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Reproduced from the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of American Handgunner. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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SIG P220 SAO
A Single Action Dream Come True |
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By Massad Ayoob • Photos By Ichiro Nagata
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| In January 2006, SIGARMS introduced the SAO (Single Action Only) variation of their P220 .45 auto at the SHOT Show, to the acclaim of many who got to the live fire demonstration on the outskirts of Las Vegas. In the more than a year since, it has proven itself to be one of the more useful new handgun concepts introduced at the time. This seems counterintuitive to some. What’s the big deal out of a DA first shot auto with a safety catch thrown on and the first shot fired from single action instead? To find the answer, we have to look for a moment at the history of the defining single action auto of our time, the 1911. From the year of its introduction, and before, going back to the first popular American defense auto, the Colt Pocket Model .32 of 1903, critics distrusted the short, easy trigger pull of a pre-cocked pistol. They opined either jacking a slide or off-safing a thumb catch would prove too slow for reactive shooting. That would be a strike against the 1911 to this day, with the criticism not much dimming until the mid-Twentieth Century, when Jeff Cooper and his colleagues proved a cocked and locked 1911 could be drawn and fired as fast or faster than the previously prevalent double DA. There were other concerns with the 1911. For my generation, whose formative years came after WWII and encompassed “the Renaissance of the 1911,” there were contradictions to be found in the whole concept. We had grown up reading the 1911 was John Browning’s masterpiece, the most reliable semiautomatic pistol ever produced, yet from the firing lines of Camp Perry to the IPSC shooting bays, we saw jam after jam. The result was a loss of faith, and even a sense of betrayal. This may be one reason so many shooters developed an almost cult-like faith in later autos that experienced fewer stoppages: late 20th century guns like the Beretta 92, the Glock and the SIG-Sauer. The fact was, of course, we had not been lied to: it was just our generation, and the ones immediately prior and post, had simply changed the 1911 paradigm. John M. Browning had designed the 1911 to feed mil-spec, round-nose full metal jacket ball ammo; we had started feeding it lead semiwadcutters and hollow points with gaping cookie-cutter mouths. JMB had built in generous tolerances to keep the parts moving in less than optimum conditions; we had tightened those tolerances in search of precise match accuracy. The designer had specified a recoil spring of approximately 17 pounds, with a short guide. Generations who came later decided they knew more about the gun than its creator, and installed heavier springs with longer guide rods. Nature had simply taken its course. But rightly or wrongly, there now existed a generation which questioned the once-legendary reliability of the 1911 pistol. Meanwhile, pistols such as the Beretta, Glock and SIG had been designed with more straight line feeding that gobbled up SWCs and JHPs with equanimity. These guns had been designed around full-length spring guides, and worked well with them. Among their literally millions of satisfied owners, there developed a market of shooters who didn’t trust the 1911, but longed for the fast accuracy of the easy first shot coming with a cocked and locked single action pistol. It was for them, I think, SIGARMS reached out to Sauer of Germany and developed a single action, cocked and locked version of their famously reliable P220 .45 ACP double action pistol. |
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Design Features
Take the latest incarnation of the P220 frame, with the accessory rail and the 10mm trigger window, 2mm wider than its predecessor and adaptable to retrofit as traditional double action (TDA) or the double action Kellerman system (DAK). Render it in SIG’s traditional high-strength, light weight aluminum alloy so it will be comfortable to carry, and be guaranteed to make the IDPA weight limit. Be certain it will take every P220 .45 ACP magazine SIG ever produced for the side-button release system: the early 7-rounder, the interim short-length 8-rounder designed for Texas Department of Public Safety when they issued P220s, the current high efficiency 8-shot and even the new extended 10-round mag. Put on an ambidextrous thumb safety just where 1911 shooters are used to reaching for it. Give the shooter some sighting options: snag-free fixed service sights with Tritium front and back, or crystal-clear high profile adjustables with a single night sight module up front. Offer it in three lengths: the standard 4.4" barrel, the 3.9" Carry length, or the Match version with the same 5” barrel as the classic Colt Government Model. Spec the trigger pull for a consistent five pounds or so. Et voila, you have the P220 SAO. |
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In Action The aluminum frames make these guns light to carry: even the 5" Match gun weighs only about 30 ounces unloaded. I’ve carried them concealed from summer 2006 through January 2007 in the rains of the Pacific Northwest, the humid heat of North and Central Florida in summer, the dry heat of Texas in July, and the frigid winters of December in Minneapolis and January in New Hampshire. The textured composition stocks don’t slip in the grasp no matter how sweaty my hand becomes, and they give good purchase to a gloved hand. The big “European winter” trigger guard, and the well-thought-out pull weight, are likewise amenable to wearing a glove; ditto the size and shape of the thumb safety levers. The company has held well to their stated goal of a five-pound trigger. I’ve had five of the SAOs in my long-term custody now: two carry models, a pair of the Match guns, and one service size. All were consistent in trigger pull. The lightest was 4.75 pounds, measured from the toe of the trigger, and the heaviest was 5.9 pounds measured at the trigger’s center. None were prone to unintentional discharge. All had reasonable reset length. The design allows the slide to be operated with the manual safety engaged, which is never a bad thing. Except for the starkly squared edges of the target rear sights on both Match models, which could do a job on coat linings after enough time in concealment, none presented sharp edges to hand, body, or clothing. And, the Match model is available with the service sights, which for all around use would be my personal recommendation. Accuracy has been particularly pleasing. Paul Erhard, SIGARMS’ marketing guy, promised me 1" groups at 25 yards with the Match gun, and damned if it didn’t deliver. The first 5" pistol delivered it on the ranges of the Firearms Academy of Seattle, with five rounds of inexpensive Mag-Tech 230 grain hardball in exactly 1" off an impromptu rest, and the second with Federal 185 grain Classic JHP off a proper bench rest in Florida. The 4.4" barrel service-size P220SAO kissed the magic 1" with the same Federal ammunition. As a brief aside, I’ve noticed over the years this particular Federal load is uniquely compatible with the P220 barrel. I’ve seen it achieve the five-shots-in-1" standard with my old P220 European with the butt-heel mag release, with a later P220 American, and with other specimens including two of the five SAOs I’ve benched. Recoil is very mild, and this 185 grain JHP has a good track record in actual shootings. I was never able to crack that 1” with the 3.9" barrel Carry model. However, a 2" group is excellent performance in a service or carry pistol, and that was easy meat for this shortest of SAOs. Right at half of the loads tested went under 2" out of the two sample Carry models — about what we got from the old P245 SIG-Sauer concealment .45s. |
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Idio-SIG-Crasy
One idiosyncrasy of the SAO is found in the operation of the ambidextrous manual safety. On every single one of these guns I’ve handled, which encompasses 10 or a dozen (including the five intensively tested) the lever on the right, which is situated for the left thumb, has been much harder to manipulate than the one on the opposite side. It’s simply the nature of the machine. None were particularly difficult to off-safe, but all were hard to on-safe. Two or three were so resistant to upward pressure that, unless I broke the firing hold with the left hand, I had to come over with the other hand to bring the lever back up. In right-handed manipulation, this was less of a problem. My first SAO test gun, an all-blue Carry model, went off-safe a little too easily if anything, once going off-safe in a thumb-break holster cut for a standard double action P220. That never repeated itself. Subsequent guns were firmer, and the last of the five, a Match model, was so stiff I couldn’t on-safe it with my right thumb. That’s just too stiff. Do several test manipulations of the gun shop specimen before you buy it, to make sure it’s like Baby Bear’s mattress — not too soft, not too hard, but just right. |
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Overview A 1911 single action .45 auto that will shoot 1" at 25 yards and work 100 percent of the time is a rare and beautiful thing, and will generally cost you $2,000 plus and probably require a break-in period to achieve total reliability. The SIG P220SAO is a single action .45 auto that, in 4.4" or 5" length, can give you 1" at 25 yards, will work 100 percent right out of the box (if my five test guns are any indication), and will come in at $1,000 or less. I call that a breakthrough. An affordable single action .45 auto with this high order of reliability and accuracy has been a long time coming. And it means, far from being just another gun variation, the SIGARMS P220SAO is an important pistol for today’s serious handgunner. |
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| This feature is sponsored by: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 www.para-1da.com/more  www.surefire.com |
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