chaim
Member
OK, on Wen. evening I finally took my new (to me) CPO SIG 226 to the range. I was very disappointed.
First the good news:
It was accurate, very accurate. I first shot 30 rounds out of my CZ 75B. My CZ is one of my top 2 or 3 handguns for accuracy in my hands (the only gun I consistently shoot better is my 1911, sometimes I shoot my 6" S&W 586 better). After those 30 rounds from the CZ I kept the target to compare, then I shot about 50 rounds out of the SIG and I shot them into a smaller sized group. I am looking forward to checking its accuracy against my 1911- I may have a new most accurate pistol.
It also was very comfortable to shoot. It is relatively lightweight and large but the recoil was still virtually unnoticable (weight wasn't a problem) and in my beefy hands the grip was extremely comfortable (size wasn't a problem).
Just as in dry fire (so no surprise) the trigger, both SA and DA, was near perfect. Light, short pull, short reach, short reset, no noticable takeup or overtravel, and SMOOTH.
The bad news:
It is currently the least reliable pistol I've ever owned! My first 6 shots (UMC ammo)- the first shot failed to eject, the rest failed to feed, it was quite an expensive single shot pistol. I then switched to the S&B JHPs I brought and they were only slightly better. I then sprayed some Remington Dry Lube into the gun and only had slightly better results but I had a FTF (feed) or FTE on every mag, and often more than one.
I remembered reading online that SIGs like to run wet so I took it partially apart (I took the slide off the frame) and lubed the rails with Breakfree CLP. For the next 50 rounds or so I had virtually no problems but as soon as the Breakfree started to dry just a little I started having FTF and FTE problems again (sometimes every mag, sometimes every couple mags). For the rest of the 120 rounds total I fired it remained the same.
I also had problems with the gun not locking back on the last round. Since I've heard of a lot of people with high grips having this problem with SIG due to the positioning of the slide stop lever I intentionally put my hand as low as I could (about an inch below the lever) and actually watched my hand (not the target) to be sure I didn't creep up when I fired and it still didn't lock back. It also did it left handed. However, when the CLP seemed to help the other reliability issues it did seem to lock back a little more consistently.
In comparison, while my CZ is not 100% reliable (I've had a small handful of bobbles, maybe 5 or 6, in the going on 10K rounds I've shot through it), it has been very reliable. It has never had a bobble on S&B and on this trip the 30 rounds of UMC I fired through it were fine.
So right now I'm not too happy with this gun.
Still, I'm not ruling out that it will be a good gun yet as at this point there are a few possible extenuating circumstances:
It could be a bad mag. I only used one of the 10 round mags that came with the gun and none of the 15 rounders I have on order. The SIG case is rather large so I left it at home and only brought one mag. It is very possible that it was a bad mag (though that wouldn't explain the better performance for a short period after adding lube). The mag was near impossible to load all 10 rounds into and that can simply be a new spring, but it could also be some kind of burr or imperfection in the mag body that might have harmed reliability.
I didn't clean and lube the gun before going to the range. I picked it up Tues but didn't have time to clean it before going to the range Wen after work. It is possible the packing grease/oil was a problem. Also, since SIGs like to run wet the fact that I didn't fully lube it may have caused the problems (it did run better for a while after lubing the rails). Still, when I relubed the rails I only got about 50 rounds out of it without trouble- having to relube every 50 rounds at the range is not acceptable. I may go to grease to see if this is the problem- my Ruger KP345 also likes to run wet and grease has solved all its problems, this can be the cause of all the SIG problems (too slow a slide due to too much resistance could cause the lockback problems) and the grease won't run off or dry as fast as oil.
I was using cheap ammo that not all guns like (S&B and UMC). S&B can be great ammo, but online you see quite a few people whose guns don't like it. UMC is just cheap stuff and not all guns like it. I may do better with no changes other than using WWB or Speer Lawman or some other practice ammo instead of these brands.
So, there are several possible explainations other than gun trouble so the jury is still out. Also, at worst, it was a used gun so I blame that and not SIG, but I may get to see how good their warranty is.
First the good news:
It was accurate, very accurate. I first shot 30 rounds out of my CZ 75B. My CZ is one of my top 2 or 3 handguns for accuracy in my hands (the only gun I consistently shoot better is my 1911, sometimes I shoot my 6" S&W 586 better). After those 30 rounds from the CZ I kept the target to compare, then I shot about 50 rounds out of the SIG and I shot them into a smaller sized group. I am looking forward to checking its accuracy against my 1911- I may have a new most accurate pistol.
It also was very comfortable to shoot. It is relatively lightweight and large but the recoil was still virtually unnoticable (weight wasn't a problem) and in my beefy hands the grip was extremely comfortable (size wasn't a problem).
Just as in dry fire (so no surprise) the trigger, both SA and DA, was near perfect. Light, short pull, short reach, short reset, no noticable takeup or overtravel, and SMOOTH.
The bad news:
It is currently the least reliable pistol I've ever owned! My first 6 shots (UMC ammo)- the first shot failed to eject, the rest failed to feed, it was quite an expensive single shot pistol. I then switched to the S&B JHPs I brought and they were only slightly better. I then sprayed some Remington Dry Lube into the gun and only had slightly better results but I had a FTF (feed) or FTE on every mag, and often more than one.
I remembered reading online that SIGs like to run wet so I took it partially apart (I took the slide off the frame) and lubed the rails with Breakfree CLP. For the next 50 rounds or so I had virtually no problems but as soon as the Breakfree started to dry just a little I started having FTF and FTE problems again (sometimes every mag, sometimes every couple mags). For the rest of the 120 rounds total I fired it remained the same.
I also had problems with the gun not locking back on the last round. Since I've heard of a lot of people with high grips having this problem with SIG due to the positioning of the slide stop lever I intentionally put my hand as low as I could (about an inch below the lever) and actually watched my hand (not the target) to be sure I didn't creep up when I fired and it still didn't lock back. It also did it left handed. However, when the CLP seemed to help the other reliability issues it did seem to lock back a little more consistently.
In comparison, while my CZ is not 100% reliable (I've had a small handful of bobbles, maybe 5 or 6, in the going on 10K rounds I've shot through it), it has been very reliable. It has never had a bobble on S&B and on this trip the 30 rounds of UMC I fired through it were fine.
So right now I'm not too happy with this gun.
Still, I'm not ruling out that it will be a good gun yet as at this point there are a few possible extenuating circumstances:
It could be a bad mag. I only used one of the 10 round mags that came with the gun and none of the 15 rounders I have on order. The SIG case is rather large so I left it at home and only brought one mag. It is very possible that it was a bad mag (though that wouldn't explain the better performance for a short period after adding lube). The mag was near impossible to load all 10 rounds into and that can simply be a new spring, but it could also be some kind of burr or imperfection in the mag body that might have harmed reliability.
I didn't clean and lube the gun before going to the range. I picked it up Tues but didn't have time to clean it before going to the range Wen after work. It is possible the packing grease/oil was a problem. Also, since SIGs like to run wet the fact that I didn't fully lube it may have caused the problems (it did run better for a while after lubing the rails). Still, when I relubed the rails I only got about 50 rounds out of it without trouble- having to relube every 50 rounds at the range is not acceptable. I may go to grease to see if this is the problem- my Ruger KP345 also likes to run wet and grease has solved all its problems, this can be the cause of all the SIG problems (too slow a slide due to too much resistance could cause the lockback problems) and the grease won't run off or dry as fast as oil.
I was using cheap ammo that not all guns like (S&B and UMC). S&B can be great ammo, but online you see quite a few people whose guns don't like it. UMC is just cheap stuff and not all guns like it. I may do better with no changes other than using WWB or Speer Lawman or some other practice ammo instead of these brands.
So, there are several possible explainations other than gun trouble so the jury is still out. Also, at worst, it was a used gun so I blame that and not SIG, but I may get to see how good their warranty is.
. Man this gun was accurate. First time out with this gun, and basically inexperienced with SIG (I shot a 239 some time ago which I was also very accurate with) and I outshot my second most accurate pistol with it. I outshot a pistol that fits my hand extremely well. And shooting this gun felt better than shooting the CZ (as great as the CZ feels). So the news isn't all bad.
