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Chapter 4

The SIG P228

A more compact version of the P226 9mm, complete with the bigger gun’s reliability and accuracy.

Introduced in 1988, the P228 is essentially a P226 9mm shortened at muzzle and butt for easier concealed carry. I Despite a shorter (3.86-inch) barrel and proportionally shorter sight radius, the P228 delivers the same excellent accuracy of its big brother.

How accurate is that? I recently took a nearly new P228 to the range, equipped with a LaserMax sighting unit, which I turned off for the 25-yard accuracy testing. The 25-yard bench rest line I usually employ for this was in use, so I set up in one of the IDPA shooting bays, which had a Kriss-Kross barricade set up at the 25-yard line. This particular range prop gets its name from an IDPA match stage which forces the shooter to fire at three targets from each side of the barricade high, and each side of the barricade low, changing positions in a diagonal fashion. The cross beam marks the boundary between the high and the low positions. It is at a height where, with a minimum of contortions, I could brace the heel of the support hand on the cross beam and the back of that hand against the vertical portion of the wooden barricade at the same time. This allowed an unusually steady hold for a strong-side barricade position.

Five different loads were tested, running the gamut from 950 to 1250 feet per second in velocity and 147 to 115 grains in bullet weight, and encompassing four well-known brands. Each five-shot group was measured three times. The first measurement was all five shots, to indicate practical accuracy that could be expected in a solidly braced cover position. The second was the best three shots, always a good predictor of the gun’s inherent mechanical accuracy with the given round since human error is largely accounted for. Finally, because this particular gun showed a very consistent “4+1” shot placement factor, the best four hits were also measured to get one more perspective on the gun’s grouping tendencies. The results are shown above.

Ah, the unexpected changes and variables of shooting. Note that the ammo with the loosest overall group, PMC, also had the tightest measurement of 1/2 an inch in the Best 3 category with two shots in a tight double hole. Two out of five loadings gave Best 3 groupings of under an inch.

This 2-inch group at 25 yards, fired from a barricade position with Winchester USA 147-grain subsonic, shows the P228’s extraordinary accuracy.

The “4+1” element was very consistent here, with the first hand-chambered shot always going higher than the subsequent four rounds that were automatically cycled into the firing chamber by the SIG’s recoil-operated mechanism. The photos show that the groups tended to be larger in vertical measurement than in horizontal. The lateral measurement was only about 3/4 of one inch for the PMC, 2 inches for the Black Hills, and barely over an inch for the Remington, and so on.

The P228 was issued in the thousands by the FBI. Read the comments of Richard Law and Peter Brookesmith in The Fighting Handgun on the Bureau’s temporary return to the 9mm after experiencing problems with their trademark 10mm. “The FBI, meanwhile, went back to 9mm after all, and in 1996 were issuing their agents with SIG-Sauer P228 pistols – a choice automatic, but not a .40.” (1) Law and Brookesmith, it should be noted, are advocates of larger calibers.

The P228 succeeded in its design parameter, which was to be a concealable handgun of adequate power with a substantial magazine reservoir. The Outback concealed carry vest has worked well for the author and many of his staff, associates, and students.

This particular P228 shows “4+1 syndrome” with 147-grain subsonic ammo, but still shows splendid grouping potential.

The FBI was not the only Federal law enforcement agency to adopt the P228. So did the Internal Revenue Service for its armed enforcement personnel. The DEA issued a great many P228s, and a number of U.S. Marshals have carried that sidearm as well.

The U.S. military, however, made the most striking purchase of SIG P228s by the Federal government. In what many saw as confession and atonement for the decision that had been made in the service pistol trials, the P228 was designated the M11 and issued to CID (Criminal Investigation Division, the “detective branch” if you will of the Military Police). Firearms authority Tim Mullin had the following to say in his book The 100 Greatest Combat Pistols. “…(The) U.S. military really wanted the SIG P226 when it sought a 9X19mm pistol, but got stuck with the Beretta M9/M10. Well, some military units got around adopting the Beretta by opting for the SIG P226 anyway, rebuilding old Government Models (as did Delta), or buying Glock 21s, as did the Marine Corps.”

Continues Mullin, “After the M9/M10 was adopted, all of a sudden it dawned on some people that this was a big pistol. There were many different pistols in the U.S. military inventory simply because big pistols don’t work for every situation. But the military had spent a lot of money convincing Congress that it needed one caliber to rationalize ammunition control, 9X19mm. As soon as the call went out for a smaller pistol for women, criminal investigators, and others, the P228 was developed. Now, anyone who knows anything about guns knows that it is not the length of the barrel that makes it difficult to conceal a pistol, but rather its width. The P228 was shorter than the M9/10, but just as wide since it used a double-column magazine. If the military services needed a smaller weapon, you think they would have gone to the single-column version of the M92. Had they done that, the manual of arms training would have been the same. Instead, they adopted the P228, calling it the M11, which meant extra training. Of course, the P228 was merely a shortened version of the pistol they originally wanted, and that was probably the major element in the decision.” (2)

When Britain’s SAS adopted the P226 as its primary fighting pistol to replace its former trademark gun, the Browning Hi-Power, “the regiment” also acquired a quantity of the more compact P228s. Known to work in undercover/ plainclothes modes against terrorists, they wanted a handgun which would be reasonably concealable yet eminently shootable under stress. By all reports, they are delighted with both the P226 and the P228 in their respective roles within SAS mission profiles. Observes Mullin, “The British Army made a better decision in adopting the P226 for general use and the P228 for those requiring a smaller weapon. It would have been even better for it to have taken the P225, but high-capacity autoloaders are the rage for those who plan to miss a lot.” (3)

The P228 was not limited to plainclothes operatives, however. Many police departments thought enough of the gun that they adopted it department wide, issuing it to uniformed officers as well as plainclothes investigators. The rationale was that with 14 shots (13 in the original pre-ban magazines and subsequent LEO magazines, and one more in the firing chamber), the P228 brought them nearly equal the firepower they would have been afforded with the larger SIG P226. They also had a pistol which, being shorter overall and particularly in the butt, was much more amenable to concealed carry.

P228, below, is descended from the P226, above.

This has several advantages. Many private citizens looking at police weapons purchases do not take into consideration that today’s uniformed officer is tonight’s off-duty cop, and tomorrow’s plainclothes investigator. If you issue separate guns for uniform division and detective division, there are extra guns that must be accounted for to the bureaucracy. There are extra training hours and qualifications that must be scheduled when a uniformed patrolman is promoted to detective, or when a detective is promoted to sergeant and rotated back to uniformed patrol.

Some police departments still require their sworn personnel to be armed at all times when off duty except when they plan to consume significant quantities of alcohol. Most, at minimum, encourage off-duty carry. Only a handful of agencies (in the United States, at least) forbid their cops from carrying on their own time.

For the off-duty policeman and his department and his firearms instructors, having one gun for both plainclothes and uniform wear solves many problems. It guarantees that the officer will have maximum familiarity, confidence, and competence with the one gun he has trained with most, and carries all the time. It is one less gun to keep track of in terms of department records. It is one less set of skills the officer must learn, and one less set of qualifications that the often beleaguered range staff must put him through.

P228 is shown with optional extended floorplate magazine…

Consider the Vermont State Police. When they switched from the six-shot revolver, the pistol they adopted was the SIG P228. Troopers carried it in exposed duty holsters in uniform. Plainclothes officers carried it in concealed, safety-strapped holsters. And all sworn personnel, no matter what their assignment or daily dress code, had it to carry off duty.

The result was uniform competence and confidence with the State Police sidearm. The troopers I talked with loved the pistol for its reliability, its good fit to the hand, its light weight on the hip during a long tour of duty, and its comfort and discretion in concealed carry. Similarly, the instructional staff sang its praises. The troops shot it well, found it quick and easy to learn, and were able to easily maintain it in perfect condition.

In the end, the only reason the Vermont State Police traded in their P228s was that the agency found the same fault with it that Law and Brookesmith had. It was a 9mm, and they decided that the more potent .40 S&W caliber would be a better choice. The VSP traded up to the SIG P229 in .40 caliber. They still carry the same gun on and off duty, in uniform or in plainclothes. They still appreciate compactness with firepower as afforded by a double-stack compact pistol. And they still swear by their SIGs.

America’s armed citizens also liked the P228. From the time of its introduction to the coming of the high-capacity magazine ban in 1994, we saw a great many of them in the civilian classes at Lethal Force Institute. The owners were usually licensed to carry concealed unless they came from a state with no provision for such a permit, and they appreciated the P228’s concealability as much as any plainclothes cop, and found the small, high-capacity pistol substantial enough for the added function of home defense. Once again, the dual-purpose thing kicked in: The carry gun could also function admirably as the house gun.

… which when inserted, better fits the hands of some shooters.

After the Clinton magazine ban, we saw a shift in what might be called “SIG demographics” among the civilian students. Before, we had seen both the P226 and the P228 in copious numbers. Gradually, we saw the P226s replaced by P228s, P220 .45s, and P239s when the latter became available. The civilian market had decided, reasonably enough, that a full-size 10-plus-one-shot pistol was less efficient and therefore less desirable than a full-size 15-plus-one-shot pistol. The P228, on the other hand, suffered less by comparison. Proportionally, a 10-plus-one-shot compact pistol is not so much less efficient than a 13-plus-one-shot compact pistol.

However, while some citizens who formerly would have purchased P226s went to the P228, I had a sense that more were going to the P220 in .45 ACP and particularly the “personal size” P239 when it came out. A distinctly smaller gun than the P228 and holding only two less rounds of 9mm ammunition, the P239 in that caliber seemed a more advantageous design to a number of buyers who were interested in that caliber. The compactness of the P239 coupled with the power of its two other optional chamberings, .40 S&W and .357 SIG, switched still more buyers from the P228 to the P239.

Today, the SIG P228 remains an excellent pistol. Even at inflated “post-ban” prices, pre-ban magazines of full capacity were absolutely worth it to private citizens who appreciated the pistol’s reliability, accuracy, compactness, and shooting characteristics.

The P228 is the concealed carry choice of John Hoelschen, a Special Forces trainer whose teaching encompasses CQB, unarmed combat, and field treatment of gunshot trauma. John has won the demanding National Tactical Invitational with his personal P228. When John Hoelschen talks, wise people listen. When he acts, wise people follow his actions.

For many years, the P228 was the preferred sidearm of Duane Thomas, a gun writer who shoots a lot, competes, and teaches. He performs well in all these endeavors, and he takes his personal self-defense very seriously. Duane spoke dryly of his P228’s “almost boring reliability,” and in the end, that says a lot.

P228 Idiosyncrasies

All standard advice for the SIG-Sauer system applies. Remember that with the shorter grip frame, as with all auto pistols that have this feature, there is a chance of the flesh of the pinkie finger being pinched between the magazine floorplate and the bottom edge of the frame during a fast reload. Learn to keep that finger out of the way during the loading/ reloading process.

SIG magazines are preferred. MecGar is the only other brand of magazine I would trust in the P228 pistol. SIG now offers an attachment for P226 magazines that allows them to fit in the P228 without a gap in the frame. The larger magazines work fine. This attachment gives the shooter a surer grip, and is also more esthetically pleasing. It has been suggested that this adapter also acts as a “magazine stop” to keep the mag from traveling too far upward when slammed into the gun. I suppose that’s true, but my experience is that even trying to jam the pistol by vigorously slamming a P226 magazine into a P228, I have been unable to cause a problem. The tapered magazine, by its nature, does not want to over-travel, a problem which occurs epidemically in short-butt 1911 compacts when loaded at slide-lock with single-stack Government Model magazines which do not have the natural detent effect of the double-stack SIG’s tapered magazines. Because the P226 was in production much longer before the ban on full capacity magazines, there are more pre-ban P226 magazines than pre-ban P228 magazines available on the legal market.

Some shooters have commented that in general, the P226 action feels smoother and lighter than that of the P228. While that may have been true to a minor degree in the early days of the P228, in recent production runs the P226 and P228 are virtually indistinguishable from one another in this regard. Both are very smooth, with very crisp and controllable single-action pulls and a proper re-set distance for defensive work.

The P228 seems to be extraordinarily reliable with a broad range of ammunition. The 147-grain 9mm subsonic, which I’ve seen cause sluggish cycling and even malfunctions in some competitive brands, doesn’t seem to bother any of the SIGs including this one. The 115-grain bullet at 1350 feet per second, which has established such an enviable “stopping power” record in real world shootings and test shootings of animals, works perfectly in the P228. This round has been known to occasionally cycle a P225’s slide so fast that it will close before picking up the next round from its single-stack magazine. This does not seem to happen with the P228, whether you use pre-ban, post-ban, or LEO magazines. The military’s hot NATO ammo – hotter than domestic +P+, if you look at the pressure tests – cycles just fine in the M11/P228, as the military has found for years. There are no reports from the military of the M11/P228 failing to stand up as expected to this high-powered ammunition.

Using the same ammunition, I don’t find the P228 to kick any more than the P226. This sounds counter-intuitive, because the larger and heavier pistol is supposed to absorb more of the recoil impulse than the smaller and lighter one, but it’s simply an honest and true observation. Some shooters even perceive that the P228 jumps less than its bigger brother, theorizing that the shorter slide is traveling less distance and therefore moving the pistol less during the cycling process. All this is highly subjective. Suffice to say that the P228 is an extremely light-kicking handgun.

In Summary

Well conceived and well executed, the SIG P228 is a splendid example of the compact, high-capacity double-action 9mm pistol. It is extremely reliable and eminently shootable. Delivering a 2-inch group for five shots from a barricade position, and showing potential for sub-1-inch groups at the same 25-yard distance, it is one of the most accurate of its breed. The P228 is, overall, an excellent handgun.

References

1. Law, Richard and Brookesmith, Peter, The Fighting Handgun, London: Arms and Armour Press, 1996, P.157.

2. Mullin, Timothy J., The 100 Greatest Combat Pistols, Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1994, P. 385.

3. Mullin, Ibid.