OT - First Impressions of the Sig-Sauer P938

by Remington40x , SE PA, Monday, August 13, 2012, 10:50 (4487 days ago)

It's not a revolver, but I suspect at least some of you, like me, are looking for a small, highly concealable, pocket pistol of sufficient power to constitute a true self-defense weapon, particularly after the recent incidents in CO and WI.

After looking around a bunch, I settled on the Sig-Sauer P938, which is chambered for the 9mm cartridge. My particular pistol is the Extreme (there are five variations, differing primarily in finishes and the magazines supplied). The Extreme has a Nitron finished slide and an anodized frame and comes with two magazines - a six round that sits flush with the bottom of the frame and a seven round that has an extension on the bottom of the magazine that gives your pinky finger a place to rest.

I put over 100 rounds through the pistol this weekend. Most were 115 grain bulk jacketed, with the last two magazines 147 grain Remington hollow-points (which are expensive and what I'm going to carry in the pistol). My thoughts on the pistol after the initial workout are as follows:

The overall size is quite good from a concealment point of view. By actual comparison, with the six round magazine loaded, the pistol is about 1/4 inch longer, less than 1/8 inch deeper and scarcely wider than the Sig P238, the .380 version. the P239 provides you with a much better cartridge for very little additional bulk.

Fit and finish are good. The controls are just like the 1911 series of pistols, so if you've shot a .45, you know how this one works. There's an ambidextrous safety, so you lefthanders are taken care of. Accuracy is acceptable for a pistol of this type - with little effort I was keeping all the rounds in a 3 inch circle at 7 yards, even with rapid fire drills. I suspect that if I shot the pistol for score, I could do better. Sights are good, too, and include a three dot night sight. However, I'm getting a bit old for irons and a laser would be a wonderful thing on this pistol. Sig makes one and I'll buy it and get it installed. Recoil was quite manageable - far lighter in fact than I'd expected, particularly when shooting the seven round magazine. Concealability is excellent. I dropped this into a DeSantis pocket holster for another small framed pistol and it functioned perfectly. I'll order a better pocket holster from Rob in due course, but I need to get the laser and install it first, so I can get him an outline of the laser-equipped pistol.

Complaints are few and limited. The trigger pull is a bit heavy, probably in the five plus pound range. The magazine springs make it quite difficult to load the last round in both the six and seven round magazines. You have to be careful to fully seat the magazines or they drop down with the first shot fired and you have a single shot. I got a couple of bobbles in feeding early on related to failing to fully seat the magazines, but once I figured that out, feeding was flawless.

All in all, this provides me with what I wanted in a summertime concealed carry situation - something powerful enough, but lightweight and of low bulk, allowing it to be taken anywhere such carry is legal without showing. Not a .357 or a .45, but not the size of one, either. These aren't cheap (is anything Sig makes?), but they are very well made. I have recommended it to two different colleagues this morning.

One guy's opinion, for what it's worth.