A
Anonymous
Guest
I've got to admit, I've been a fan of the Sig Sauer handguns for a very long time. I still remember the first one I ever saw, it belonged to a friend of mine's father. I only met the guy once, but he struck me as a very much squared away guy. He'd done some hush-hush work in European embassies back in the day when the folks on the other side of the Iron Curtain weren't so friendly. Even in his 70s, he didn't come across as a guy you'd really want to mess with.
His gun, later left to my friend on his death, was a Sig P225. A real one, it was brought back some time in the late seventies or early eighties from W. Germany or Czechoslovakia or some other place he'd acquired it. Since it had no importer mark, I'm not exactly sure how it came to be here. Also unusual, all of the markings were in German- a sure sign it wasn't intended for the N. American market.
Back then, Sigs weren't particularly common in my area and I thought it was the most exotic thing I'd ever seen. I fell in love with the pistol- German/Swiss engineering and a signed target by some guy with a name I couldn't pronounce and all sorts of interesting proof marks all over the gun.
I went through a long string of them a few years later as they became more common. A P230, then a P220, then a P226 and then another. I followed that up with a P229, a P239 and another P220. I even managed a P225 somewhere in that mix. I was shooting a lot of IDPA at the time and somehow swapped pistols like some folks change underwear. Of the lot of them, the P225 was plainly the best shooting and best carrying of the bunch.
It was just small enough to carry easily and just big enough to shoot well. For those who haven't experienced such things... small handguns are a snap to carry- especially concealed- but are difficult to shoot with anything approaching accuracy. Small snub nosed revolvers tend to be the worst followed by the tiny autos. Large service pistols tend to be much easier to shoot well, but impossible to carry concealed without resorting to silly things like photographer's vests and fanny packs to hide them in.
The P225 sort of fit in that middle niche of "just right".
And then, it was gone. Sig was primarily a company that manufactured martial arms for military and police use and the P225 was used widely in Europe as a police arm as the P6. Sometime in the 90s, as Glock took over the police market, the P225 vanished from the catalog.
Somewhere along the line, Sig must have gotten another order because they retooled for another run as the improved "A-1" version. I'd always regretted letting that one go and recently got one of the A-1s to rectify that 20 year old wrong.
I've got to admit, I was disappointed it no longer came with a test target written in German and it no longer had a couple dozen ordnance proof marks all over it. On the other hand, it is better in every other way- night sites, G10 grips, checkered front strap, a better trigger and a one piece slide that has been re-contoured to be less bulky. They are now produced in New Hampshire, in the same plant they make most of the N. American market guns.
Happily, It still has that "right size" feel to it....even if some of the foreign panache has worn off. Shooting report to follow, but I think it will do to repel boarders or deal with a bump in the night should it become necessary.
His gun, later left to my friend on his death, was a Sig P225. A real one, it was brought back some time in the late seventies or early eighties from W. Germany or Czechoslovakia or some other place he'd acquired it. Since it had no importer mark, I'm not exactly sure how it came to be here. Also unusual, all of the markings were in German- a sure sign it wasn't intended for the N. American market.
Back then, Sigs weren't particularly common in my area and I thought it was the most exotic thing I'd ever seen. I fell in love with the pistol- German/Swiss engineering and a signed target by some guy with a name I couldn't pronounce and all sorts of interesting proof marks all over the gun.
I went through a long string of them a few years later as they became more common. A P230, then a P220, then a P226 and then another. I followed that up with a P229, a P239 and another P220. I even managed a P225 somewhere in that mix. I was shooting a lot of IDPA at the time and somehow swapped pistols like some folks change underwear. Of the lot of them, the P225 was plainly the best shooting and best carrying of the bunch.
It was just small enough to carry easily and just big enough to shoot well. For those who haven't experienced such things... small handguns are a snap to carry- especially concealed- but are difficult to shoot with anything approaching accuracy. Small snub nosed revolvers tend to be the worst followed by the tiny autos. Large service pistols tend to be much easier to shoot well, but impossible to carry concealed without resorting to silly things like photographer's vests and fanny packs to hide them in.
The P225 sort of fit in that middle niche of "just right".
And then, it was gone. Sig was primarily a company that manufactured martial arms for military and police use and the P225 was used widely in Europe as a police arm as the P6. Sometime in the 90s, as Glock took over the police market, the P225 vanished from the catalog.
Somewhere along the line, Sig must have gotten another order because they retooled for another run as the improved "A-1" version. I'd always regretted letting that one go and recently got one of the A-1s to rectify that 20 year old wrong.
I've got to admit, I was disappointed it no longer came with a test target written in German and it no longer had a couple dozen ordnance proof marks all over it. On the other hand, it is better in every other way- night sites, G10 grips, checkered front strap, a better trigger and a one piece slide that has been re-contoured to be less bulky. They are now produced in New Hampshire, in the same plant they make most of the N. American market guns.
Happily, It still has that "right size" feel to it....even if some of the foreign panache has worn off. Shooting report to follow, but I think it will do to repel boarders or deal with a bump in the night should it become necessary.
