Or two, really, thinking of the 2004 DHS HK contract. Anything come to mind?
Not debating the merits...just idle curiosity, sparked in part by the demise of Gaston.
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Or two, really, thinking of the 2004 DHS HK contract. Anything come to mind?
Not debating the merits...just idle curiosity, sparked in part by the demise of Gaston.
https://www.thetacticalwire.com/story/302150
Indiana State Police adopted the P227 in 2013.
Lots of other departments were issuing hammer fired guns in the 2010s, like the 92Ds in St. Louis.
What about the recent Staccato craze?
Within the last two decades? Too many to count. The nails in the coffin for DA/SA by US law enforcement were only set in the teens through a double whammy of, 1) near total abandonment of the 40S&W and 357 SIG, and 2) SIG shitting the bed on the legacy metal P-series, causing most of their institutional users to drop them like a box of rocks
I heard that Staccatos were for bike patrol only. You know, legacy of the U.S. cavalry that wanted them manual safeties when mounted on their ponies. I swear I saw a matching patrol bike recently
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The .40 Sig P229 DAKs that ICE and the US Coast Guard carried are the biggest ones I can think of other than the P2000s for CBP that were already mentioned.
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In 2018, Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Ohio (over 600 sworn) transitioned from an S&W .45 to 9mm SIG 226's and 239's (which I believe had been discontinued). I believe I first read this in a SigSauer-sponsored fluff piece and even that article that transition to a hammer-fired system was unusual.
That was us. We tried them with SWAT for about 6 months. Numerous issues of failure to fire on occasion due to springs not being correct.
Pennsylvania State Police issued the Sig P227 from 2014 to 2024.
Darien, CT issued P226 DAKs in .357 Sig until late 20-teens. They are now carrying M&P 2.0 9mms. Not a major contract at all but I included it anyways.
Bridgeport, CT went from Sig P229s in .40 S&W to S&W M&P 45s in 2012. They are slowly introducing 9mm Glocks from what I understand.
CT State Police switched from .40 S&W Sig P229s to P220s in 2012. They experienced a lot of issues with qualifications during that timeframe. They are now carrying Glock 45s with TLR7-As. Their SWAT guys went from custom Cerberus Tactical 1911s to striker fired 9mms. I saw their guys using built out Performance Center M&Ps at one point.
In the last 5 years has any medium to large agency adopted hammer fired guns besides what has been mentioned?
I believe I remember reading guys talking about an Ohio agency still issuing revolvers into the mid 2000s, but I am not sure about that. It's been since the mid 2000s that I read it, and I can't be for certain my memory is correct.
If I had to arm an agency with current hammer fired options, it would be Beretta, HK or a P-07.
Covington KY (my hood) currently issues Legion Sig P226s. Every Covington officer I’ve seen carrying a gun in the past few years has one. They made the switch from .40 P226s in the last 4 or 5 years. I don’t know how many sworn, but it’s not… tiny. Covington runs from the Ohio river down into some quasi rural areas.
I still see M&Ps in Cincinnati PD holsters.
The 229 really wouldn't have helped. The 229 is a big, chunky gun. When we had the 9mm 226's, we purchased 228's for a couple of officers with small hands. When the cool kids of that era decided we needed .40 and told me to write the proposal, I considered the 229 both department -wide and for the small-handed officers. Staying with the 226 for general issue allowed us to keep the same holsters and the bulk of the 229 was a definite no-go for the small hands.
When I later ran firearms training, I got the 239 authorized for officers who found the 226 too large. It was a shame SigSauer discontinued the 225.
To be fair, OP did add “or two” in his first post.
NJSP started to replace their P228s with P229s in 2014… but ultimately canceled the contract due to issues with the guns and went with Glock 19s. Prior to the P228s, they attempted the SW99… but were issued P7M8s for YEARS before. I’d guess that would be an example of an agency going from striker fired to hammer fired.
I thought I remembered at least one dept/agency that dropped the 227 due to issues, but I can't think of which one or what the issues were. I always thought the 227 was a flop as an issue duty pistol, but I could be misremembering.
I am far from in the know about what dept/agency is issuing/switching to what outside of my local area, but if I were to pick a hammer fired pistol for institutional issue today, it would be an HK P30 (or HK45 for those institutions inclined to larger calibers), or a Beretta 92 series. Really I have a preference for the USP over the P30 or full size HK45, but it would probably make more sense for an institutional user to go for the P30/HK45 due to the accessory rail.
I don't know how current production metal frame P226/229 pistols are doing quality-wise and QC-wise, but my last update on them was that Sig has still been shitting the bed on those and they're not as duty-suitable as they were in decades past. I would love to be corrected on this as the MK25 has been a want of mine for a long time.
OP opened it up to the last two decades. Otherwise we’re just talking about the couple of P227 contracts already discussed, with PSP being the largest since they have over 4k sworn. There are some overseas contracts for Beretta PX4s but I have no idea if those were contracts awarded 20 years ago that have been renewed or if they are completely new contracts.
Interesting. Thanks for looking into that. Yeah, the Cov is bigger than it seems. And the police have a pretty consistent presence throughout--there are certainly a few "sketchy" areas. As well as bougie hipster enclaves. Looks like they made the switch to Legions in 2019 (I actually had an earlier thread on it).
Not sure about P229s--I don't think I've seen any in holsters? As far as the P239...
I bought a used one in my LGS back in 2016. I was told it had been an off-duty carry for local police officer. So, looks like there's kind of a "tradition" of P2XX Sigs. In neighboring Northern KY towns, I see officers mainly carrying Glocks.
Every major US LE tender I've seen in my time here have stipulated striker fired actions. Now, I'm not in the LE group, so I don't see all of them, but Federal, major city, and smaller city solicitations were all requiring striker fired actions. SLMPD got additional 92Ds as a continuation of their old guns and LASD has done some special edition 92s for different divisions, but I don't think that counts as major.
I believe some of that was due to the previously documented issues with Glock 22s and WML.
There was also a trend in that time. For state police agencies in places with cold weather to go from 9mm / 40 to .45 acp or .45 GAP. Likely justified by the purported effects of suspect’s winter clothing on bullets.
@BehindBlueI's might be able to confirm or expound on the Indiana State Police decision.
Ding ding ding. I actually did the laser programming and engraving for those; the special SN request meant they needed to be ran by someone who could program those on the fly. That said, the logo artwork for SEB was much easier to convert than the Homicide or Narcotics logos.
Nothing firm. Indiana conservation officers had carried Sig .45s for quite awhile with the idea heavier/slower .45 was less likely to deflect in heavy brush. Rumor at the time was that ISP's decision was as simple as the upper brass liked .45 because they liked .45. If they did any comparison testing or not, I either never knew or don't remember any more.