New Project

So, Sig Sauer is adding .380 to the caliber options for their P250 line of pistols. In the Compact size, this means a pistol roughly comparable in size to a P229 or Glock 19, but a 15-shot .380 ACP instead of 9mm.

.380 generally being considered an inferior cartridge to 9mm for self defense, why would someone choose it over the equivalent nine?

Well, this is the easiest slide to cycle on any centerfire pistol I have ever handled in all my born days. Because it's a short-recoil operated pistol and not a straight blowback gun, the recoil spring is very light. In order to make the recoil-operation work with only the impulse of a .380's recoil to drive it, they had to make several other modifications...

The chamber area has several lightening cuts milled in it, while the top of the barrel hood rises at a more pronounced angle than the 9mm version.

The underside of the slide also shows where some mass has been pared.

The gun shoots fine. I fired ninety rounds of Lucky Gunner's Fiocchi .380 through it (I let The Jack fire the last ten) and it ran fine. The gun ran flat, with hardly any muzzle flip and was extremely pleasant to fire when compared to comparably-sized blowback .380s like those from Beretta and Taurus.

Obviously the P250's double-action-only trigger is going to take some getting used to for me. Once I realized I needed more finger on the trigger, my point-of-impact shifted toward the center, rather than high and left.

So, that's a hundred rounds through the gun. Let's shoot 1,900 more and see what happens, eh? Because if it runs like I hope it will, this thing would be a boon to people who, for reasons of infirmity, can't manage a regular nine. This'd be one hell of a Grandma Gun...
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