Have had a few offers lately to trade my 228 for a M11-A1. Would this be a mistake? I like the idea of a stronger slide and SRT and readily available parts for the newer 229 style but trying to get more opinions
Have had a few offers lately to trade my 228 for a M11-A1. Would this be a mistake? I like the idea of a stronger slide and SRT and readily available parts for the newer 229 style but trying to get more opinions
If it will be a shooter then yes, I'd trade. The all stainless slides are better able to take the abuse.
I traded my 228 for an M11-A1. I liked the heavier stainless slide, SRT, night sights, ability to accept the 229-1 15 round mags. For the first 500 rounds I felt I definitely made the right choice. After that the gun started having issues and is now back at the factory for a second time. I would not trade your 228 for an M11-A1 unless it's covered by their warranty (as in, buying it new).
"Customer is very particular" -- SIG Sauer
I guess it depends upon one's definition of abuse.
I have personal knowledge of dozens of P228s with well over 50K- some closer to 100K- rounds through them, all US commercial ball, that were still working fine and retained usable accuracy. IOW, very few of us will be able to shoot (abuse??) one enough to wear it out.
The P228 will carry a bit easier, because it is lighter. But here is the big deal… P228s , AFAIK, were all made in Germany and therefore are of a known quality. The M11 is just a P229 with US government marking; i.e., made here, and therefore immediately suspect… may be a "good one", may not be.
There has been a lot of digital words recently about how Sig/USA has turned their life around, putting out wonderful stuff these days, etc., etc. I bought a P229 Scorpion last year, and truth be told it was every bit as good as the pre-95 German guns I hold in such high regard.
But anyone who doesn't believe that Sig has turned out some real crap in the past 20 years, simply hasn't been paying attention.
What I'm telling you here, OP, is that you're rolling the dice with a US-made Sig pistol… especially a used one. Odds are, it will be fine. On the other hand, if its not…
.
And I rest my case.Originally Posted by ReverendMeat
RM, sorry to hear this. I put about 500 rounds through that Scorpion before trading it… I wonder if it was getting ready to start choking on me???
.
You never know, but I just feel particularly unlucky. The most annoying part is that I just can not figure out what's causing the issues--roughly equal numbers of failures to feed and failures to extract with multiple types of ammo and four separate magazines. Corrective action taken on the first trip back included polishing the feed ramp and replacing the magazine and extractor spring. Test fired 50 rounds with no issues and sent back but the same failures still occur, MRBS of ~106 since the problems first started.
I think I've got a few more gray hairs since buying the thing.
"Customer is very particular" -- SIG Sauer
If your P228 works well, I would not. I know a lot of people have had no issues with the long extractor, but I had nothing but issues with it on my P229 on different magazines and even a new slide. Sent it back to sig and they changed the extractor spring configuration. But by that I had given up on the platform - sold it, and went back to a Glock.
There have been several recent threads on the P228 vs M11A1. This one in particular comes to mind:
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....highlight=P228
I took from those discussions that the M11A1 was a more durable design in the eyes of some of the forum SME's. Having said that, I'm the happy owner of a few P228s that have served me well and I have a M11A1 that had passed muster. Thus, I see no reason to trade a performing pistol unless you have some other compelling reason.
Last edited by Sensei; 05-25-2015 at 06:46 PM.
I like my rifles like my women - short, light, fast, brown, and suppressed.
Where I live, new M11-A1's cost probably $250 more than 228's, which of course are all used. A lightly used M11-A1 would thus probably go for more than a 228.
However, I know at least one guy who bought an M11-A1 in the last year who has had trouble with it, and I've shot one that has a far-too-heavy double action trigger pull. They are nice guns in theory, but like LSP 972 I have some doubts about the consistency of their build quality.
I would not trade a P228 on anything made by Sig since 2005 or so, but that's just my opinion, based on a series of unfortunate experiences with Sig over the last decade.
My issued M11 (P228) had been in service for nearly 20 years, and I shot WELL over 40K rounds through mine in the last four years of its service life, and never had an issue with it. In fact, if my HQ would issue me one of the small number of M11s they have laying around, I would trade them my currently issued P229R DAK in .40 S&W in a NY minute...
Reply With Quote