An interesting encounter on the firing line

[armoredman]

  As I was shooting today, a retired gentleman with the most interesting target holder I have ever seen was shooting next to me, and we struck up a lively conversation between rounds. A native New Yorker and retired auto worker, he showed no hesitation on expressing himself, and a great deal of frustration towards his SiG P226. I watched it jam multiple times, mostly nose up failure to feeds, and a couple of Class 3 double feed jams, which I have only seen in practice at work. He explained in between spouts of profanity that left this ex-sailor impressed, that this particular SiG had been back to the factory twice, was an $1,100 model with night sights and other "gingerbread" as he put it, but it just "didn't like reloads", and also was the third SiG he had had with problems. This was while I was happily shoving all kinds of oddball ammo into the SP-01 Phantom, which was sending them downrange flawlessly. I tried to observe the malfunctions closer for him, but he was becoming quite irritated at his pistol, so I merely kept a pleasant face and was helpful at a distance. And that's when he admitted he was home gun smithing this expensive sidearm, or as he put it, "take a little here and there, make it smoother, knowhatImean?" Yep, I do indeed know what he means, and I gave him Angus's business web address. Maybe they can rescue that SiG.
I did let him handle the Phantom, which he supposed was a .45, (initial impressions corrected gently), and when I explained they could be had for generally less than half of what he paid for the SiG, he became, what's the polite term? "Thoughtful."
I was happy I'd had some range time with my out of the box CZ that worked right from the get go. Oh, how'd I do? Well, here's one target from today.



Good day, glad to represent the brand. Did I mention I was wearing my CZ skull shirt, with my CZ range bag?

[Grendel]

It always amazes me that folks will fiddle and fart around with a good firearm, when they quite obviously have no clue what they are doing, then fire reloads that clearly are loaded way too long and then blame the pistol when it chokes and fails to function.

I am a qualified Sig Armorer, who carries a 226 both at home and at work, and I have NEVER known one fail to feed anything factory that it was loaded with. I used to look after 15 226s on the Department, both 9s and 40s,  and the only minor problems I ever had were a couple of sear spring retaining pins breaking and occasionally  the firing pin positioning pin fracturing after many thousands of dry and live fires, even then the pistol would still function.

As they say at the Armorer's Academy in Exeter, 80% of problems with pistols are shooter error, 10% dirty weapon or insufficient lube,  5% ammunition, and 5% mechanical failure.

[bozwell]

I wonder what prompted him to mess with the Sig in the first place.  I held onto a friend's P229 for a week once when he first got it and I was very impressed with the gun out of the box.  I thought the trigger in particular was excellent for a NIB gun.  I've heard Gray guns does nice trigger jobs but frankly, were I to buy a Sig, I think I'd keep it stock, save my money and just enjoy shooting it. 

[armoredman]

We had a SiG P220 at the rental range I worked at some years ago, and it was my favorite of the range guns. Great shooter, only 45ACP I really liked. The rental crowd beat it do death, but it took a long time to go under!

I don't know why people who aren't qualified decide to break out a Dremel and "gun smith" with no knowledge or training. He did say he used to build racing engines, but the tolerances and characteristics of a firearm are slightly different, I would think. Heck, does Angus even DO SiG repair?

[bozwell]

When my buddy had the grips off his P229, the most I could say about the internals was "wow, that's neat!"  Springs in seemingly weird places, pieces on the outside/perimeter rather than contained in, say, a sear cage - I really couldn't say what I was looking at, haha.  Got to love that German engineering but I definitely don't think I'd start tinkering with it, especially given the price tags on those guns.  Who knows, perhaps he got a lemon - but I'm skeptical if he's been tinkering on it.

[no51]

My dad's P229 had a better trigger IMO than my phantom, OotB. I can't see why he'd feel the need to do some trigger work on it. Maybe he was trying to get it to be 1911-like but at that point, why not just get a 1911?

[Grendel]

. Maybe he was trying to get it to be 1911-like but at that point, why not just get a 1911?

It sounds like he certainly succeeded in turning it 1911 like. 

[sfrenchy]

Skull shirt? Where can I get one? It will fit right in with Wiily D Harley shirts...(:

[Hayfield123]

Dad taught me, early on, "Don't fix it if it ain't broke!"

[bozwell]

. Maybe he was trying to get it to be 1911-like but at that point, why not just get a 1911?

It sounds like he certainly succeeded in turning it 1911 like. 

 

[armoredman]

sfrenchy, it's on the cz-usa.com website. Yes, it will work well with any motorcycle wear!.

[sfrenchy]

armoredman, Thanks, I was all set to order one until I saw the ship cost to me UPS (to ca)! Darn near as much as the shirt...

[johnnyrees]

make a tie dye....die version of it Frenchy

[sfrenchy]

johnny, good idea, takes me back to my youth.....  (:

[jwc007]

I don't know why people who aren't qualified decide to break out a Dremel and "gun smith" with no knowledge or training.

Mr. Dremel has unknowingly sold a lot of Barrels and replacement guns that were victims of shady tree gunsmithing.

Used to own both a .45 ACP P220 and 9mm P226.  They gave almost no trouble at all during their stay with me.  I just prefer the lower bore axis of the CZ and Tanfoglio designs.