UPDATE 3: Sig Sauer P238 Range Report

[TLynnHughes]

I’ve made two trips to the range with the new Sig P238. I really like this gun. I’m almost surprised by how well I like it.

Good:
Trigger – The trigger pull is amazing. Not stiff but solid and pretty short.

Recoil – MINIMAL! I’ve heard all the horror stories about .380s and the recoil presumably because the gun is so small. That is not the case with this Sig. The recoil is light and manageable.

Accuracy – I ripped out the X ring with 2 mags (12 shots) at 5 yds. At 8 yds, I could keep the shots in a 6 inch circle without trying real hard.

Size – Small, light, but not difficult to hold on to or get a proper grip on as long as you don’ t mind your pinkie kind of hanging.

Now for the bad…

The first trip to the range was reasonably disastrous. I loaded the magazine, loaded the gun, racked the slide and prepared for the first round downrange, pulled the trigger…click….nothing. That’s a wonderful feeling. I finally determined that I had not inserted the magazine completely. Lesson #1 – the bottom of the magazine is flush with the bottom of the gun. It’s not like slamming a magazine into my H&K.

However, the issues continued. It was difficult to get through a six rounds without some sort of problem. I was more than a bit concerned. And it wasn’t just me because williamkevin had issues and later so did my sister-in-law and niece. Failures to feed, failures to eject, one stovepipe and finally, the slide stop would become loose. <sigh> Every once in a while, a complete six rounds would work fine but very inconsistently.

When I was done with the range and milling about the firearms store, I talked to the manager about the slide stop, thinking that was probably the largest issue. He looked at it and saw that the spring that puts tension on that piece was popped out a bit. He reset that, but I was done shooting and went home.

Well, I couldn’t stand it…woke up this morning and decided I needed to go to the range and troubleshoot the issues one at a time. With the first four magazines, I had the same issues over and over, even the slide stop thing again. Broke into a new box of ammo and an amazing thing started happening…the problems completely stopped and the gun worked flawlessly for the next 9 magazines of ammo.

So, right now it would seem that the ammunition was the problem. I started off with a box of Remington. We had had problems with Remington before with one of our other guns. The lip on the Remington seems to stick up more than some of the other ammo. I guess the Sig didn’t like it and that lip was keeping the ammo from feeding properly. Or at least, this is all we can assume at this time. Once we shifted to the American Eagle ammunition that we bought at the range, the problems vanished, including the slide stop issue. Weird, right?

Bottom line….I adore the gun. The good things about the gun make continued troubleshooting and problem solving worth the time for me. So, I’ll keep working with it. Any feedback is, of course, welcome!

T.

[williamkevin]

Yeah, that's a sweet shooting little pistol!!!!

[Sidro]

Glad you like the new Sig. Good to know about the Remington ammo, have not tried it in the 2 we have. Have tried Magtech, Speer, WWB and CorBon with no problems. Thanks for the range and ammo report.

[TLynnHughes]

It would seem that I was too hasty in my ammo issues assumption. Since I'm anxious to start actually carrying this gun, I went back to the range last night with a clean gun to try out some personal defense ammo. I tried some Aguila hollow points and immediately started having the same issues as before. Slide stop started sliding out again when you pull the slide back, failure to feed issues and the slide won't lock back on the last round. Switched to some Fiocchi target ammo and had the same problems though less often. I knew it was time to call Sig Sauer.

I was really dreading the phone call because I had read some really critical posts about Sig Sauer. I didn't really want to have to fight with anyone today. Well, I'm happy to report that the experience with Sig Sauer customer service was extremely pleasant. The rep gave me two options: I could go ahead and send in the gun or she could send me some parts to see if that would fix the problem. I opted for the latter for now. So Sig is sending me a new slide stop (Rainbow Titanium like the old one) and a new magazine to try out.

T.

[68Charger]

The more I read on the 238, the less I want it. Maybe I'll get their 2nd generation? Seems more of cons than pros at the moment. I don't like inconvenience either. ;)

[TLynnHughes]

The more I read on the 238, the less I want it. Maybe I'll get their 2nd generation? Seems more of cons than pros at the moment. I don't like inconvenience either. ;)

I can see what you're saying for sure. For me, I like the gun so well that I'll deal with the inconveniences. If it were just an "ok" gun, I'd just get rid of it and move on down the road. But I've never shot a gun this small that is this accurate and so really nice to shoot. As a trade off, I'll hang in there for a bit longer and see if I can get past the issues. If the gun never operates so well that I can depend on it, I will have to find something else. I do hope that's not the case.

T.

[gigag04]

I want a 238 - I like the idea of them, like the way they feel. However, for the price, I keep thinking the Khar was a better choice for NOW, out of the box. I will be getting a 238 soon, as the issues are fixed. Thanks for the report.

[Commander Cody]

I’m sorry you are having problems with your P238. I have one in the SAS model. I have 600+ rounds of various ammo through it without a problem. I love this gun. The only problem I have is that my wife loves it too.

[gwashorn]

My wife and I have put a few hundred through hers. S&B FMJ, Remington FMJ, Hornady Critical Defense and something else I forget. All worked fine. there is a mag issue and we are running 2nd and 3rd generation magazines.

Gary

[TLynnHughes]

My wife and I have put a few hundred through hers. S&B FMJ, Remington FMJ, Hornady Critical Defense and something else I forget. All worked fine. there is a mag issue and we are running 2nd and 3rd generation magazines.

Gary

I remembered reading about the mag issue somewhere (may have been here) so I am hoping that the new mag will help with the failure to feed issue. I don't know a lot about the internal workings of guns, but I can't make a correlation between a mag problem and the slide stop working its way out. Someone school me if I'm wrong.

For that reason, it feels like I'm having more than one problem with the gun so I'm thinking the new mag won't solve everything.

T.

[Salty1]

One thingI have found out about the 238's is that they like to run wet. I use Slide Glide on the rails and that makes a big difference, any good gun grease should work though. I make it look wet, not caked on, I also disassembled the mags and used a spray cleaner and lube on them. Might be worth a try.

[RECIT]

They sure look sweet but its a shame you are having issues. Problems happen in all walks of life, its how they are addressed that makes all the difference in the world. Glad to hear Sig is trying to help.

[Rex B]

One thingI have found out about the 238's is that they like to run wet. I use Slide Glide on the rails and that makes a big difference, any good gun grease should work though. I make it look wet, not caked on, I also disassembled the mags and used a spray cleaner and lube on them. Might be worth a try.

Mine was having serious hiccups during a recent range trip. Dropped it in the bag and shot something else.
Got it home and saw it was dry as a bone. All lubed up, runs like a train.

[Commander Cody]

I use Pro Gold grease on all of my guns slides.

[flintknapper]

We put 250 bobble free rounds through my brother's P238 this past weekend. I was quite impressed with the little gun.

FWIW, always disassemble, clean...and generously lube ALL semi-auto pistols before going to the range with them. I always use a good gun GREASE on the slide rails as well, oil just doesn't stay in place.

Failure of the slide to lock back is either magazine related (most likely) or the stop itself has a problem.

Failures to eject or feed (especially on small pistols) are often times related to the weapon getting dry (not enough lube) and/or "limp wristing".

All of these things must be eliminated before pointing to quality control issues.

Some pistols can be finicky about ammo....but usually its a "feeding" problem only.