sig 226 DAK impressions

[deputy125]

Well, today i received my new dept issued sig 226 DAK in 40 s&w. I am severely impressed.............

First things first, i guess i need to talk about the old issued sig, the sigpro model 2340. This sig in itself was a purty fair duty pistol. The sig pro is of course part of sig's value line i guess as it is about the cheapest new duty sig a feller can get. A good gun for the most part as this one was the traditional da/sa format. And to my way of thinking and experience, the sig pro has a lot of guns beat in the trigger dept. The DA while heavy was purty short stroke and smooth, and the SA on my sig pro was one of the finest i've ever encountered in any da/sa pistol........very light and almost glass rod break in feel and on par with a lot of upper 1911's. And of course being a sig, the gun had very smooth lines and although rather blocky could still be concealed fair.

As far as down-sides for the sig pro, this older model still did not have the best grip to it. Not enough grooves or stippling to my mind making the grip a little slippery. And even though the gun came with two different sizes of grips, the smallest grip was still a bit large to get consistant hold time and again out of the holster. Skate board tape helped but still there are better fitting guns out there at least for me. In all honesty, i also did not care for the sig pro's 10 rd magazine design. Never cared for any weapon where the magazine actually became a part of the grip for the gun. Remove the mag from a sig pro and it was kind of like blackhawk shooting-----you just can't get that last finger on the grip. With the magazine in place, you have a full grip but it is still a little walkie-jaw loose in feel. Not a big deal for some but i did not care for it.

Shooting-wise, the sig pro has never failed me.......not once. a very reliable accurate gun for a 40 cal. Recoil was not bad though the gun did seem at least in feel to sit higher in the hand than traditional sigs such as the 226. Still don't care for the sig decocker as a lefty but at least the mag release is reversable for a lefty which i like especially for this model. Did not take much pressure to activate the mag release and being a lefty, the traditional right hand mag release is generally exposed on the outside of a left-handed holster making bumping into anything a possibility of hitting the button and releasing the mag. Switching the release to the other side protects the mag button and puts the location against the body.  Call it a gun problem, holster problem, or the left-hand curse........whatever the reason, it was a problem at times and switching the mag release cured it.

With this older sig pro, it had rather inconvient light rails on it that would not fit main-stream tactical lights. The take-down of the pistol can be described as similar to a ruger "P" series. The only difference is that there is no ejector to push down into the magazine well as in the "P" series. I guess the finish was ok and had held up fair with the amount of weather and holstering this gun has been thru.....though the plastic frame sure did show its share of cuts and scrapes but that is just "character"........

Now for the 226 DAK----this is a different animal all-together. First thing i'd like to say when i opened the box was this is one dang good looking serious social occasion pistol. Nothing looked cheap about it. The grip on this puppy was a dream. Dang good fine multi-line checkering on the metal front grip frame and good texture on the grip the rest of the way around.......to the point that it actually felt like it already had skate board tape on it. No problem with slippage with this grip wet or dry-----no hogues required for me here.....

The next thing i noticed is that this gun has one severe heavy recoil spring----much heavier than the sig pro. This actually suprised me when i racked the slide as to the amount of force necessary to rack it. Quite apparent i'm going to be practiceing some "tap-rack-bang" drills to get accustomed to this spring force-----about the only comparison i can make is to a 40 cal browning high-power from memory----and this sig actually felt heavier. I actually had difficulty tripping the slide release due to the tension of the spring. Made up my mind right then and there that i was going to "sling-shot" this slide when reloading and ignore the slide release button until she breaks in......but this has advantages i'll go into later......

Magazines where steel----no plastic floor plates here. And the mags are not "part of the grip". These mags held 12 rounds of 40 compared to the sig pro 10 rounders and the 226 mags had more of a parkerized type(don't know if it is parkerized) finish compared to a polish "blue" type finish on the pro's mags. The 226 40 cal mags however were a bear to load. Great difficulty encountered at around round #9 and an almost thumb-busting numbing effect to load round 12. a factory glock 22 load tool was used to initially top off the mags. in all fairness, after several loadings, the mags did seem to get a bit easier to load. i suspect leaving them compressed for a bit and keep working with them will change their attitude and mine. i'm planning to down-load one round in them for a while. The 226 mags are stamped as mec-gar product while i did not see any markings on the sig pro mags (they do "look" like mec gars).

Take down for the 226 i guess you could say is the traditional sig style of their metal frame guns. just lock the slide back on an empty mag, rotate the take down lever 90 degrees, remove the mag, and hang on for dear life tripping the slide release to ease the slide off the front------i did mention this puppy has some stout springs. After that, tear down is purty normal. And here is where i noticed the difference in recoil springs and found my first piece of plastic inside the gun. The recoil spring for the 226...for lack of knowing the proper term....appeared to be a braided type thick coil spring of good strength sitting on a plastic guide rod. (ok, i'll admit it, the sig pro plastic guide rod has held up well  ) Again, care is required in lifting the guide rod/spring out as it could shoot off into parts unknown. Another noticeable feature in the gun was the slide rails. The 226 has more of what i would call traditional slide rails running a good length down the frame with a short interuption while the sig pro has two very massive short sections of slide rails up front and a very small section of rails in the rear. Beats me as to which is better........

This 226 is also their "R" model which means it has what i call the standard "pickinney" slide rails to accept common tac lights and accessories. And as previously mentioned, this has the DAK trigger-----OUT-STANDING!!!. In all honesty, i really can not give justice describing this trigger other than to say
1. no need for a decocker
2. very consistant trigger pull with no da/sa transition
3. almost like a very short dao trigger except it is lighter and very consistant----way better to me than a traditional dao and i actually prefer this trigger to a single action auto for a defensive gun.

i guess if you just wanted to bullseye shoot, going with the traditional DA/SA and cocking for the first shot would be better......but defensive wise, i love this  dak trigger.

I cleaned her up, greased her up, and headed to the range with the Sheriff and another deputy to get qualified. In short, we qualified "cold" with no warming up or practice shooting. We all qualified easily and i must say rather impressively with this 226 dak with all rounds going into the "10" and "9" ring of standard B-27 targets. That in itself speaks well for the gun and trigger design shooting "cold".

I then played with it a bit afterwards and 25 yard head shots were no problem. Up close in the 5 yard range, the dak trigger and good grip also showed to be a good combination for point shooting. And the dak trigger again gave good results for weak hand only shooting and control....much better than the sig pro and fighting thru the initial heavy da first shot.

I also called sig and they did advise a certified sig armorer can reverse the mag catch for me without voiding the warranty. This will happen shortly.

And finally...........the advantage of that very heavy slide spring.........as in this 226 40 cal was very soft shooting. Matter of fact, i thought this was without a doubt the softest shooting 40 s&w pistol that i have ever shot in my life. Recoil management was down right easy with this gun and it puts just about any other 40 cal pistol i've shot to the best of my memory a distant 2nd in the felt recoil dept.

This is a LE model as it came with 3 mags. Don't really know if it is any different over the civilian models in any major way, but as i said, i'm severely impressed. The Sheriff did not say how much these things cost........more than i can afford right now, but i can say right now i am very pleased. Still not a fan of the 40 though.......and i don't know if i would ever reload fo the 40 and this pistol as i fear 40 cal ka-booms from weakened brass..........but a 9mm version i would have no problems owning........and i would really like to get my hands on a 220 dak just to try........but this 226 format/size just almost seemed perfect.

The jury is still out as far as durability, but if first impressions count for anything, this gun has really roped me into believing she is about perfect for duty carry. Of course all this is personal opinion, your miilage may vary as they say.....but we are plum tickled with the 226 DAK.

I still won't give up my revolvers for ccw, but i might be tempted to try this sig just to see how she works out for ccw.

[Kid Shelleen]

Thanks Deputy for a thorough and well laid out review from a man who obviously know his stuff.

My Constable up here recently switched to the 226 DAK. He told me he really liked it. So much that he had ordered them for all of his deputies. That was about all I got out of him, he was in a hurry.

After reading your thoughts, I'm sold. I would also like the 9mm version. I prefer the penetration of the 9mm and the 226 offers 15 rds in 9mm.

I understand that the DAK trigger is available on a lot of their models. I'm just a little old fashioned and I like revolvers that go bang each and every time. I also like pistols that are not made of polymer. I've had a Glock 17 since they first came out and it's a great gun, but I still like the feel and heft of a real gun in my hands. You can't have a shootin iron if it's plastic. I don't have to strap it on all day, so weight doesn't matter and I rarely pack anything full sized for concealed carry.

Thanks again, you've sold me...........now I just need to scrape together the sizeable amount of cash needed to buy one.

[fightingquaker13]

Great review deputy, and welcome. That was etremely informative. If I hadn't just gotten a new Glock, my eyes might have wandered. As far as spring and magazine stiffness, don't hold your breath. I co-own (actually I've been "borrowing') my dad's 30 year old Browning High Power for about five years and it still takes 2 men and a boy to cock it or load a mag. My Merkel SxS is the same way. The Europeans like them stiff, but better than the reverse. Sounds like a great pistol and I hope you got to keep your old one.
FQ13