Is the P320 market dead?

[GoldensRule]

Oh no, what a shame, they have to use the same handgun that Navy SEALS use? The horror

The only "ragging" I read in the article was about the department issuing SWAT officers weapons, from existing inventory, that are literally twenty years old. The P226 is a fine weapon but, none of the US Special Forces commands issue handguns that are anywhere near that old. Yes, Seals do use M60 machine guns and M79 grenade launchers that are as old or older then that but, those are meticulously maintained and upgraded.

What did I miss?

 

[GoldensRule]

I submitted a contact form at SigSauer.com 2 weeks ago asking if I could turn in my p320 X-Full and get a credit towards another gun, they never responded.

Man, talk about opening up a floodgate....... Apparently, Sig will need a figurative gun put to their head before they start any kind of an exchange program for 320's. It seems they would rather go into bankruptcy.

 

[GoldensRule]

You can tell they have very little gun knowledge whoever wrote that article.

What makes you say that? I didn't read any personal opinions or commentary other than reporting what he had been told or read. Seriously, I'm curious, not challenging you.

 

[socalgunowner909]

What makes you say that? I didn't read any personal opinions or commentary other than reporting what he had been told or read. Seriously, I'm curious, not challenging you.

1. Night sights “stopped working” – The piece frames this as if it’s an unexpected defect, but tritium night sights always dim over time, usually losing most of their glow after 10–12 years. That’s normal physics of radioactive decay, not a sudden failure. Someone familiar with firearms maintenance would likely note that they simply need replacement, not that it’s a sign of an unreliable gun.
2. Cracking slides presented without context – A cracked slide is serious, but the article doesn’t mention the age and round count of these P226Rs. If they’ve been in service for 20 years with regular training use, metal fatigue is expected. The omission of that context makes it seem like a recent quality problem rather than a normal end-of-life issue for a duty pistol.
3. Opening statement about most officers never firing a gun – This is true in terms of use in the line of duty, but the way it’s written could make an uninformed reader think police rarely fire at all. In reality, officers fire hundreds of rounds per year in mandatory training/qualifications, so their duty weapons are fired regularly, just not in actual combat situations. Someone with firearms familiarity would make that distinction clear.
4. Lack of mechanical explanation – The discussion of the P320 issue is basically a restatement of lawsuits and claims without technical detail about the trigger mechanism.

 

[GoldensRule]

1. Night sights “stopped working” – The piece frames this as if it’s an unexpected defect, but tritium night sights always dim over time, usually losing most of their glow after 10–12 years. That’s normal physics of radioactive decay, not a sudden failure. Someone familiar with firearms maintenance would likely note that they simply need replacement, not that it’s a sign of an unreliable gun.
2. Cracking slides presented without context – A cracked slide is serious, but the article doesn’t mention the age and round count of these P226Rs. If they’ve been in service for 20 years with regular training use, metal fatigue is expected. The omission of that context makes it seem like a recent quality problem rather than a normal end-of-life issue for a duty pistol.
3. Opening statement about most officers never firing a gun – This is true in terms of use in the line of duty, but the way it’s written could make an uninformed reader think police rarely fire at all. In reality, officers fire hundreds of rounds per year in mandatory training/qualifications, so their duty weapons are fired regularly, just not in actual combat situations. Someone with firearms familiarity would make that distinction clear.
4. Lack of mechanical explanation – The discussion of the P320 issue is basically a restatement of lawsuits and claims without technical detail about the trigger mechanism.

Yeah...... It was a news article for general circulation not an article in a gun magazine. Regardless of why sights might not work or why slides might crack, the point was the SFPD was issuing weapons with these defects. Really, that's all that matters, not why such defects happen, only that they are being issued defective weapons. If true, SFPD should be ashamed of itself for not fully inspecting and renewing any weapon before it's issued. Police officers are not expected to be armorers, certainly not in large departments.

The opening paragraph could have added the five words "in the line of duty", when I read it, I thought it was implied.

As for the 320, again, not a gun site or magazine. No point in getting into any of the details about the 320, the point was SFPD decided to 96 the guns, that's really all that matters, P320 out, old, decrepit P226 back in, also some Glocks.

I didn't read anything in the article that was misleading or inaccurate. Not meant to satisfy a gun enthusiasts curiosity. That's all just my humble opinion, your milage may vary.

 

[socalgunowner909]

Yeah...... It was a news article for general circulation not an article in a gun magazine. Regardless of why sights might not work or why slides might crack, the point was the SFPD was issuing weapons with these defects. Really, that's all that matters, not why such defects happen, only that they are being issued defective weapons. If true, SFPD should be ashamed of itself for not fully inspecting and renewing any weapon before it's issued. Police officers are not expected to be armorers, certainly not in large departments.

The opening paragraph could have added the five words "in the line of duty", when I read it, I thought it was implied.

As for the 320, again, not a gun site or magazine. No point in getting into any of the details about the 320, the point was SFPD decided to 96 the guns, that's really all that matters, P320 out, old, decrepit P226 back in, also some Glocks.

I didn't read anything in the article that was misleading or inaccurate. Not meant to satisfy a gun enthusiasts curiosity. That's all just my humble opinion, your milage may vary.

Sounds like you are politely challenging my opinion. which is cool. But I just think they over simplified and under explained in a lot of ways. Simple as that. Nothing i want to debate about.

 

[GoldensRule]

Sounds like you are politely challenging my opinion. which is cool. But I just think they over simplified and under explained in a lot of ways. Simple as that. Nothing i want to debate about.

That was much nicer then how my wife would have phrased it so, thanks!

 

[AR15barrels]

Leave it to an SF rag to somehow spin the replacement of P320s with P226s as some sort of a downgrade

I mean come on, everyone can see that 226 is less than 320.
They really should be going to the 340 or 350.
Even the 365 must be better because it's number is even higher!

 

[SteamedHams]

The only "ragging" I read in the article was about the department issuing SWAT officers weapons, from existing inventory, that are literally twenty years old. The P226 is a fine weapon but, none of the US Special Forces commands issue handguns that are anywhere near that old. Yes, Seals do use M60 machine guns and M79 grenade launchers that are as old or older then that but, those are meticulously maintained and upgraded.

What did I miss?

First of all, what's wrong with a 20 year old handgun? You and I both know that it's the round count, not age, that makes any difference. And beyond that, they call out the night sights as not working, as if thats not something that can be addressed in 5 minutes. That's about as relevant as dismissing a fleet of patrol cars because the headlamp bulbs need to be replaced. I find it hard to believe that SFPD would issue the guns without first replacing the NS; if so, then that's definitely a valid complaint. But I read it as being the inventory had dead sights, not that the issued guns have dead sights.

They make it sound like this is a downgrade, but IMO this is an upgrade, as the SA trigger on the P226 is much better than the striker-fired P320, and it's much nicer to shoot with better recoil impulse. The only thing the P320 does better is modular grips (but service guns all have the same Sig grips), is optics ready (but duty guns all use iron sights), and is lighter. That's it. If I were an SFPD officer I would be ecstatic to be carrying a 226 or 229 (and for that matter, every SFPD officer I've met has had a 226 or 229; I've never seen one with a P320).

 

[GoldensRule]

First of all, what's wrong with a 20 year old handgun? You and I both know that it's the round count, not age, that makes any difference. And beyond that, they call out the night sights as not working, as if thats not something that can be addressed in 5 minutes.

They make it sound like this is a downgrade, but IMO this is an upgrade, as the SA trigger on the P226 is much better than the striker-fired P320, and it's much nicer to shoot with better recoil impulse. The only thing the P320 does better is modular grips (but service guns all have the same Sig grips), is optics ready (but duty guns all use iron sights), and is lighter. That's it. If I were an SFPD officer I would be ecstatic to be carrying a 226 or 229 (and for that matter, every SFPD officer I've met has had a 226 or 229; I've never seen one with a P320).

1. I am no fan of the 320, I think it's a piece of crap.

2. I very much admire the P226.

3. A police service weapon that has been in use for twenty years should either be retired or completely refurbished before reissuing the weapon to any officer, especially a TAC / SWAT officer.

To issue a weapon with non-functional night sights, cracked slides and other defects is absolutely unacceptable. Almost as bad as issuing weapons that fire on their own.

 

[SteamedHams]

1. I am no fan of the 320, I think it's a piece of crap.

2. I very much admire the P226.

3. A police service weapon that has been in use for twenty years should either be retired or completely refurbished before reissuing the weapon to any officer, especially a TAC / SWAT officer.

To issue a weapon with non-functional night sights, cracked slides and other defects is absolutely unacceptable. Almost as bad as issuing weapons that fire on their own.

I 100% agree with that that bolded part. However, I don't believe any of the issued guns had dead sights, cracked slides, or other defects. I suspect that there are some in the pool of old guns that have those issues (or in the case of the dead sights, all of them), but presumably they would be reconditioned before being reissued. The only thing the article said about the slides is: "Since 2022, the department has retired more than 100 of the older pistols due to cracking slides". That doesn't suggest that any of the reissued guns have cracked slides, just that they've retired ones that did crack.

It's also kind of suspect that a single department has experienced 100 cracked slides in the past 3 years. I'm not aware of any widespread P226 slide cracking issues; I know there were some issues with the frame cracking at the rails, which was later fixed. In fact, if they had that many slides cracking, it would have been huge news, bigger than the P320 news.

 

[eaglemike]

Here is another testing video of the 320.
320 tested again by Thinking Man

 

[phred]

Leave it to an SF rag to somehow spin the replacement of P320s with P226s as some sort of a downgrade: https://sfstandard.com/2025/08/15/sfpd-guns-sig-sauer-malfunction/



Oh no, what a shame, they have to use the same handgun that Navy SEALS use? The horror

I've got a P226 I've had for 15 or 20 years that was a police trade in at the time. Probably put 300 to 500 rounds a year through it and never had a problem that I didn't cause. Replaced all of the springs when I got it and replaced the sights with night sights that probably need replacing again soon. Runs flawless and is accurate.

 

[Mil-Dot]

The only answer to this now is Yes absolutely yes.

 

[SIG4life]

Im a Sig fan, and the only way I’d own a P320 is if it was free, and I would keep it in the gun safe without ammo, where it is safe away from me haha! I would say that definitely the P320 is a bleeding market! Quite literally!

 

[21SF 2.0]

What issues does the P365 have? I keep seeing people saying how terrible they are but no one can tell me why.

They have had their own issues, the design isn’t much different than a 320, minor improvements in the safety/sear interaction.
I’ve heard of catastrophic failures, NDs, and anecdotally when I was in the market for one every range that had one, it was broken.
Its biggest flaw is that it’s an sig.
Feels great in the hand tho lol

 

[EsotericEpsilon]

They have had their own issues, the design isn’t much different than a 320, minor improvements in the safety/sear interaction.
I’ve heard of catastrophic failures, NDs, and anecdotally when I was in the market for one every range that had one, it was broken.
Its biggest flaw is that it’s an sig.
Feels great in the hand tho lol

The striker safety is a block in a P365, and is better than the striker safety flap in a P320.
Only issues I've heard of with P365 are trigger return spring failure and rust on slide and magazine.

 

[Mil-Dot]

They have had their own issues, the design isn’t much different than a 320, minor improvements in the safety/sear interaction.
I’ve heard of catastrophic failures, NDs, and anecdotally when I was in the market for one every range that had one, it was broken.
Its biggest flaw is that it’s an sig.
Feels great in the hand tho lol

I would love to know the so called issues on the 365 platform..I have a gen1 365XL that I have been EDC since july 2020 and haven't had 1 issue. I have probably 4-5 thousand rounds through it since then and it works perfectly. Eats every ammo I throw in it to. I can honestly say there is nothing wrong with the 365XL.

 

[SteamedHams]

They have had their own issues, the design isn’t much different than a 320, minor improvements in the safety/sear interaction.
I’ve heard of catastrophic failures, NDs, and anecdotally when I was in the market for one every range that had one, it was broken.
Its biggest flaw is that it’s an sig.
Feels great in the hand tho lol

What? The design for the P365 is vastly different than for the P320:

The P365 isn't a compromised design, unlike the P320 which is largely a P250 with the hammer-fired system replaced with a striker-fired system, designed in a way to minimize manufacturing and retooling costs. It's the handgun equivalent of the 737 MAX boondoggle.

 

[AR15barrels]

I would love to know the so called issues on the 365 platform..I have a gen1 365XL that I have been EDC since july 2020 and haven't had 1 issue. I have probably 4-5 thousand rounds through it since then and it works perfectly. Eats every ammo I throw in it to. I can honestly say there is nothing wrong with the MY 365XL.

Fixed.
You can not make blanket statements about a design based on your one single sample.
You can only speak to your specific sample gun.