Sig P320 "failed FBI test miserably"

[peterthefish]

Let’s please let the guy who owns the gun answer the question. There no need to make sarcastic speculative comments. Whether your supposition proves to be true or not, those sorts of comments aren’t particularly useful.

There’s nothing speculative about it. Starline doesn’t make factory ammo, and it’s a Starline case.

[HopetonBrown]

Wasn't there an out of battery discharge last week in a Stoeger class too?

[Hemiram]

I used to shoot reloads a lot, but recently, after seeing a lot of blown cases on web sites, forums, and recently in person (S&W M&P 9mm fullsized, LEO Trade in kaboomed and was trashed), I pretty much don't anymore. I have a box of pretty hot .357 ammo that I've been sitting on for a long time. Every time I take it out of the ammo box it's in, I think, "Which one of my guns will I put this through?", and I put it back. The guy who reloaded it has had some brain fogups lately and I don't have a lot of faith it is any good.

[Tokarev]

I was dinking around with some Buffalo Bore +P+ 9mm in my 320. I only fired a couple rounds. Cases came out looking like some kind of crazy short belted magnum. It was enough to convince me the Buffalo Bore stuff isn't safe in the SIG.

No such signs of crazy pressure with Speer factory +P Gold Dot nor with handloads using published +P data.

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[leebotx]

Looks like an out of battery ignition rather than an over pressure failure. The slide was unlocked and moving rearward effectively making the chamber longer and eliminating the case shoulder.

[Tokarev]

Looks like an out of battery ignition rather than an over pressure failure. The slide was unlocked and moving rearward effectively making the chamber longer and eliminating the case shoulder.

Quite possibly.



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[LOKNLOD]

@chiguy31 said it was an OOB, maybe he’ll come back and share some more info. Everything else here is 2nd hand guessing (educated guessing, perhaps).

[chiguy31]

Owe you folks a little more info. Bear with me as I try to tell you as much as I know; still several gaps in my knowledge.

I was doing some night shooting with a friend; this was slow deliberate fire as we were focused on seeing the target and acquiring whatever sight picture that we could.

As you can imagine with a 357 SIG, there was a significant muzzle flash (as an aside, with the 9mm CZ that we were also shooting, the flash started right at the nuzzle and was about the size of a softball); a little larger than a softball but starting about 6 inches from the muzzle.

Ammunition was factory (Speer 124 grain Gold Dot) and custom (Buffalo Bore 124 grain FMJ-FP). No hand loads.

The out of battery shot occurred in the middle of a 10 round string (3 shots remaining in the magazine). As I said, slow deliberate fire with no changes between rounds - no change in grip, no obstructions in the barrel, no change in angle of the gun.

The difference in muzzle flash was enormous - a large (I cannot reconstruct the size of the fireball) flash at the top of the gun signaled a problem (you think?) with a very different sound. There was also a blast in my face (no particles, but a very strong reminder that we should always wear safety glasses when shooting). The real effects of the blast were felt by my hands which tingled for quite a while after (into the next day). A reminder that the 357 SIG is a high intensity cartridge.

Immediately turned on the lights and examined the gun. The bullet had exited the barrel, but the cartridge was stuck in the chamber and took a fair bit of effort to rack the slide and lock it back. Needed a rod to push the cartridge out of the chamber.

That sums up the shooting experience; if you have more questions, I will monitor the thread more closely.

Need to talk about the SIG part of the experience.

The customer service rep at SIG adamantly denied that the case came from an OOB detonation - said that it was a physical impossibility that the 320 could ever fire OOB. He did send me a UPS return label and promised to repair the gun and install a modification that would ensure that it never happened again. I got in touch with one of the SIG armorers who stated that the repair will ensure that there would be no more OOB detonations. He confirmed that the 320 early models had this problem and that the new modification addressed that particular problem. (Wonder what that will do to trigger pull?)

That raises the question as to SIG's business practices. It appears that SIG knew that the 320 had the potential to fire OOB and made a business decision to fix the guns as complaints were made. Apparently they did not want the negative publicity (and the significant costs) of a recall, when the gun was in the running for a lucrative and prestigious military contract. New guns are reputed to have the new safety modifications. Question is, how many defective 320's are out there?

Interesting that SIG claimed both that the OOB detonation was impossible and that the new modification that they would install would ensure that there would be no more OOB's.

From my perspective, I have lost confidence in the 320 (I have the 357 for carry and a 9mm version for cheaper practice). Talk about developing a flinch in anticipation of the next OOB detonation! More importantly, the gun was dead after the OOB; imagine if I had been using the gun in an emergency.

[Totem Polar]

Interesting that SIG claimed both that the OOB detonation was impossible and that the new modification that they would install would ensure that there would be no more OOB's...

Judas H Priest. That really is too much.

Thanks for the detailed update.

Tangentially, I can verify that BB has used starline, based on my experience with various .38 loadings.

[LOKNLOD]

Thanks for the extra info! Glad you are alright and didn't sustain any worse injuries.

If nothing else I think this adds to the "get your Sig 'voluntary upgraded' " file. I think these are much better guns with the upgrade, shame it's taken bad stuff to get Sig there.