[Mordwyn]

Much to my delight, after years of disinterest, my wife just asked me to teach her to shoot. :)

Like I was taught, I will start her on a .22, so earlier this afternoon she and I went to the local Gunshop to take a look and see what pistols felt comfortable in her hands.

We looked at about 4-5 different makes and models and in the end, she really liked the feel of the Trailside (as do I) but never having owned one, I'm interested in anyones anecdotal experiences with this pistol.

How is their reliability? ease of maintenance? Do they have any quirks that we should know about before buying. Ammo preferences? Copper clad vs. lead

TIA

[lyricsdad]

Those sig trailsides, make me drool...

[Standing Wolf]

I'd have bought one a long time ago, but have met several people who've had @#$%^&! quality plastic magazines. I've heard steel magazines are available now for two or three times the price of plastic magazines.

I shot next to a fellow shooting a Trail Side in a bullseye match about a month ago. His slow fire scores weren't very good, but almost all his timed and rapid fire scores were in the high 90s. He mentioned after the match he's had no problem with his plastic magazines.

[Frandy]

I've had one for 8 months or so and I like it very much. The first 20 rounds were a disaster. FTF, FTExtract, FTEject, and no lockup after last round. My dealer shipped it back to Sig and it came back repaired and has been perfect since then. I used the original mag the first 500-600 rounds and now use two. No problems with either. I'd own another Traiside in a heartbeat.

Funny, they seem so flimsy next to a Ruger. But it's a set up. A trap. Camouflage. Inside that "flimsy" appearing exterior is a hell of a .22 auto.

Frandy

[fedlaw]

My Trailside Target:
Reliability: Not quite 100%, but almost. 2-3 FTF's in almost 5000rds.
Accuracy: As per test target: 1 hole on my good days, never more than 2" on my worst days even at 50 yds. offhand.
Cleaning: <10mins. w/boresnake every 1000rds or so. I'm very anal about the larger calibers, but this little beauty just runs and runs. Very low maintenance.
Additions: I bought the 180gr. frt. weight from Larry's Guns.
Comments: Lots of fun; pretty good trigger; great grips; hard to beat for the money. (I have 6 plastic mags-no problems except I only load 9). (Buying hint: 1) Make sure it hasn't been dry-fired without the plastic plug by examining the firing pin and the breech end of the barrel for marks; 2) Compare the test targets of the ones in stock. My dealer very kindly pulled all of his from the warehouse and I chose the one with the 2nd tightest group because it had a better trigger than the best group test target gun.)
Steve

[bill metal]

I have owned my Sig Trailside for several years now. It has the six inch barrel with adjustable sights and came with the blue wood target grips. There were other trailsides back then in the shop with black plastic grips and in comparison I found that the black grips felt much better in my hands. I went with the blue grips regardless to keep the pistol original, and since have found that the blue grips acquire a much better feel for ease and accuracy.

The owner of the gun shop was more than eager to let me swap with the black grips if I wanted, but my wife thought that for collectability it might prove wise to go with the blue ones, then special order some black ones if I wanted to . I am glad I went with her on that one, after much shooting, the blue ones now feel much better in my hand than the black ones do. Also the ease and balance makes this a great gun for women to enjoy as well. The felt recoil is pleasant and the balance is sheer perfection. Prior to this my wife only enjoyed shooting my Colt AR-15 which she could repeatedly cloverleaf groups at 100 feet on a good day with the factory Colt 3X scope.

Cleaning the trailside is a snap, it is the easiest .22 to clean that I own, and accuracy...I can send the target out to approx 60 feet which is the indoor ranges max limit and get a return target that exceeds my ruger by almost a 30% improvement in overall consistant accuracy.

The light weight and design means that you can acquire your target and hold your aim effortlessly for as long as you want without added stress!!!

I would suggest the six inch with the adjustable sights if you can find one!!!

[SouthpawShootr]

Trailsides have been exceedingly hard to find around here. I want a 6 inch with adjustable sights (I'll even settle for a 4.5 inch adj. sighted model). I'll probably just give up and order one in a month or two. When they first came out, seems most dealers had at least one, but it's been a while since I've seen one. Seen a few complaints about the mags (most from early guns), but that's about it. Only .22 I'd rather have more is a S&W 41, but these things are running in the $700-800 range. :what:

[kennedy]

I bought a used fixed sight model a little while back for $300, with box, paperwork and tasco red dot. previous owner bought it new and ran about 1000 rds thru it, never cleaned it, boy was it dirty, cleaned it up and works perfect, best shooting .22 auto I have ever owned.

[thorazine]

Trailside nice...

On a waiting list for the new Sig Sauer Mosquito (nicer)! :p

[ChillyW]

I love my Trailside. Easy enough to clean, if you don't have a scope on top of it. To pull the slide, you need to remove the scope. Which is a bit of a hassle, but not a big deal. And for a tight, accurate gun, it's not really that fussy about cleaning.

I've had no problems at all with the plastic mags. I've got 5 of them, and haven't had a single one fail to feed or cause any other problems.

For less money, you can get a Browning Buckmark that feels almost as nice and shoots almost as nice. I suggest you try them. Also a very reliable and fun gun to shoot. My wife's got one.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

[wally]

I agree with the Browning Buckmark suggestion.

When I first got the Beretta Neos (because I wanted a gun that was easy to play with Red Dots and Scopes) my wife and I were at the range shooting next to a fellow with a SIG Trailside. We traded for a few mags. I wasn't too impressed with the Trailside, good gun but seemed pricey for what you get. He said he got it because he didn't want to wait for a Neos, afterwards he said he wished he'd waited. Part of me wanted to offer him an even trade to see if he was serious, but my wife was liking the Neos -- whatever gets them started shooting with you is the way to go :)

To get back on track, the Neos and RedDot was a big help in teaching my wife to shoot as she could concentrate on trigger pull without worrying about front-rear sight alignment.

Since I picked up a Browning Buckmark a few months ago, its become "her gun" -- she shoots it better with iron sights than she does the Neos with RedDot simply because it has a better trigger. She's now able to keep almost all shots on a paper plate at 25 yrds -- may not sound impressive, but when we started a bit over a year ago she'd often miss the entire target frame at 10 yrds.

Buckmark, great trigger, great sights and a great price. Only downside is spare mags are a bit pricey and its almost as much a PITA to clean as is the Ruger Mark II.

For ammo, go for volume. I'm getting very good results with Federal Champion (about $7/500 at the local Academy chain) or the Remington Golden Bullet bulk pack (about $8/525 also at Academy). I think the Federal is bit more accurate over all, but the Remington seems more powerful when shooting the steel plate rack at our club. Start her with easy to hit targets like paper plates, then work on reducing group size, and then group location.

--wally.

[rock jock]

I owned a 4" barrel model with non-adjustable sights for a few years. Personally, the construction of the gun felt a little cheap - lots of plastic. The non-adjustable sights IMO are worthless. If you're going to have a target gun, you need adjustable sights, and not plastic ones either. Overall accuracy was no better than some of my other target .22's, including a Ruger MK II Target Competition.

[LeadPumper]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/jgelner/Other/Trailside.jpg

I bought a 'demo' 6" standard model from my local store about a year and a half ago. It's an earlier design, so it started out being a little finicky with ammo. But the price was way good, less than half of what a used S&W model 41 was going for.

Since then I've added adjustable rear sights, adjustable grips, more barrel weight, and a 1" Ultradot red dot from Larry's Guns (http://www.larrysguns.com/default.htm) , great guys to do business with.

It's less finicky now, but I accept that. For me it's a range plinker, not a competition piece. It shoots extremely well, (with some ammo), and is a breeze to clean (having to remount the red dot everytime not-withstanding). Never had a magazine problem, so can't comment on that.

I was considering a competition model before I ran accross this one, but it was just too much money for what I consider a high-end plinker.

YMMV

-LeadPumper

[lunde]

I installed X-esse Universal Hi-Grips (black) and a 95gr barrel weight to my Hammerli Trailside (six-inch model with adjustable sights) yesterday. I ordered these parts from Larry's Guns on Monday, and they arrived in yesterday's mail.

Both parts made what was a great pistol even greater. I like the grips a lot. For those who don't know, Hammerli calls "X-esse" what we know as the Trailside. These are the standard X-esse grips.

I managed to get some snapshots yesterday evening:

http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/photos/trailside-6-left-full.jpg

http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/photos/trailside-6-right-full.jpg

http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/photos/trailside-6-left.jpg

http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/photos/trailside-6-right.jpg

http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/photos/trailside-6-right-flat.jpg

I also own a Buck Mark Camper, and agree with the comments that it is almost as good as a Trailside, in terms of its feel/balance and how it shoots.

[Sactown]

Are those the "Sport Grips" on Larry's website that he's selling for $72? Awesome grips.

[New_geezer]

I own a 4" Trailside Standard, and a BuckMark Camper. The Trailside was my wife's choice, it feels very good in the hand but the plastic handles feel cheap after a while. I haven't had a problem yet with the plastic mags but I don't like them. And for the price paid I really dislike that cheap plastic front piece under the barrel. They are easy to clean. A ccuracy is good but nothing special. My trigger periodically gets an odd delay in returning to ready, as in rapid fire.

The Camper has a cheap plastic sight base which had I known about when I bought it, I would have gotten a different model. That aside, I prefer shooting my BM to the Trailside.

At the time purchased, I think the Trailside was very overpriced @ $425 (The boonies of California). But it was my wife's choice so OK. Those grips in the picture look very nice. If you're going to spend the money, get the gun with the features you want and try to get a pkg price if you go for options.

[usp_fan]

You can search by my user name and trailside to get the whole story, but overall, after 2 trips to sig, resulting in a new pistol being sent to me, I am more than satisfied.

My original 4" basic trailside would fail to lock open on the last round. Sig replaced the slide, then it hit to a totally different poi. and failed to extract did rounds. Sig replaced the pistol and upgraded me to the adjustable sighted model.

At no point was I soured on the platform. It is perfect for plinking and bowling pins. It is incredibly accurate. With an Ultra-Dot on it, it is one of my most used pistols.

I'd buy it again,

--usp_fan

[Frandy]

...for those photos of the Trailside with X-esse grips. I didn't even know they existed! I just ordered them from Mary at Larry's Guns.

Again, thanks.

Oh, I think my Trailside is a really fine and fun .22. When I first got it a year ago, the slide wouldn't lock back after the last round. Determined it was the pitol and not the mags. It went back to Sig and they repaired it, got it back to me within a couple of weeks, and detailed on the invoice the parts they changed and what they did to it. Perfect since.

I much prefer the ergonomics and trigger to the Ruger autos I've owned. An easier clean also. Pricier but worth it in my opinion.

No experience with a Browning. Shot and dislike both the Walther and Mosquito. Different animals.

Frandy

[atblis]

Accurate
Decent Trigger
Reasonably Reliable
Price isn't too horrible

All in all a very fun little pistol.

[Onmilo]

It's a far better small caliber pistol than the Walther P22 and doesn't cost all that much more money.

[f4t9r]

have one and love it
How is their reliability? never had a prob. ease of maintenance? very easy
hard to find a 22 that fits my hand any better

[ravencon]

Accurate. Fairly good trigger. Field stripping is quick and easy. Great ergonomics. A bit ammunition sensitive but not a major issue.

I'm glad I bought one and I doubt if I would ever sell it.

[BamBam-31]

I've got the competition model, and it's the most accurate .22 I own. It just beats out my Ruger 22/45, and that's saying a lot. The Trailside I got had a tight test target, so I don't know if I just got a good one or what. It's a breeze to takedown and clean (not that you have to clean it that often), and mine functions like a champ.

One thing, though: Whenever I fire my T-side, the slide does not go fully into battery for the next shot until I put pressure on the trigger for the next shot. Then it seats fully before the next shot goes off. I did a search on www.sigforum.com to see if this was common, and it seems that some T-sides are just that way. Sig's aware of the slight hitch, but it seems that it's not really a problem. Hmm.

Oh, does this raise any eyebrows? :

never more than 2" on my worst days even at 50 yds. offhand.

Wow, I doubt my T-side could group like that from a Ransom rest, let alone offhand.

Hey, Ken-- Are those the sport grips, like Sactown asked? $72 is kinda steep, but I'd prefer those grips over the competition grips for a two hand hold.

[Sam]

6 of the 8 I have sold were very well liked.
2 came back and went to the factory right hasty.
They did not come back fixed and were sold at heavy discount and replaced with Rugers.

Sam