of them as trade in guns and found a good number would have this failure. Lastly: http://www.odmp.org/officer/16325-officer-jesse-kenneth-paderez
Dang Kilroy! I checked out that link. On many levels that shouldn’t have happened but the officers SIG should not have discharged. I imagine SIG will have a lawsuit on their hands. What does one look for to test the reset spring? I have a newish P-226 that I plan to shoot more often.
I would love to read it…Link please?
http://sigtalk.com/sig-sauer-pistols/27262-my-first-sig-9mm-m11a1-sig-wants-back.html
Brand new too…
Without using the de-cock lever… Use the trigger to manually lower the hammer all the way down so it is in contact with the firing pin. Release the trigger and then, release the hammer and observe. When that spring is in working order the hammer should snap back vigorously. If not, get that spring replaced.