Running the Sig 226

[TheNewbie]

I forgot about the legacy models you can still buy. That is tempting sense it has the short extractor.

[txdpd]

The hell they will. Agencies typically don't care as to the overall condition of any of their sidearms. When they go to change sidearms, they'll accept $380 for a beater just the same as they will accept $380 for an un-issued pistol. Ask me how I know.

I get that and since they don't care about the overall condition of their sidearms, how do you think they got to the point of deciding to trade them in? There are places that will trade in pistols because they hit an imaginary shelf life, but most places have problems few pistols, usually from the officers that bother to go to the range, and replace the entire lot. If a lot of relatively new, good condition .40 caliber LE trade in Sigs are flooding the market, it's probably not because they were reliable and lasted a long time.

The price paid per unit is just an average of the wholesale value of the lot divided by the number of units, that's how that works. A $200 beater and $560 un-issued pistol has the same average value as a $380 beater and $380 un-issued pistol.

txdpd, I'd be interested in hearing the details of your experiment. Specifically, was it a conversion barrel or a stock caliber one? I've had to hand fit a couple Barsto conversion barrels (.40 to 9) that were sold as "drop in" versions. With a little TLC, however, they've both turned into uber reliable pistols. Tack drivers too.

German made, stainless slide, short external extractor, .357 P226, probably made around 2002. First I tried a factory 9mm barrel and had failures to extract. I don't know what caused the extraction issues. Tried a drop-in Barsto barrel (at least it didn't require any fitting) and started having failure to eject issues. I never could get those issues resolved, I think there was just too much wiggle room between the extractor and case mouth. I eventually sold it and bought another 9mm, I broke even on that but was still in the hole $200 on the barrel.

On a side note I tried swapping out top ends with another pistol a 2012ish 9mm. The 357 had a no dot locking block and the pistol that donated the top end had a multi-dot locking block. With the no dot locking block, the slide from the 9mm would hang up about an 1/8" out of battery. When I swapped out the locking block it worked fine.

[taadski]

Thanks for the details. I appreciate it.

Re the trade-ins, I've seen a whole variety of "reasons" for an agency sidearm change; everything from a new chief or division head coming on board and wanting to see something different in the holsters, to caliber preference changes and everything in between. Not necessarily anything to do with the functioning of the pistols in question in A LOT of cases anyway. Of course, YMMV.

[HCM]

While a 9mm barrel may work for some .40 slides in the P226, my understanding is the "right" way to go is a 40-9 conversion barrel as the outside dimensions of the "hood / chamber" portion of the .40/357 barrel is slightly larger than the stock 9mm.

I have a bar-sto 40-9 conversion barrel for the P-229. I've run it in two older (pre 2010) P229's with out issue. It has run with both the 40 recoil spring and the 9mm recoil spring as well as 228, 229-1 and 40/357 229 mags.

I already had the guns as my agency has issued .40 caliber guns (Beretta, HK and most recently SIG) since 1996 so the ability to run 9mm for < $300 was a simply a bonus.

If I wanted a dedicated carry gun I would spring for a SIG caliber conversion kit with an entire slide.

[NEPAKevin]

Not necessarily the cheapest, but the easiest way to switch between 9mm and either 40 or 357 SIG, or to convert to 22LR on the P-series SIGs is to pick up the appropriate Calliber X-change kit, which consists of a complete slide assembly, and usually a ten round magazine (8 45acp) so you wind up with a factory configuration. From time to time, SIG puts them on sale and you can sometimes find them cheaper at Top Gun Supply or on Gunbroker, etc.

ETA: You do have to be careful to identify which exact series of frame you have to get the correct slide assembly as there are differences in fit between the older stamped slide frames, the non-railed forged slide (Legacy IIRC) frame, railed frames, etc.

[Greg]

I agree with a wise previous poster to dump the mini 224 controls off of the Legion.

It's a big 9mm, dinky controls don't make it any smaller.