Greetings again!
Well... I went ahead and did it... after much consideration and a bit of difficulty, I picked up my new Sig P239 (.40S&W) yesterday and I'm absolutely THRILLED!!!
The most amazing part of this whole process is that I had gone to 3 different area gun stores in the last few days, comparing the P239 to the P229 (the other model I was half-heartedly considering!) and had no problem finding it in 9mm, .40S&W, and at one gun store even a .357 Sig version. I found models both with and without night sights, and one used pistol that had extra mags and night sights included for a fairly good price. Imagine my complete and total SURPRISED SHOCK, after days of consideration, that when I actually went to purchase this gun with $$$ in hand there wasn't one to be found!!!!
Seriously... the supply had dried up almost literally overnight, and all that was left was a pair of 9mm with night sights (I wasn't even remotely interested in that caliber), a .40S&W with night sights that was WAY overpriced ($125 more than I had seen the IDENTICAL model across town) and another .40S&W without the night sights in the next city over (yes... at this point I was growing desperate and actually began making calls to neighboring cities up to 50 miles away!). I called on the used .40S&W with the extra mags, and discovered that it had been sold 2 days before... I began to seriously wonder what was going on!!!
I finally decided as a last resort to drop by the last local gun store I knew about, one that I rarely went to because they don't have a very large selection and mostly specialize in rifles... and found to my surprise that they had a .40S&W P239 in stock with night sights. They wanted $100 more than the previous store (which, like the rest had NONE in stock)... but after talking to the owner for a bit and telling him of his competitors price he amazed me by matching the other stores price! I bought it on the spot... and asked him why he thought stock all over town had dried up so fast. He told me that a Sig Sauer representative had told him personally over the phone a few days before that all Sig pistol shipments were being put on hold for at least 2 weeks because of the problems in New Orleans... and that magazines for some Sig models were becoming VERY hard to find. I finally connected the dots... and kicked myself for not expecting something like this to happen in the aftermath of the hurricane!
In any case, I walked out of the store with a brand new P239 and immediately took it to a local indoor range. I shot 3 boxes of ammo through it (150 rounds total), each box a different brand and bullet type. I used CCI aluminum cased 180gr FMJ's (worst groups), Winchester 155gr. hollowpoints, and Remington 155gr. hollowpoints (best groups). All of the groups I shot seemed to be low and to the left, approx. 3" in both directions. My group sizes ranged from 6" down to 3" at 25 yards, depending on the ammunition and my shooting... which I admit was not so great as I was becoming accustomed to the new pistol and trying different stances, holds, decocker/DA function experimentation, sight alignments, etc. to the point that it was almost laughably unscientific. In any case, I figured out a few things, and next time I go to the range I expect my groups sizes to shrink a bit. First thing I learned is that the rock-solid death-grip I use with my .40 S&W Glocks is not the best for the P239, it almost seemed like if I relaxed my hand a bit the group tightened up! Very interesting....
EVERY SINGLE ROUND fired perfectly... not a single failure to feed, stovepipe, misfire, or any other problem of ANY kind. Hmm.... this was starting to remind me of my Glocks!
In any case, I absolutely LOVE the P239 so far... even though I haven't yet shot it up to the standards that I expect of MYSELF... this is no reflection on the pistol whatsoever!!! It looks great, it feels PERFECT in my hands, the recoil is tame... all-in-all a truly excellent weapon that I feel almost ashamed to not be doing justice to by my poor shooting today! I know the pistol is up to the task, I managed to shoot a perfect 3/4" group of 3 shots during one of my tests with the Remington ammo... once I do my part this will be an AWESOME handgun.
Anyway... enough of the rambling, I just wanted to share the joy of my new purchase... I think this pistol is a real keeper!
Best wishes,
Bawko
