Happy 229 Day

In Honor of 2/29, here's my 229:

It is a used police trade-in SIG P229 in .40 S&W.

It came with some Hogue rubber grips that fill the hands rather completely, as well as three magazines. Sadly, one of the magazines has a body that is so dented that it won't feed in the pistol and will barely fit in the mag well, and thus is scrapped.

The SIG P229 is the successor to the P228, itself a more compact version of the full size Sig P226 series.

A pleasant feature of this particular gun is the Alphabetic prefix of the serial number is my initials, so its a keeper for that alone.

The gun has some wear at the grip front on the frame and wear inside the magwell, but is otherwise in very nice shape indeed.

Pros: With an all-metal frame and slide, shooting .40 is an absolute breeze in this pistol and there is negligible recoil. The trigger is decent and sights are great, even as the night sites are going quite dim. I can convert the pistol to 357 Sig by replacing the barrel so it has some nice flexibility in that regard if I get the desire to start stocking yet another cartridge.

The trigger is quite smooth in both double and single action. It shoots really, really nicely.

Cons: The magazine holds 12 rounds and it is a fight to get a full magazine to seat with a round in the chamber for a full 13 round capacity. It is rather thick and heavy so its not as easy to conceal nor hold as the thinner and lighter comparable Glock 23. Replacement and additional magazines are not exactly cheap.

I'm considering sending it in to SIG for the E2 grip upgrade and for some new fresh night sights. Trying a friend's E2 grip I was impressed with how much thinner it makes the gun feel, and the texture assures a solid hold and makes it feel like a completely different pistol.

A very nice pistol that I managed to pickup for a very nice price.

So, have a happy 229 day.