Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Gun try outs

Today I had the wonderful chance to shoot two different handguns. The first I shot was a Sig P229 in .40 caliber with 180 grain FMJ (Full metal jacket) bullets. The second was a .357 Magnum®/.38 S&W Special +P S&W revolver. I shot .38 caliber 125 grain JHP (jacketed hollow point) bullets The closest one I could find on their site which matched the one I shot is this one.

I was much more accurate with the revolver. I ran one box of ammo through each of the guns and used two different targets. You can see a real difference between the two targets. I had 4 hit on the target at 15 yards that were out of the 4 area for the revolver and I had 12 hits that were out of the 4 area at the same distance for the sig

The sig felt large and overly bulky. The trigger was surprising really heavy. It was heavier and longer than the revolver trigger (or at least it felt heavier). I do not know if it was just the example I used or what. It was a rental, so you never know. I really did not like the trigger on the sig, it was sooo long and always surprised me at the end. I could actually fell my self jumping (or is it flinching) when ever I shot the sig. With the revolver I did not fell any flinching (not to say I was not doing it, I just could not tell if I was or not).

The revolver was a nice piece of work. It did not see to have the amount of recoil the sig had, but then again I was shooting smaller lighter bullets. I will find a new example of the sig and see if the trigger is as long as the rental I used. I am still interested in the sig pro, but I think I would be even less accurate with the sig pro than I was with the regular sig.

I am going to see if I can find some different samples of a revolver. The one I shot was nearly a full sized one, if I can find some smaller examples to shoot I will give them a try. If I continue to be more accurate with a revolver than with a autoloader, I will go with a revolver. I want to shoot another sig to see if it was the gun I used, or if all sigs have that similar trigger.

update: The P229R DAK has a of 6.5 lbs and the P229 has a trigger pull of 12 pounds according to a website I found.

Also I just realized that they Sig I shot was a double action only pistol, but the regular Sig P229 are DA/SA. The pistol I shot was not a P229R DAK, because of the trigger pull. I could have estimated the weight of the pull wrong, but I don't think so.

I am confused and am doing more research, I might have to call the place and see if they modified the gun.

Update 2: Called the gun place and talked to a knowledgeable fellow. The gun was not a DAK but it was DAO with around 12 pound trigger pull (maybe less to other people). Right now the DAK versions would be able to be bought by civilians if any of them were available. The guy I talked to was saying that since the department of homeland security bought so many DAK's regular law enforcement are having problems getting ahold of them if they want them, so basically civilians are screwed (He was LE and tried to get one personally, but they would not sell him just one gun). The guy I talked to also said that he carries a P229 and does not like the DA/SA and wanted to give the DAK a try. He also said that if he like the DAK version that he would jump to it in a second.

It seems that sigs production is not matching the supply.

Basically I did not get what I wanted out of that range trip. I wanted to shoot a stock p229 but ended up with a version that was not a DAK and was not DA/SA, though with a lighter trigger pull I wonder how accurate I would be. Of course if I am not accurate with the many shots using a 12 pound trigger, I doubt I would be accurate with one (the first shot) using a 12 pound trigger.

For the life of me I could not figure out what I shot, their seems to be a lack of web sites and an after market modifications for sigs.

cube

6 comments:

Les Jones said...

The DAK would be the way to go. It's a Glock-style system, where the hammer is left partially cocked after each shot, and each trigger pull is the same weight and length.

Man of Issachar said...

I am just trying to figure out what i shot :)

Not really making the final decision yet, just gathering data on how accurate I am with each of the guns and each type of the gun

Les Jones said...

Yeah, I'm not sure if the DAO version changes the model number or not. SIG also has a lot of uncataloged guns made for different police departments and military units.

Man of Issachar said...

That might be it then, because the guy mentioned that it was the gun the MPD (mephis police department uses), so he might have bought it off of a Le friend of his or somthing.

I am still disappointed though.

Les Jones said...

The DA pull on a DA autoloader is no fun. I'm surprised it was so bad, though. SIGs are some of the better DAs out there.

Was the S&W revolver you shot a 5 shooter? If so, it was a J-frame. They actually have tend to have the worst triggers of the S&Ws. The larger guns use a different trigger that's much better. So if you liked that, you'll really like the bigger guns.

Man of Issachar said...

yes the revolver was a 5 shooter.

It was not that the trigger was bad on the sig, it was just really heavy (which i was surprised by that.) It was also a DOA gun with a twelve pound trigger, that is why they made the DAK. The reason i did not like it the trigger on the sig was because it was heavy, and it broke real late. It just felt odd.

I was also noticably less accurate with the SIG than i was with the revolver, another reason why i like the revolver better.