Tactical Jackalope
New member
Well, some may remember that around this time last year, I had a SIG SAUER P229 Elite Dark in 9mm with a 2010 production year. I've been informally shooting SIG Sauer pistols since my childhood. Around age 12-19 with my uncles W. German P226. I got my own when I turned 21, to which I began taking those "tactical classes" at the ranges and gun shops I worked at.
So, basically, 20 years shooting SIG Sauer pistols.
Now, that P229 Elite Dark had an issue and the frame was being destroyed by the slide. I had purchased it second hand. I called SIG and when they saw pictures they said it "looked fine" to which I insisted that the wear isn't normal. They offered to look at it, so I paid the $35+ to ship it with the same luck.
I called Bruce Gray of Gray Guns Inc to check it out for me after my luck calling SIG and the moment he got it he knew it was wrong, so after measuring all aspects, he told me that the slide was out of spec and digging into the frame. That was taking chunks of anodized aluminum off.
He then told me that he was visiting the mother ship next month and if I wanted to wait for him to take it over there. I said yes and sure enough a month later, SIG wouldn't budge. Wouldn't even so much as pay half. After some conversations with them and a laugh over the phone as if "too bad" I had an emotionally charged and rightfully so (at the time) response to cut them out. Bash them and sell all my SIG Sauer pistols.
I went onto trying out Heckler and Koch, which believe it or not is my favorite arms manufacturer of all time. They don't just make handguns. :]
I tried Glock extensively as well as Smith and Wesson which actually had my heart for the better part of the year. But you need to understand how complex my mind works sometimes. I want an "all-around" firearm. Not just something I shoot well. I want to be able to detail strip it and swap out any part that breaks by myself. This made the Glock amazing for me, but they just don't work for me unless modified. Beavertail for my big mitts, sights, trigger work, etc. So Smith and Wesson M&P? Yes... I even took a class at Tactical Response with my carry gun for 6 months which was an M&P 9L with the Surefire X300U and it ran flawlessly aside from the mags having hiccups due to dropping them in the good ol' Tennessee mud/dirt. It was great and I still like it and have it. But I didn't shoot it as well and as confidently as I did my previous home base. Another silly turn off was needing a rear sight tool in order to remove the plunger spring. Like, why? Then the reset was non-existent which I worked through and shot well regardless. The M&P 2.0 was picked up when I got back. About 2 weeks after. But I had to drop an APEX kit into that one as well. And couldn't for life of me carry it at 4 o'clock if I ever needed to. (sometimes I switch depending on my job/gig) so I ditched that gun as well.
HK, right? My favorite overall arms manufacturer! The USP 9 Compact... too small. More aligned with a Glock 26 and when I changed mags a nice chunk of my palm meat would get caught in between. So I ditched it.
HK USP 9 full-size? Since I can carry full-sized guns and always have been able to. I'm 6'2 with an athletic/muscular build. ;] So I tried it out and the trigger wasn't great as well as only holding 15 rounds in that large package. So, okay... I'll work with it. What're 2 fewer rounds? Nothing really, but when you're looking at all options, you're looking at all options. So I bought a $150 Match Trigger from HK Part dot net.
Had a professional install it... Was not...impressed...whatsoever. Even had some failures to reset.
All this searching. Hurricane Irma passed us and they were estimating 185-200mph winds. I was at my mother's house with my wife, our dogs, some friends and a ton of important things that we'd need to survive for weeks. We've all been through this before and having had no power in tropical weather Miami Florida, it's not fun. Looters, heat, irate individuals, etc.
While we all sat there in the darkness, I had escape routes planned if the roof was to blow off, sledgehammer ready to break into the concrete office building next door, tieing my family members to me one by one with hard hats and moving them next door... I looked over at the 2-3 bags of guns I had. Guns. Nothing but guns alone and they weighed about 100 pounds between all the bags. I said to myself: "screw this, I'm not a collector, I don't need all of this crap"
We survived the storm, cleaned up, and I began selling guns. I sold 90% of my handguns. Ones I didn't like, didn't shoot, didn't care for. I sold them all. Where did I put 98% of that money? Into savings. For a down payment on a house for my wife and I. No more apartment rentals, soon and no more sharing space with the nuclear mixed and match family sitcom.
I went to a shop to sign over a firearm through an FFL for an anal retentive buyer and then I saw it... Priced very well. And best of all, they didn't know what they had. At that price? A SIG Sauer P220 with no silly gimmicky name, but it had a beaver tail and a "Made in Germany" frame. Short extractor and night sights. Hold on, though. I'm mad at SIG... I shouldn't give them a dime. And this one is used, right? Wrong. I took it apart because I told them what had happened to me in the past and the frame rails were perfect and wearing into the old anodized-style of coloration. It was at gold. So I bought it.
Couldn't believe I did it, but I did. Shot like a dream. Shot like what I was used to. I haven't felt at home base in forever. The hold of the sights, the feel, the trigger in DA and reset of the SRT in SA. I was ecstatic. I missed this. Something I can take apart with my eyes closed. Shoot well. Have trained extensively. But wait, it's a 45. I love 45, but I'm a 9mm guy...
So I went out and bought an MK25. And that's been what I have been carrying for about a month now. And it feels like home base again. Second nature. It didn't have the SRT trigger installed. So got one for $39 and swapped out the parts. Then a Bruce Gray flat trigger for $47. So, the trigger is better than what I was already used to for all these years.
Sorry for the long-winded and blabbing post. But hey, it's a story. That's what we're here for is it not?
Moral of the story for me? Try not to have an emotional response to things. Yes, their CS with me sucked. I wish they'd explain more or at the very least have budged with me on something, but they didn't. However, I carry their guns for self-defense and work reasons. I trust their capabilities and reliability. I have 26,000 combined rounds over the course of 10 years between my old and no longer owned P226 and P229 pistols (no, not the crappy 229, that was 500 rounds).
I am also not a collector. I have had 60+ handguns and now I only have 5 and I still may cut a few of them out. I focus on self-defense, survival, and preparations for worst-case scenarios/natural disasters/civil unrest. AR, shotgun, 22lr rifle, and a couple of handguns are among the weapons I will possibly *need*. There is a Glock 19 in a crash bag for obvious reasons. Availability of mags and parts.
So, this is my little story on things. I have my MK25 and P220. Each with their own custom holsters and 5+ mags for each. The goal is at lease 12+ magazines for each and we're cooking with fire. I already have spare parts and all. They're what I can take apart the best and easiest as well as the Glock.
Chopping block guns are the HK45C and M&P 9L. But, we'll see.
Much love. If you made it this far, you're awesome.
So, basically, 20 years shooting SIG Sauer pistols.
Now, that P229 Elite Dark had an issue and the frame was being destroyed by the slide. I had purchased it second hand. I called SIG and when they saw pictures they said it "looked fine" to which I insisted that the wear isn't normal. They offered to look at it, so I paid the $35+ to ship it with the same luck.
I called Bruce Gray of Gray Guns Inc to check it out for me after my luck calling SIG and the moment he got it he knew it was wrong, so after measuring all aspects, he told me that the slide was out of spec and digging into the frame. That was taking chunks of anodized aluminum off.
He then told me that he was visiting the mother ship next month and if I wanted to wait for him to take it over there. I said yes and sure enough a month later, SIG wouldn't budge. Wouldn't even so much as pay half. After some conversations with them and a laugh over the phone as if "too bad" I had an emotionally charged and rightfully so (at the time) response to cut them out. Bash them and sell all my SIG Sauer pistols.
I went onto trying out Heckler and Koch, which believe it or not is my favorite arms manufacturer of all time. They don't just make handguns. :]
I tried Glock extensively as well as Smith and Wesson which actually had my heart for the better part of the year. But you need to understand how complex my mind works sometimes. I want an "all-around" firearm. Not just something I shoot well. I want to be able to detail strip it and swap out any part that breaks by myself. This made the Glock amazing for me, but they just don't work for me unless modified. Beavertail for my big mitts, sights, trigger work, etc. So Smith and Wesson M&P? Yes... I even took a class at Tactical Response with my carry gun for 6 months which was an M&P 9L with the Surefire X300U and it ran flawlessly aside from the mags having hiccups due to dropping them in the good ol' Tennessee mud/dirt. It was great and I still like it and have it. But I didn't shoot it as well and as confidently as I did my previous home base. Another silly turn off was needing a rear sight tool in order to remove the plunger spring. Like, why? Then the reset was non-existent which I worked through and shot well regardless. The M&P 2.0 was picked up when I got back. About 2 weeks after. But I had to drop an APEX kit into that one as well. And couldn't for life of me carry it at 4 o'clock if I ever needed to. (sometimes I switch depending on my job/gig) so I ditched that gun as well.
HK, right? My favorite overall arms manufacturer! The USP 9 Compact... too small. More aligned with a Glock 26 and when I changed mags a nice chunk of my palm meat would get caught in between. So I ditched it.
HK USP 9 full-size? Since I can carry full-sized guns and always have been able to. I'm 6'2 with an athletic/muscular build. ;] So I tried it out and the trigger wasn't great as well as only holding 15 rounds in that large package. So, okay... I'll work with it. What're 2 fewer rounds? Nothing really, but when you're looking at all options, you're looking at all options. So I bought a $150 Match Trigger from HK Part dot net.
Had a professional install it... Was not...impressed...whatsoever. Even had some failures to reset.
All this searching. Hurricane Irma passed us and they were estimating 185-200mph winds. I was at my mother's house with my wife, our dogs, some friends and a ton of important things that we'd need to survive for weeks. We've all been through this before and having had no power in tropical weather Miami Florida, it's not fun. Looters, heat, irate individuals, etc.
While we all sat there in the darkness, I had escape routes planned if the roof was to blow off, sledgehammer ready to break into the concrete office building next door, tieing my family members to me one by one with hard hats and moving them next door... I looked over at the 2-3 bags of guns I had. Guns. Nothing but guns alone and they weighed about 100 pounds between all the bags. I said to myself: "screw this, I'm not a collector, I don't need all of this crap"
We survived the storm, cleaned up, and I began selling guns. I sold 90% of my handguns. Ones I didn't like, didn't shoot, didn't care for. I sold them all. Where did I put 98% of that money? Into savings. For a down payment on a house for my wife and I. No more apartment rentals, soon and no more sharing space with the nuclear mixed and match family sitcom.
I went to a shop to sign over a firearm through an FFL for an anal retentive buyer and then I saw it... Priced very well. And best of all, they didn't know what they had. At that price? A SIG Sauer P220 with no silly gimmicky name, but it had a beaver tail and a "Made in Germany" frame. Short extractor and night sights. Hold on, though. I'm mad at SIG... I shouldn't give them a dime. And this one is used, right? Wrong. I took it apart because I told them what had happened to me in the past and the frame rails were perfect and wearing into the old anodized-style of coloration. It was at gold. So I bought it.
Couldn't believe I did it, but I did. Shot like a dream. Shot like what I was used to. I haven't felt at home base in forever. The hold of the sights, the feel, the trigger in DA and reset of the SRT in SA. I was ecstatic. I missed this. Something I can take apart with my eyes closed. Shoot well. Have trained extensively. But wait, it's a 45. I love 45, but I'm a 9mm guy...
So I went out and bought an MK25. And that's been what I have been carrying for about a month now. And it feels like home base again. Second nature. It didn't have the SRT trigger installed. So got one for $39 and swapped out the parts. Then a Bruce Gray flat trigger for $47. So, the trigger is better than what I was already used to for all these years.
Sorry for the long-winded and blabbing post. But hey, it's a story. That's what we're here for is it not?
Moral of the story for me? Try not to have an emotional response to things. Yes, their CS with me sucked. I wish they'd explain more or at the very least have budged with me on something, but they didn't. However, I carry their guns for self-defense and work reasons. I trust their capabilities and reliability. I have 26,000 combined rounds over the course of 10 years between my old and no longer owned P226 and P229 pistols (no, not the crappy 229, that was 500 rounds).
I am also not a collector. I have had 60+ handguns and now I only have 5 and I still may cut a few of them out. I focus on self-defense, survival, and preparations for worst-case scenarios/natural disasters/civil unrest. AR, shotgun, 22lr rifle, and a couple of handguns are among the weapons I will possibly *need*. There is a Glock 19 in a crash bag for obvious reasons. Availability of mags and parts.
So, this is my little story on things. I have my MK25 and P220. Each with their own custom holsters and 5+ mags for each. The goal is at lease 12+ magazines for each and we're cooking with fire. I already have spare parts and all. They're what I can take apart the best and easiest as well as the Glock.
Chopping block guns are the HK45C and M&P 9L. But, we'll see.
Much love. If you made it this far, you're awesome.
