Tweet
My much anticipated (at least by me) range trip to test out my P229 SAS finally happened today. 5 boxes of Blazer .40 S&W practice ammo, and two boxes of Remington high velocity jacketed hollow points later, I can say that I have drawn some conclusions on the peculiar little gun. First, I do want to specify that this particular pistol comes with the DAK (Double Action Kellerman) trigger, so anytime I reference the trigger that is the specific style I am talking about. Naturally the first thing that jumped out at me, even when dry firing, is that this trigger is heavy. I mean HEAVY. You really start to notice it after burning off a few boxes of ammo. The trigger pull is also pretty long, even after firing the first round when the trigger resets into a semi single action type position. Think of it as a halfway point between a standard DA/SA pistol. Finding were the trigger resets was a bit of a problem for me as a guy who is used to Glocks and 1911s, until I got used to it. And I haven't fully gotten used to it yet. That having been said, it isn't the worst trigger I've ever felt. It just isn't a very good one by my estimation. One illustration of this is that when I first started shooting all my rounds were impacting low. Really low. I tried holding over higher and it hardly helped. Perplexed I tried dry firing and saw that the trigger pull was so long and heavy that the muzzle started to point down as I muscled the trigger back to break the shot. It is definitely something that will take some getting used to.
Accuracy was very good when I took my time and was able to overcome the trigger. One thing I believe may contribute to this great accuracy is that the barrel locks up very tight when the slide is forward. It is almost a given that it will come to rest in the same spot after every round. 2 inch 25 yard groups were not a problem after some practice, but again, the trigger hurt accuracy. The sights helped in the accuracy department as the tritium night sight was easily picked up with the single dot rear sight. One sort of obvious disadvantage of the sight system is that only the front sight is tritium. In very low light the front sight post is easy to see, however the rear sight is a standard white dot that you cannot see in very low light. It doesn't do me much good to know where the front sight post is if I have no rear sight to judge it off of.
The function was flawless. This gun is not new, so I don't know what it was like during it's first few hundred rounds, but as I have it now I experienced zero malfunctions with either ammo type. The magazine release is well placed and my average sized hands had no difficulty actuating it when needed. The wood stocks look great but from a practical stand point they offer little in the way of positive pistol control. There is a small degree of checkering on the stocks, but nothing aggressive enough to offer the sort of grip that I prefer. The stocks are also quite bulky and although the pistol was designed to be snag free for concealment the width of the stocks might make that challenging.
Recoil was nothing unmanageable with either the practice Blazers, or the high velocity JHPs. The P229 is a pretty hefty pistol for a semi compact and it's all steel construction really absorbs a lot of the recoil of the powerful .40 S&W. A lot of that may have something to do with the strong twined recoil spring and the hefty slide. You can still definitely tell that you are firing a .40 however, nothing will change that completely.
Below is the breakdown of my ratings for this gun.
Ergonomics: 3 out of 5 stars. The wood stocks are a bit too wide for comfort.
Balance: 4 out of 5 stars. The pistol is a bit top heavy but nothing overly noticeable.
Recoil: 4 out of 5 stars. The all steel construction absorbed much of the .40 S&W's recoil.
Reliability: 5 out of 5 stars. No failures to feed, or eject.
Trigger: 2 out of 5 stars. Long and heavy, the trigger is easily the weakest part of this pistol.
Accuracy: 3 out of 5 stars. If not for the trigger complicating matters, the accuracy would be much better. Otherwise, very accurate.
All in all this is a good pistol. Reliability is great and if you want a heavy trigger as some sort of safety device then this would be a good choice for you. It will not replace the Glock in my nightstand, but would probably do a decent job of defending my life if it needed to. For me it was more of a collector's piece than a true self defense weapon. Cheers!
Accuracy was very good when I took my time and was able to overcome the trigger. One thing I believe may contribute to this great accuracy is that the barrel locks up very tight when the slide is forward. It is almost a given that it will come to rest in the same spot after every round. 2 inch 25 yard groups were not a problem after some practice, but again, the trigger hurt accuracy. The sights helped in the accuracy department as the tritium night sight was easily picked up with the single dot rear sight. One sort of obvious disadvantage of the sight system is that only the front sight is tritium. In very low light the front sight post is easy to see, however the rear sight is a standard white dot that you cannot see in very low light. It doesn't do me much good to know where the front sight post is if I have no rear sight to judge it off of.
The function was flawless. This gun is not new, so I don't know what it was like during it's first few hundred rounds, but as I have it now I experienced zero malfunctions with either ammo type. The magazine release is well placed and my average sized hands had no difficulty actuating it when needed. The wood stocks look great but from a practical stand point they offer little in the way of positive pistol control. There is a small degree of checkering on the stocks, but nothing aggressive enough to offer the sort of grip that I prefer. The stocks are also quite bulky and although the pistol was designed to be snag free for concealment the width of the stocks might make that challenging.
Recoil was nothing unmanageable with either the practice Blazers, or the high velocity JHPs. The P229 is a pretty hefty pistol for a semi compact and it's all steel construction really absorbs a lot of the recoil of the powerful .40 S&W. A lot of that may have something to do with the strong twined recoil spring and the hefty slide. You can still definitely tell that you are firing a .40 however, nothing will change that completely.
Below is the breakdown of my ratings for this gun.
Ergonomics: 3 out of 5 stars. The wood stocks are a bit too wide for comfort.
Balance: 4 out of 5 stars. The pistol is a bit top heavy but nothing overly noticeable.
Recoil: 4 out of 5 stars. The all steel construction absorbed much of the .40 S&W's recoil.
Reliability: 5 out of 5 stars. No failures to feed, or eject.
Trigger: 2 out of 5 stars. Long and heavy, the trigger is easily the weakest part of this pistol.
Accuracy: 3 out of 5 stars. If not for the trigger complicating matters, the accuracy would be much better. Otherwise, very accurate.
All in all this is a good pistol. Reliability is great and if you want a heavy trigger as some sort of safety device then this would be a good choice for you. It will not replace the Glock in my nightstand, but would probably do a decent job of defending my life if it needed to. For me it was more of a collector's piece than a true self defense weapon. Cheers!
Comment