The P229 is the upgrade. Prior to that the USSS used the P228. A pre-Cohen gun would be manufactured prior to about 2006. I have a P229 in .40 S&W that was made in 2002. If you are willing to buy one in .40 you can find practically NIB guns for ridiculously low money.Originally Posted by JRB
It still has the Sig's terrible (for me) ergonomics, but they're good quality guns.
3/15/2016
A pistol caliber rattler would be an MPX, with all the baggage that includes.
It wasn’t.
The 229 was introduced in 1992 as SIG’s first 40 S&W. There was also a 9mm version with the one piece stainless slide but with a different frame which used 13 round P228 magazines.
The .357 sig round was introduced in 1994.
The USSS did not adopt the P229 in .357 sig until 1998.
In 2009, SIG stopped making the 9mm specific frame that used the P228 mags, replacing it with the P229-1 which was a 9mm 229 built on the .40 cal frame. The .40 cal frame has slightly larger mag well dimensions and SIG designed a new, 15 round 9mm for the 229-1.
USSS carried .357 magnum revolvers for decades before adopting the P228. The folded slide P228s had durability issues at high round counts aggravated by USSS using+P+ 9mm to try and “capture the magic” of their old .357 round.
In the 80s and early 1990s when 6 shot revolvers were standard, “one shot stops” were very much what cops looked for in service handguns. The .357 magnum, especially the 125 grain JHP was seen as THE manstopper in those days, helped by the now somewhat discredited Marshall-Sanow autopsy studies.
SIG developed the .357 sig round in conjunction with federal based on the .40 S&W case. The name was marketing genius as it was marketed to LE managers of the mid to late 90s who came up during the 70s and 80s during the cult of the .357 by God magnum.
The decocker hump on the grip of the DA/SA 229 can be an issue. The G10 and aluminum grips actually mitigate this a bit. As do the somewhat rare factory “slim fit” grips with the straight backstrap.
I watched all of my med school lectures on 1.5x-2x speed. Way faster than watching them in person
With Hogue G10 grips, that's one of the things I like about them. But then, my last 1911 is waiting for the buyer's check to arrive...
Yeah. It's kinda annoying. At least with Hogue G10 grips, the P229 setup is ~0.1 inch wider (if I remember correctly) on the decocker hump than the P226. So the smaller gun is a thicker lump if you're chasing differences there to avoid printing. It's not obvious to me that it had to be that way.
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Not another dime.
That’s is true, but I kind of want an MPX, for the hell of it. A 5.56 conversion is already available for the rattler.
Jason.
Reading this thread made me miss my E2 P220R and want a P229...but I can't see doing it at this point. My M&P 2.0 .45 is just as comfortable, nearly as accurate, and holds 2 more rounds, and I've got a bunch of pistols that do the 15+1 9mm thing lighter and more ergonomically.
It's a fun era to talk about, and they're gorgeous, I just can't see spending the money anymore. Kinda sad.
State Government Attorney | Beretta, Glock, CZ & S&W Fan
I have one and unfortunately my agency adopted them. It is literally a shrunken pistol caliber MCX. The problem is the MCX was designed for rifle rounds. Rifle powders burn cleaner than pistol powders and rifle rounds have enough gas pressure for the gas system to be self cleaning. With pistol rounds the gas system gums up anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 rounds depending on how dirty the ammo is. You have to detail strip the upper receiver to get it going again.
There are also issues feeding certain bullet shapes and parts breakage issues.
A 5” 5.56 makes no sense other than as a training tool due to 300 black ammo supply issues. 5.56 depends on velocity and a 5” barrel gives up too much velocity to be useful.
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