As first mentioned at pistol-forum.com and further expounded upon at Rational Gun, the Dutch have followed the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service in canceling an order for SIG’s beleaguered P250 pistol. Quoting the Dutch Minister of Justice & Security:
“On the basis of the results of these tests I no longer find it responsible to continue with this pistol. There is no longer enough confidence in the quality of the pistol, nor in the capacity of the manufacturer to improve the quality or safeguard it. All this brings a risk to the safety of officers on the street.”
As someone who worked at SIG during the P250’s development and initial introduction it doesn’t surprise me. The P250 has never been quite right. But the most biting remark was the part about the government no longer having confidence in the manufacturer. If not for its novel design allowing you to mix and match major components to get multiple calibers and sizes from a single serialized “frame,” the P250 never would have come this far. SIG is following in the footsteps of Beretta, going from an iconic highly respected design to a series of missteps, so-so’s, and downright disasters (Beretta 9000S, anyone?). Dear Europe, please start listening to the people over here who actually know what guns are supposed to do before you design any more rotary barrel, interchangeable slide, unreliable guns with poor triggers.
It will be interesting to see if SIG is still pushing the P250 at SHOT Show in January. For their sake, let’s hope not.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
The P250 was a nice concept I think. But the execution was obviously lack luster, to put it mildly.
At least Sig still has their core P-series pistols which run well enough. I fear that if they don’t get back to the core basics fairly soon, it’ll be curtains for them. I don’t think they need “revolutionary”. They just need “rock solid”.
Unfortunately the decision makers responsible for making the P250 a disaster have not left the rest of the Sig lineup alone. The reports of long-time Sig customers who bought firearms recently that turned out to be horrid are legion.
I took a rifle course with a guest instructor at the Sig Academy this past weekend. I didn’t hear a word about the P250, however the assistant instructor was pushing the 516 pretty hard.
As a side note, I’ve never seen so many Serpas or the Sig ITAC knockoff in one place. It was scary. I’m glad you banned them.
I own both a P239 and P250 subcompact, both in .40…. I have never really had an issue with the P250 personally; I have fired about 500 rounds through mine and never had an issue regarding accuracy and reliability with mine ALTHOUGH past 15 meters its accuracy does degrade, but that may be operator error!! When I carry concealed, I admit I carry the 250….
Slightly off topic question, sorry, but why do we not like the rotating barrel Berettas?
We’ve got a lot of 250’s in the shop I work at. I don’t have any personal experience with them so don’t recommend them. What are the major issues?
Patrick — Because both the Cougar and the PX4 require more maintenance and still seem to have a higher rate of malfunction than traditional tilt-barrel guns. There’s a reason no one in the industry makes rotating barrel handguns… except for Beretta.
Sparks2112 — The major issues appear to be that every agency that buys them decides they don’t work. 8)
I’ve owned or still own Sig’s P239 (9mm), P226, P220 and a P250 (45acp). The only Sig that ever gave me trouble was the P250.
A few years ago some friends on a SWAT team in NE told me that they were seeing issues with their 220s, like you would be in the middle of a string of fire and the slide and barrel would fly clean off of the gun.
I find that to be a problem.
It WAS my dream gun unntil now 🙁
“There’s a reason no one in the industry makes rotating barrel handguns… except for Beretta.”
It’s a dumb idea that seems to occur to a firearms engineer about once every ten years, except most of them get over it. (Most recent failures: Colt [Knight/Stoner] AA2000, SIG-Mauser M2…)
Todd,
rotating barrel uses STI GP6/Slovakian GP K100 as well.
Marek,
“rotating barrel uses STI GP6/Slovakian GP K100 as well.”
Damn, how could I have forgotten a noted best-seller that’s taking the tactical and sporting worlds by storm like the… the… what did you say its name was, again?
Well Tam, maybe not in America, but here in Europe yes (and also in Asia)…it is one of famous handguns used in IPSC.
FYI, Maria Gushchina won first place in Lady Production division this fall in Greece (Rhodos)with GP K100.
People have won matches with Para LDAs before, too.
I only responded,that not only Beretta makes rotating barrel pistol and the others are well known in other places of this world, noting else.
Marek,
True.
But stand by my earlier statement: “It’s a dumb idea that seems to occur to a firearms engineer about once every ten years, except most of them get over it.” 😉
I agree, thats why I sold my K100:)
Neither does George Harris.
“Damn, how could I have forgotten a noted best-seller that’s taking the tactical and sporting worlds by storm like the… the… what did you say its name was, again?”
Tam,
you probably haven’t heard about Croatian HS 2000 too … until they started to sell it stateside as Springfield XD.
Not to resurrect an old thread but…
I shot a magazineful of ammo from a P250 last year and I was amazed at the comparatively soft recoil. I shot a bunch of other guns that day (including a couple of Stoeger Cougars with their Uziel Gal-designed rotary barrel) and the P250 was the only one that made me go ‘Wow! I want one of these!’ because it just felt so good to my hand. Pointed well, recoil was weirdly soft (using the same 9mm that was going through other pistols that felt rather ordinary that day), and the DAO trigger wasn’t bad at all. It’s not on the short list of things to buy, but it definitely got on the list.
Now I’m having to reevaluate my opinion due to these reports of reliability issues. I’ll have to look into it. Seems a shame that a pistol that felt so good to shoot would have issues.