My P320 experience so far (long, rant-ish)

[ArgentFix]

TL;DR - Venting frustration after 1300 rounds. The actual gun hasn't malfunctioned, but everything attached has failed. Awaiting service.

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I bought a new upgraded P320 RX full-size 9mm in January 2018. I liked the idea of a modern, factory-produced RDS gun and I shot it well (for me) out of the box on the first range trip. However,

Problem #1: Second trip I noticed the two 17rd magazines it shipped with were extremely tight when fully loaded. It took an unreasonable amount of force to rack the slide over a full magazine, and it didn't feel right. When "topping off" (loading 17+1) and firing Lawman 124gr, the gun did not cycle and the fired casing stuck in the chamber. This was reproducible. Some research revealed SIG branded P320 magazines are manufactured by Checkmate and Mec-Gar, differentiated by the "Made in USA" and "Made in Italy" stamps, respectively. Mine were Checkmate. I bought 4 SIG branded Italy/Mec-Gar magazines locally and this issue disappeared.

Problem #2: The Romeo1 sight was eating CR1632 batteries. Even when completely turned off and with motion activation ("Motac") disabled, the battery drained after 4-5 weeks. This took me a few months to isolate and the Romeo1 is currently with SIG for repair or replacement. It has been 5 weeks as of 2/Aug/2018.

Problem #3: The rear sight falls out. This model shipped with suppressor height tritium sights that co-witness nicely through the Romeo1. I had previously noticed these irons seemed slightly off and now with the Romeo1 in for repairs I decided to zero them. POI crept progressively left until I realized the rear sight was moving and I could pull it out with my fingers. My range's smith reinstalled it but 30 rounds later, the sight was again removable by hand. The slide will ship to SIG tomorrow.

In summary, I am frustrated. I've experienced zero malfunctions with the actual gun itself, but everything attached to it seems to fall apart and/or suffer from serious quality control issues.

[GJM]

It is a modern Sig, what would you expect. The only people to get the exact quality they think they paid for from Sig are the military.

[Trukinjp13]

I will not be giving Sig a dime until they get their shit straight. Too many people I know religiously still buy Sig products. And continue to deal with QC issues. No thank you.

Sad, because I loved my mk25. But it was plagued with QC crap as well. Thankfully I got out of the Sig game before the p320 debacle. Well I owned a p320. Sold it before all the drop safe shit came out is what I mean.

[MSparks909]

It is a modern Sig, what would you expect. The only people to get the exact quality they think they paid for from Sig are the military.

And I think even that is a stretch. Sig’s QC is an absolute joke.

[leathermaneod]

It kills me to think that now our military has these things. They were so close to a truly fine combat pistol.


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[JHC]

It is a modern Sig, what would you expect. The only people to get the exact quality they think they paid for from Sig are the military.

We'll see long term. Hope so.

[KhanRad]

Unfortunately this reminds me of the Remington business model of putting higher quality into LE/MIL contract guns and lesser quality into commercial/civilian guns. The 870 and 11-87 series have gone to crap, and every time I work on one it seems that the quality gets worse and worse as evidence of how many are experiencing problems. The police models seem to be "okay", but I still think that they aren't what they were pre 2000.

As for Sig Sauer, it has been a roller coaster ride for us in federal LE. The old W. German guns were of good quality, however I do remember that we did have some "issues" with them on occasion right out of the box. Occasionally I would encounter finish issues, inconsistent trigger pulls, and sight heights that were so far out of spec that you needed to get a new slide just to use regular factory night sights. The W. German guns were good, but they had issues too. The guns really reached their peak quality wise in the late 1900s and into the early 2000s for us. When we started buying more contract guns in the mid 2000s, the honeymoon was over. Ron Cohen brought in a new business model which has admittedly made Sig Sauer a LOT of money, but it came with a price. Every LE contract gun order that we made from the mid 2000s to around 2013 had a wide range of quality, reliability, and durability issues with many of the pistols to the point that we were pushing to piggy back onto a sister agency contract for a different manufacturer. The officers that carried their own commercially bought guns had even more issues. The LE contract guns from around 2013 onward have been pretty good. The P320s that we have been getting off the LE contract(only include MecGar mags) have generally been pretty much good to go as well. Honestly, so far I would say that the LE contract P320s are on par with the old W. German Sigs in terms of quality..........both still have some issues here and there, but overall pretty good. Like the W. German Sigs, the LE contract P320 issues are usually resolved through a little field armorer work at minimal time and expense.

Hopefully you can get your P320 issues resolved. I really wish Sig would follow the old business model of contract quality guns for all, but it seems that for almost all manufacturers those days are probably over. Fortunately, you have the option to take your business elsewhere. I often wish I wasn't in LE and could carry what ever I want.

[GJM]

OK, you guys missed my joke about the military. Didn’t they pay $79 or something like that for each pistol, and my point is they are getting precisely $79 worth of pistol.

[EVP]

It is a modern Sig, what would you expect. The only people to get the exact quality they think they paid for from Sig are the military.

OK, you guys missed my joke about the military. Didn’t they pay $79 or something like that for each pistol, and my point is they are getting precisely $79 worth of pistol.

I thought it was gold when you first posted it. It brought a chuckle.

[jetfire]

OK, you guys missed my joke about the military. Didn’t they pay $79 or something like that for each pistol, and my point is they are getting precisely $79 worth of pistol.

$207