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Acknowledgments

My friend Rich Davis, who saved thousands of lives (including mine) when he invented soft body armor, is fond of repeating something he learned in the Marine Corps: “No one person can do it alone.” That was certainly true in the preparation of the Gun Digest Book of the SIG-Sauer.

On the publication side, I want to thank Don Gulbrandsen, who had the confidence in me to assign me to do this book. I hope I haven’t let him down. And big thanks to my editor Kevin Michalowski, who also edited Gun Digest Book of a Combat Handgunnery, Fifth Edition. He’s a professional. Appreciation also goes to the gun magazine editors who granted me permission to reprint here some things I had done for them: Jim Gardner at GUNS, Roy Huntington at American Handgunner, Harry Kane at Harris Publications, and Ben Battles at On Target magazine.

On the mechanics of the SIG-Sauer, big thanks to Joe Kiesel at SIGARMS. His co-workers call him “Kiesel the Diesel,” and no one knows more about the history and the inside dope on manufacturing these pistols. Joe is the Technical Director at SIGARMS. Many thanks also to ace SIG pistolsmiths Ernest Langdon and John Quintrall, and master armorer Rick Devoid, for their very significant input and sound advice.

At SIGARMS, there are more people to thank than there is room to name. All have been wonderfully cooperative. In addition to Joe, Matt McLearn (head of the GSR project) and Dana Owen in Law Enforcement Sales have always been very helpful. Laura Burgess was extraordinarily helpful, and one of the best public relations people I’ve been privileged to work with in the firearms industry. I wish her well in her new career as a freelance PR consultant. Paul Erhard, her replacement, had just come on board when I was finishing this book, and his efforts are also much appreciated. When Ted Rowe was the man at SIGARMS, I could always reach him by phone, and always found him honest and forthright. He’s now at Sturm, Ruger and SIG’s loss is Ruger’s gain.

SIGARMS Academy is the part of the company that teaches what to do with the product when the rubber meets the road, and I’ve always been impressed with their professionalism. During the many years that Bank Miller, former chief firearms instructor of the DEA, ran the Academy, we were always able to work together helpfully and professionally despite the fact that I was director of a competing firearms academy only 45 minutes away. When I was a guest instructor at the DEA Academy in Quantico, Bank’s name was still spoken of with reverence there. Star instructor George Harris has been unstinting in his advice and commentary, and altogether too modest about his own significant accomplishments as a competitive shooter. Thanks also to Wes Doss, a competent shooter, writer, and instructor who allowed me to photograph him demonstrating some techniques for this book on the SIGARMS Academy range.

On my own staff at Lethal Force Institute, thanks go to instructors Steve Denney, Rick Devoid, Mike Izumi, Andy Kemp, Dennis Luosey and Jeff Williams, and assistant instructors Sally Bartoo, Tara and Al Miller, and Steve Sager.

Acknowledgment needs to be made to the many experts who are quoted in this book, most of whom I know and am proud to call friends. They include Peter Brookesmith, Ray Chapman, Wiley Clapp, Dean Grennell, Roy Huntington, Chuck Karwan, Richard Law, Evan Marshall, Tim Mullin, Walt Rauch, Ed Sanow, Ned Schwing, Dave Spaulding, Chuck Taylor, and Duane Thomas. Go back through the footnotes, and hit me with a rolled-up SIGARMS catalog if I missed any.

I can’t name the people who gave me inside stuff on the JSSAP’s exhaustive test of SIG versus Beretta, nor the SEALs and SAS guys who told me how much they liked the SIG P226, and why. Police instructors aren’t supposed to be seen as endorsing products, so I can’t publicly name most of them who gave me input on their departments’ long and extensive experience with these guns. These people know who they are, and I say to them now: “Thank You!”

Perhaps most of all I want to thank the countless cops, servicemen, and armed citizens who have gone through my Lethal Force Institute classes with SIG-Sauer pistols. Each of them was a piece in the jigsaw puzzle of what I was able to put together in this book about how these guns work in many different hands. It’s good to know that those SIG-Sauer bearing hands belong to a wide variety of good men and women who use them in the righteous cause of the protection of the innocent.

Massad Ayoob

Concord, NH USA

November 2003