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How just "Taking a look" leads to buying, lol! Sig Sauer P226 Tacops 9mm

So, I went to visit my buddy Hermes at Reliable Gun the other day, and as my other friend Jay likes to say, "what's the harm in looking".  Famous last words before buying anything, lol!  Anyways, I went to chat with my pal and I realized that the only handguns I have are 1911s.  I love them but I've always wanted a little variety.  A while ago, I bought a Beretta 92FS, and it was a finely crafted pistol, but it just didn't feel right.  I guess I was used to the 1911 trigger (short reset, almost no take up, and clean break) because the 92FS felt like I was squeezing that trigger forever before it released.  Anyway, with that mindset, I should never have gone to the gun store to just have a look, but I did....

I looked at a few different guns, and I've been eyeing the Walter PPQ, but Reliable was sold out so I'll have to wait for their new shipment which should be arriving in July sometime.

There was a CZ Shadow

Chiappa Rhino, not quite at the top of my want to buy list, but definitely interesting enough to get on it, haha!

More CZ Shadows, the one on the left is a Shadow Mate Canadian Edition.  A bit too much for me at the moment, $1,800.

There used to be a Glock IOP where you could get a G17 for $500 and change....now, because of the crappy exchange rate, the cheapest I can find one of these for is $690....still not bad, better than full retail.  I'll probably get one of these eventually.

The last thing I saw was this Sig Sauer P226 Tacops.  I've never had much interest in Sigs, though I was sort of intrigued when back in high school a friend of mine had an airsoft version and I thought it was pretty neat.  Anyways, Hermes took this out of the display,used gun, already my interest is fading.  That said however, the first thing I noticed was how remarkably unworn it looked for a 3 year old gun.  He took the slide off and there was no visible wear on the frame or the controls.  The bluing on the outside of the barrel had some wear but looking into the bore, it looked shiny, fresh with very little wear.  

I played around with it for a bit, and was surprised that the trigger had far less take-up than I expected, and the reset was even shorter.  It's still not nearly as little as a 1911, but it was light years ahead of my old Beretta.  I found out about the SRT later on.  

The other thing was this Sig came with 8 mags instead of the normal 4.  The mags alone are worth about $60 a piece apparently, so factoring that into the price, it was looking like a pretty good deal.

Next was the model type.  Hermes said it was a Tacops model.  I had no clue what that meant, but a little research revealed that these run $1,315 plus tax.  Here are some specs blatantly stolen from the interwebs:

The SIG SAUER® P226® Tactical Operations is a full-sized 9mm pistol, featuring a stainless steel slide with rugged, wear-resistant Nitron® finish, front cocking serrations and SIGLITE® rear night sight, a TRUGLO® Tritium Fiber Optic front sight and features the Short Reset Trigger or SRT. SIG engineers designed the SRT to provide you the same great safety and smooth action of the SIG DA/SA with a comfortable reset that is 60% shorter for faster trigger return and surgical control during high speed shooting. The beavertail frame is black hard anodized light weight alloy with integral Picatinny rail and polymer Magwell grips. The pistol comes with four (4) 10 round magazines so it’s ready to see action. The SIG SAUER P226 tactical Operations pistol is backed by SIG SAUER with a Limited Lifetime Warranty.





Specifications

Caliber 9mm

Action Type DA/SA

Trigger Pull DA 10.0 lbs

Trigger Pull SA 4.4 lbs

Overall Length 8.20 in

Overall Height 5.5 in

Overall Width 1.5 in

Barrel Length 4.4 in

Sight Radius 6.3 in

Weight w/Mag 34.0 oz

Sights SIGLITE® Night Sights,


Grips Polymer Magwell Grips

Frame Finish Black Hard Anodized

Slide Finish Nitron®

Accessory Rail Yes

Features: SRT Trigger, Accessory Rail, Front Cocking Serrations, (4) Mags

Anyway, I went home and did a bit of reading and the more I read, the more I was interested.  For $1k, it was a great price already, but it also came with 4 extra mags, even though they're the neutered Canadian version (the US model comes with 20 round mags).  I went back the very next day, started the transfer, and today, the transfer was complete so I went to pick it up and off to the range I went, haha!

Since it was a used gun, there was no real "unboxing", but I threw it all in the original box for effect of the photo shoot, haha! 

Actually, two of the mags that came with the Sig were still in their original wrappers and not even used, but at the range, I tested out all 8 mags, and there were no feeding issues, no issues at all actually.

The two mags on the right were still in the original wrapper when I got the pistol, what little wear there was on there was from me at the range.  I read somewhere else that the finish on the mags wear off fast, but we'll see.

The Mecgar mags were all in decent shape as well.  Would trade them all to legally own the 20rnd mags, haha!

Anyway, gauging by the wear on the outside of the barrel, the condition of the bore, and the condition of the mags, we guessed that the previous owner likely dry-fired it a lot, but probably didn't actually shoot it that much. Either that, or it's just a testament on the quality of Sig barrels. 

I took these pictures after the range, so no, it's not clean.  I put about 100 rounds through it and though I'm not a great shot, I felt that I was able to keep my groups smaller than I was ever able to with my Beretta.  My best shooting pistol is still my Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced, however I do have more time with that pistol than this one.  I think I'll probably like this Sig though, because the groupings did tighten up after a few mags through it.  I also didn't mind the feel of the trigger, and I'm very 1911 biased when it comes to triggers.