SIG – The ExhaustNotes Blog

My Next 9mm?

By Joe Berk

I went to Turner’s (a local gun shop) today because I saw online that they have the Girsan 9mm Hi Power clone pistols in stock. I wanted to see them in person. I’ve been to three dealers looking for these and only my local dealer (2nd Amendment Zone) had one in stock.

When I last fired a Browning Hi Power (back in the 1970s) I did not care for the Browning Hi Power’s grip. It’s been described as grasping a brick, and that was my impression back then. Don’t get me wrong: Some folks love the feel of Browning’s Hi Power. I could get used to it, I think. Springfield Armory also makes a Hi Power clone, but it’s not on the California Department of Justice Roster of Approved Handguns. You know our politicians in California.

These Girsan cosmetiguns are made up kind of like what I imagine cartel or pimp guns look like. Years ago, Taurus had a polished aluminum and stainless version of their PT 92 (their copy of a Beretta 92), with gold accents and white pearl grips, and I’m sorry I didn’t buy one back then (you never know when a job opening for a pimp or a cartel kingpin might turn up). Anyway, when I saw advertisements for the Girsans, I thought I would take a look.

Black chrome and copper accents. I like the plain white plastic grips on this one better than the other Girsans. The trigger pull was atrocious.

2nd Amendment Zone had the black chrome Girsan with copper-colored accents in stock. It was pretty, but the trigger was atrocious (it was Letitia Jones heavy and it was gritty as hell). Nope. In person, I thought the black chrome version looked cheap, and the trigger was a deal killer. This Girsan is $899. It could have been $99 and I still would have taken a pass. It was that unappealing.

The silver Girsan was stunning, but alas, it wouldn’t rack. I think that is a Mexican eagle on the grips. If this gun had allowed me to pull the slide back, I would have bought it.

At Turners this morning I saw the polished and sand blasted stainless steel version. It is a beautiful pistol. It is also $899 and I was ready to give the guy my credit card until he took it out of the display case and tried to rack the side (to check it before handing it to me). The slide wouldn’t rack. He cocked the hammer and tried again. No dice. The sales guy could get the slide back about a third of the way (enough to see the chamber was empty). Then he let it go forward and handed it to me.

I tried to rack the slide with similar results. It wouldn’t budge beyond moving rearward about one third of its intended travel. I dropped the mag to see if that would help. No dice again. I tried the trigger and it was a bit better than the black chrome version at 2nd Amendment Zone, but with the slide not racking, it was a no go. It sure was a beautiful handgun, but it was a nonfunctional piece of junk.

For the well-dressed cartel gunsel. Nope, it wasn’t for me. The photo looks better than the gun does in person.

I next asked to see the gold Girsan. Even in the display case, I didn’t like the look of it. In pictures, it looks good. But seeing it in person was a nonstarter. The kid behind the counter took the gold Girsan out and couldn’t rack the slide, just like on the silver version. He offered to hand it to me and I declined. “Do you have any that work?” I asked, doing my best not to sound snarky. I was being polite. I’m trying to be a better person in my senior years.

“We’ve had some that do, but a lot of them have this problem,” the youngster behind the counter admitted. “I think they have a problem with the bluing,” he said, looking at the gold automatic in his hand. The gold version is $929.

I think the problem is the plating. Girsan may not have thought through how the increased thickness (due to the plating) would affect slide/barrel/bushing/frame relative movement. It’s amazing that such a thing could occur. Even as I type this, I can’t believe it. It’s also surprising Turner’s would keep these in their display case.

The no frills Girsan Hi Power clone. I don’t like the finish or the looks of the grips, but it racked and it felt comfortable in my hand.

I next looked at the black Girsan. It is not blued; I think the finish is some kind of flat black powder coating (the guy behind the counter didn’t know what the surface treatment was). This is the economy version. It racked okay and the trigger felt almost acceptable (but not great). I didn’t like the look of the grips, but they felt better to me than the other Girsans shown above. As the economy version, this Girsan Hi Power clone is $569, which is probably a bargain compared to the other three. But, with the racking problems described above, who knows that other issues these guns have?

I thanked the kid behind the counter and then told him I wouldn’t be buying a Girsan. If a gun gets out of the factory that won’t allow racking the slide, it doesn’t say very much about Girsan’s quality. Nope, not for me.

I looked for Girsan reviews online. There are a few Bubba YouTube videos out there, but I wasn’t going to rely on them. Any mental defective can publish a YouTube video (not that there’s anything wrong with being a mental defective; the California legislature is full of them). Most of the time when I see these online Bubba reviews, I’m amazed these guys can operate a camera or figure out how to post a video. Maybe they have other people helping them. It’s the price of living in a free society, I guess.

The SIG P320. I like this handgun a lot. Keep an eye on the ExNotes blog; I might pull the trigger on this one.

Before leaving Turner’s, I spotted a SIG P320 in the display case. I like SIG (I have a SIG P226 and it is a marvelous handgun). I shot a P320 last year at my indoor range. Even though it is a striker-fired pistol (with all that entails with regard to trigger pull), I was impressed with it. I shot several tight groups with the P320 and doing so was easy. The gun fit me. I’m not surprised the US Army selected the P320 to replace the Beretta. The SIG P320 is a great gun.

The P320 has had some bad press for inadvertent discharge(s), but SIG recently prevailed in a lawsuit (with a unanimous jury verdict) that negated that story. I think anti-gunners jump on such things whenever somebody screws up and lets a round go unintentionally, as occurred with the Remington 700 and a few other firearms. The P320 is a nice handgun. It looks great, I like the short barrel, and I like the desert tan colors. I think the P320 would make a good concealed carry gun. This may be the next 9mm pistol I buy. It is $669, which is reasonable given the price of everything else today.

More 9mm Follies

By Joe Berk

I reloaded one box of 9mm ammo yesterday in the garage and it was HOT. I had to stop because I was soaked and I was getting a little woozy out there. The heat this summer has been worse than usual, I think.

Bullets, powder, an ammo container, and reloaded ammo. It was hot out there, but I love reloading.

The load was 4.2 grains of Bullseye from an old bottle I got from a friend, the 125- grain Raven Rocks full metal jacket truncated roundnose bullet (seated to an overall length of 1.080 inches), and no-name factory second primers. I never used factory second primers before, but they were cheap and I can’t pass up a deal. The Raven Rocks bullets were cheap, too, but in measuring a few, the diameters varied from 3.54 inches to 3.55 inches (which is not very good). File that under “you get what you pay for.” Sometimes. I loaded with mixed brass, mostly because I had some readily available and I didn’t want to go to the bother of sorting headstamps. I didn’t load this ammo to nail a woodchuck at 500 yards or make “major” in the action pistol world (running around with a loaded handgun and shooting it as fast as you can makes that game a nonstarter for me). It’s 9mm ammo and I’m a guy who likes to go the range. If it feeds, chambers, and goes bang, I’m a happy camper.

This morning, I took the box of 9mm ammo and two 9mm pistols to my indoor range. The handguns were the S&W Shield and the SIG P226 (they are two pistols I shoot a lot). They are the two you see in the photo at the top of this blog. I’ve written about them before. They are both great guns.

At the range, I ran the targets out to 10 yards. I wasn’t really going for accuracy; I mostly wanted to get the chrono data for this load.

Smith and Wesson Shield, reloaded ammo, and the Garmin chronograph.

The Shield target, fired at 30 feet. I’ve done better. I’ve done worse. Your mileage may vary.

The SIG P226 with the Scorpion treatment. It’s a nice look. I think this is one of the finest handguns I’ve ever owned.

I shot 25 rounds in each pistol, and here’s the chrono data.

Note the relatively low extreme spreads and the tight standard deviations. Bullseye showed me once again that it is a great handgun powder.

As you can see from the above targets, the SIG does a little better for both accuracy and velocity, mostly because of its longer barrel and longer sight radius.

I had one misfire in the SIG, but that was probably due to a primer that wasn’t fully seated. Was that a function of the primers being factory seconds, was it the result of my Lee Turret Press not fully seating the primer, or was it just me? Who knows. When I cocked the pistol and released the hammer a second time, it fired. That’s a classic symptom of a primer not being fully seated. The first firing pin strike seats the primer all the way into the case, and the second lights it.

The Bottom Line

I like this load a lot. I haven’t really done a lot of work with Bullseye in 9mm before (mostly it’s been Unique, Accurate Arms No. 5, and Red Dot in the past). 4.2 grains of Bullseye was a moderate recoil and velocity load and I think it is accurate enough. At around 1000 fps average velocity in both pistols, it’s good enough for me. Like I said, I wasn’t going for accuracy, but I think if I shot from a rest this load would do better in both pistols.

One final note: Bullseye propellant has been hard to get. My local reloading components store and most of the online outlets don’t show it in stock. Natchez does appear to have 8-lb bottles in stock, priced at about $355 (a sum that would have been unheard of in earlier days). What’s nice about Bullseye is most loads only need a little bit of the stuff. I have enough to last for a while.

SIG Alert

By Joe Berk

No, I’m not talking about the SIG Alerts we get here in California when there’s a traffic jam on our freeways. This is about a sale at SARCO, a preferred military surplus outlet, on SIG police department trade-ins. When police departments upgrade to different weapons, they sometimes sell their older handguns. That’s what’s happening here. What makes this sale special, in my opinion, is that the trade-in guns are 9mm SIG P226 sidearms. You follow the blog, and you know that I consider the SIG P226 to be the world’s finest handgun. With a SARCO price on the P226 at just over $700, I think it’s a great deal.

My SIG P226. I consider it to be the world’s finest handgun.

I’ve never seen SIG P226 police trade-in guns for sale. It’s a hell of an opportunity to pick up a great handgun at a bargain price. I once owned a Smith and Wesson Model 659 police trade-in and it confirmed what I thought about police sidearms. They are carried a lot and shot very little. That means there might be some cosmetic shortfalls (holster wear, etc.), but the guns’ internals are probably in superb shape.

A Smith and Wesson Model 659 police trade in that was a lot of fun. Like most police sidearms, it was carried a lot and shot little.

I’ve purchased military surplus equipment through SARCO before (in my case it was a replacement gas cylinder for my M1 Garand, which fixed my rifle’s cycling issue). SARCO is a reputable outfit.

SARCO’s SIG P320 police trade-in pistols.

SARCO is also selling SIG P320 police trade-ins. I don’t have any experience with that model, so I can’t tell you anything about it (other than that it’s SIG, so it’s probably good). The SARCO price on the SIG P320 police trade-in is only $425; that’s a superb deal.

What might be fun is to pick up either handgun from SARCO and send it to good buddy TJ (at TJ’s Custom Gunworks) for a full cosmetics and action job. That would be fun. If you have ever entertained any thoughts about picking up a SIG or a custom pistol, this might worth looking into.

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TJ’s Latest Custom Handguns

By Joe Berk

I had lunch with good buddy TJ (of TJ’s Custom Gunworks) recently and he showed me an LAR Grizzly .45 Winchester Magnum handgun he recently completed. It’s wild. It’s the one you see in the photo above and in the additional photos below. Here’s TJ’s description:

The Path of Bushido, a custom L.A.R. Grizzly .45 Winchester Magnum (it’s a supersized 1911). This handgun is Duracoated with Skulls of Death and Kanji characters depicting the seven Samurai virtues of the Bushido. This magnum features the typical 1911 match action, trigger, and reliability work, as well as barrel and bushing clearance reduction. The gun also has melted edges, a speckled Duracoat finish, a Bullet-guide rod, and Millett target sights with orange DayGlo on the front.

The photos can only begin to the do justice to this stunning handgun (trust me, I’ve seen it in person). And that .45 Win Mag cartridge…think of it as the illegitimate offspring of the already-powerful .45 ACP cartridge (my favorite, by the way) and the .44 Magnum. It’s a very impressive hand cannon.

One of the things I like best about TJ’s latest creation is the Millett sights. In my opinion, there are none better. I have these on both my Rock Island Compact 1911 and my bright stainless Colt 1911, and TJ is the pistolsmith who installed them on both guns.

If you were wondering about the Bushido emblems on the Grizzly, here’s an explanation:

I asked TJ what the Grizzly looked like before he worked his magic, and TJ shared this photo with me:

At the end of our visit, I asked TJ what else he’s been up to lately. Take a look. These are magnificent. This first one is a SIG P239 with black camo treatment, a jeweled hammer, a rounded trigger, and lots of internal smoothing and reliability enhancement.

This next one is compact Colt Agent 1911 with Tiger Duracoat and a matching a matching TJ’s knife.

This is another compact 1911 (a Colt Defender) with a camo surface treatment and all the internal reliability action work. It’s not easy to get a compact 1911 to perform, but TJ sure did it on mine. I’ve put thousands of rounds through my TJ-customized Rock Island Compact. TJ took what was a relatively unreliable gun and turned it into a masterpiece.

Here’s a TJ-modded Ruger Match Champion revolver, with jeweled bits, recontoured trigger, and an action job.

One last photo…this is a SIG P220 grip in which TJ custom inlayed the US government insignia. TJ does a lot of work for senior government folks here and abroad. It’s cool stuff.

I’ve had six handguns and a rifle customized by TJ, and every one of them is a stellar example of his craftsmanship. These include my Model 59, a bright stainless Colt 1911, my MacManus Colt 1911, the Rock Island Compact, a Model 60 Smith and Wesson snubbie, a Ruger Mini 14, and my new Colt Python. In addition to my guns, folks who follow the ExNotes blog took my advice and had TJ work on their guns, like Marty with his custom Colt Combat Commander, Bob with his Beretta 92, and others who are not listed here. You might have noticed that TJ advertises here on ExNotes. If you want to reach the folks who follow the blog, you might consider doing so, too. You can contact us at info@ExhaustNotes.us and you can reach TJ by clicking on the link below.

A Tale of Two 9s

I recently tested two 9mm loads to assess:

- How 124-grain roundnose Boudreau powder-coated bullets performed in the SIG P226 and the Springfield Armory 1911, and
- The effect of seating depth on accuracy with 124-grain roundnose Ranier plated bullets in the Springfield Armory 1911.

A friend of mine recommended Boudreau powder-coated bullets. They are reasonably-priced and I liked the look. Ralph, the Boudreau master caster, recommended seating the bullets at 1.055 or thereabouts, which is deeper into the case than I usually go but that’s what I did with these. They look pretty cool. One of my shooting buddies observed that the loaded rounds looked like lipstick. That’s good; that’s the look I was going for.

These are the Ranier plated bullets.

I tried Accurate No. 5 propellant for the first time. My local reloading shop had this propellant in stock so I thought I would try it (these days, you take what you can get). Accurate No. 5 is a flake powder like Unique, but it burns much cleaner. It doesn’t leave the sooty residue Unique leaves, and there’s much less smoke (that’s partly due to the powder-coated bullets, too).

I also wanted to evaluate bullet seating depth’s effects on accuracy with the Ranier bullets. There’s nothing too scientific or rigorous in this evaluation; I just wanted to get a feel if the 1911 was more accurate or less accurate with the bullets seated deeper in the case or further out (I didn’t do this evaluation with the SIG).

My load manuals don’t make a distinction between powder-coated bullets versus other bullets. I read some comments online that indicate powder coated bullets get the same velocity with lighter propellant charges. I finally found some data on the Hodgdon powder website for 124-grain powder coated bullets, and it showed the charge range running from 4.6 to 5.4 grains of their Accurate No. 5 powder. This was a quick-look test, so I loaded 10 rounds at 4.6 grains, 10 rounds at 4.8 grains, 10 rounds at 5.0 grains, 10 rounds at 5.2 grains, and finally, 10 rounds at 5.4 grains. As mentioned above and per Ralph’s suggestion I seated all bullets to a cartridge overall length (COAL) of 1.055 inches. I fired one 5-shot group at each charge level with the 1911, and one single 5-shot group at each charge level with the SIG P226, all at 50 feet. Like I said above, it was not a rigorous assessment; I just wanted to get a feel for what worked and what didn’t. Here are the results:

These are the targets (the Springfield 1911 target is on the left and the SIG P226 target is on the right). I worked my way from the top down and left to right with each charge weight, so the top bullseye on each target is with 4.6 grains of Accurate No. 5 and the bottom right one on each target is with 5.4 grains of Accurate No. 5).

All of the powder-coated-bullet loads functioned perfectly in both guns and none of the cartridges exhibited any pressure signs. The heaviest charge on the Accurate site (5.4 grains) gave the best accuracy in both guns. That’s the load I’m going to go with on future loads with this bullet. The load had modest recoil and it was pleasant shooting. These are good bullets and they function well with the Hodgdon-recommended charges. I will also mention that I was a little surprised: This was the first time the Springfield Armory 1911 outshot the SIG. In the past, my SIG P226 had been more accurate than any 9mm handgun I ever tested, including my 1911.

The next test was to assess the effects of seating depth on accuracy. My buddy Paul and I had a discussion on this topic and we both realized that after sending 9mm projectiles downrange for 60 years and evaluating powder, bullets, primers, and more, we had never investigated bullet seating depth as a variable in 9mm reloading. The 9mm cartridge is a short one, and most semi-autos have generous chambers to improve reliability. The combination could naturally lead to the cartridges swimming around in the chamber, perhaps more so than a .45 ACP cartridge. It stands to reason that a longer cartridge (i.e., not seating the bullet as deeply in the case) could minimize movement of the cartridge in the chamber and improve accuracy. But there are other requirements at play, like getting the cartridges in the magazine, not seating the bullet so far out that it hits the rifling before the round is fully chambered, and reliable feeding of the bullets from the magazine into the chamber. So I thought I’d run a quick experiment.

For these tests I used Ranier 124-grain plated roundnose bullets and the Springfield Armory 1911. It was unscientific. I made 25 rounds with 6.4 grains of Accurate No. 5 (a max load) and the Ranier bullets seated to a COAL 1.100 inches (which is about what I would normally do), and another 25 rounds with the same powder charge, but with the bullets seated to a COAL of 1.156 inches (which is a little more than a twentieth of an inch further out). Here are the results:

It was an easy load to shoot and there were no flattened primers or other pressure signs. All loads functioned reliably in the 1911. There was little to no leading with the Ranier plated bullets, even though this was a max load.

Here’s what the targets looked like. The top two little guys are with the bullets seated out for a COAL of 1.156 inches; the bottom two little guys are with the bullets seated deeper and a COAL of 1.100 inches.

What this quick look says to me that the Ranier plated bullets are more accurate if they are seated further out. These worked in my 1911 magazine; I didn’t check them in the SIG P226 magazine (nor did I shoot this load in the SIG). If I was to do this test again, I’d check to make sure the longer cartridges would fit in the SIG’s shorter magazine and I’d also test them for accuracy in the SIG.

I haven’t assessed the Boudreau powder-coated bullets at different seating depths. I will get to that later. I’ve got a bunch of the Ranier bullets, and a bunch of the powder-coated bullets. Primers…that’s another story. Everybody needs primers.

The standard warning: The load data included in this blog are for my guns. Yours may be different.

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More Tales of the Gun!

An Urban Camo SIG 239 (and a quick Python update)

When I recently visited good buddy and custom gunsmith TJ of TJ’s Custom Gunworks to discuss a trigger job on my new Colt Python, I noticed a custom SIG P220 in .45 ACP in his shop. The SIG had a very unusual finish. The trigger work was incredible, with as crisp a single action trigger pull as any I have ever felt. I’m hoping the Python’s will be as good after TJ works his magic on it (jumping ahead, it is, and that will be in a future blog). I asked TJ about the SIG, and in particular, if I could share it with our blog readers. Here’s what TJ told me:

I haven’t taken photos of my urban camo P220 yet; I’ll do that over the weekend. Here are some photos of his little brother, the P239, in .40 S&W.

The camo finish is a 6-layer process. I did a full LEVEL 1 package on it, and since it was already DAO (Joe’s note: That’s double action only) I did a full bob on the hammer, slightly lifted the slide catch, melted the edges and corners, satin polished the barrel and extractor, applied orange DayGlo on the front sight, installed camo Duracoat on the Hogue rubber grips, and I fitted my TJ hex head grip screws. I can email you more details of what I did if you need it over the weekend.

These are the photos TJ sent. The first one is the 239 SIG as TJ acquired it, the next one is one of the steps in the camo application process, and the last two or three are the finished gun.

This TJ-customized SIG 239 sure is impressive. It’s in a powerful chambering, it’s compact, all of TJ’s customs are super reliable, and the gun just has a cool look. Whoever ends up owning it is going to have one hell of a handgun. TJ tells me he’s going to be listing the gun you see here on Gunbroker in the near future (at a price that seemed to me to be way too low).

If you’ve ever thought about having a custom handgun built to your specifications, TJ is the guy you want to talk to. One of the gun magazines described TJ’s work as “duty jewelry you can wear.” That sounds accurate. You don’t have to be here to use his services; most of TJ’s work is for folks in other states. Take a few minutes and check out the photos of prior TJ custom handguns on the TJ’s Custom Gunworks website.

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A quick note: The Python is back from TJ now and the trigger is superb. The double action went from 9 1/2 to 9 lbs and it is much smoother. The single action trigger went from 5 1/2 lbs (with a lot of creep) to a what I would call a breaking glass, creep-free 2 1/4 lbs. It feels better and I am seeing an immediate improvement on target. If you own a Colt Python, trust me on this: You need a TJ trigger job on yours. It completely changes the character of the revolver. Watch for an upcoming blog on the new Python with its improved trigger.

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9mm Jacketed Bullet Comparo

Back in January I tested a bunch of 9mm cast bullet loads in the three handguns you see above: A SIG P226 Scorpion, a Smith and Wesson Model 659, and the Springfield Armory 1911 Target. For that test series (you can read it here), all the loads used the Missouri 125-grain cast roundnose bullet with different powders and different charge weights. My cast bullet testing showed the SIG to be the most accurate, followed by the Springfield and then the Smith and Wesson Model 659.

I promised an update with jacketed bullets to assess accuracy and functionality of all three handguns (and to find favored accuracy loads for each). It took a while, but I finally got around to making good on that promise this past week. The six different loads I tested for the jacketed 9mm test series are summarized below:

Actually, the term “jacketed” doesn’t really apply to the Xtreme bullets (they are copper plated, not copper jacketed). The Armscor bullets are brass jacketed. Both the Winchester and Speer bullets are copper jacketed bullets. As you can see from the table above and the photos below, the Xtreme, Armscor, and Winchester bullets were of the roundnose configuration. The Speer 147-grain bullets were jacketed flatnosed bullets. I didn’t try any hollow points in this test series; I prefer roundnose bullets in my 9mm handguns. They are reliable.

All groups were 5 shot groups. I shot a total of 360 rounds in the two test series (both the jacketed and cast bullet accuracy tests).

While I was shooting last week, I was a little disappointed. I thought I had done a lot better with the cast bullets back in January. I thought my jacketed groups were larger when I eyeballed the targets, but you never really know until you measure the groups.

9mm jacketed bullets on an Alco target. I like using the Alco target that has four mini-silhouettes on a single target. All testing was at 50 feet.

When I returned home, measured the group sizes, and tabulated the results, I was surprised. The results of the jacketed and plated bullets were not too different from what I had achieved with the cast bullets almost a year ago. Take a look:

The most surprising finding, for me, was that the average results with the jacketed bullets (versus the cast bullets) were almost identical. Here’s that data extracted from the above, shown in a table that makes it a little easier to make the comparison:

My testing showed essentially the same results for the three handguns I tested whether I used cast bullets or jacketed bullets: The SIG P226 Scorpion is the most accurate (it is a magnificent handgun), followed by the Springfield Armory 1911, followed by the Smith and Wesson 659. It doesn’t matter whether it’s with cast or jacketed bullets: The averages are eerily similar for each gun, with a very slight accuracy advantage going to the cast bullets for the SIG and the 1911, and a very slight accuracy advantage going to the jacketed bullets for the Smith 659. But the differences between jacketed and cast bullets are so small they can be ignored. Cast bullets are usually a lot less expensive than jacketed bullets, so this is good knowledge.