.22 Sig Sauer - The Sig P322, released earlier this year, drew a lot of attention for its 20-round magazines with two stacks and optics-ready slides. These features are often requested but rarely found on .22 LR pistols. Has Sig designed the most innovative .22 LR pistol we've seen in years, or does the execution leave something to be desired?
Hi everyone, Chris Baker here from. Today, we're looking at the new Sig Sauer P322. It's a semi-automatic .22 LR pistol with some nice features you don't often see on most other 22s: slide-ready optics and built-in 20-round double-stack magazines.
.22 Sig Sauer
The P322 is similar to a .22 training pistol in that it looks like a defensive style pistol. But unlike rimfire trainers like the Glock 44 or the FN 502 Tactical, the P322 is not a 22 version of an existing model. The dimensions are similar to the P320 Compact, but the form factor is different and it's a little thinner. This means it is not compatible with holsters for some existing Sig models.
Sig Sauer P322 [video+review]: Worthy .22 Lr Trainer?
It seems that Sig was looking for something that could serve as a training pistol for a P320 or P365. This is similar to what Smith & Wesson did with the M&P 22 Compact, which is sized somewhere between the Centerfire Compact and the original single-stack Shield.
That's a convenient comparison because I've been a big fan of the M&P 22 Compact since they first came out eight years ago. Although I no longer own centerfire M&P pistols, I kept the 22 Compact because it was so reliable and just a well designed .22 pistol. As far as I'm concerned, this is the weapon to beat for every new style 22 defense.
The only thing missing from the M&P Compact that I wish it had is an easy way to add a red dot sight. There are optical mounting plates that fit into the tail of the rear sight flange. But the gun was not designed for that extra weight, and that tends to compromise reliability.
That's why the Sig P322 caught my attention. The slide comes standard with a cutout for direct mounting of a red dot optic. You just remove a few screws to take out the rear sight assembly, and then you can attach a compact optic with a red dot. It is designed to match the Sig Romeo Zero red dot. This is not included with the gun, but we happened to have one lying around so we went ahead and set it up. Any other optic with the RMSc footprint should also fit. Adapter cards are available from third-party companies for other optical footprints such as RMR.
Sig Sauer's New P322 Rimfire Pistol
If you just want a .22 with a red dot, we've had target style .22s available with that feature for years. But it's not something you can easily find in defense style 22s. FN released the 502 ready optics last year, and this was their first as far as I know. I believe this makes the P322 second.
The other cool feature here is the built-in 20 round double-stack magazine. Almost all other .22 pistols have single-stack 10-round magazines.
The FN 502 comes with an extended 15-round magazine, but it's still a single stack. The Keltec CP33 has those crazy quad stack magazines. But in general, rimfire pistols present enough of a challenge with reliable power, which is why most manufacturers stick with a proven single stack design. If Sig had cracked the code on a reliable dual-stack magazine 22 pistol, that would have been a significant achievement.
So from the start, the P322 looks very promising. Some other features here: Removal is quick and easy. You simply lock the slide open, turn the removal handle, remove the slide, then proceed to remove it. Inside the frame here, you can see the cocked hammer. It is a single action design with an ambidextrous manual safety. It's a decent safety design with a very positive click to turn on and off. The gun comes with a flat trigger shoe installed, but there is also a curved trigger shoe included in the box if you want to replace it. The muzzle is threaded and with the included adapter you can attach a suppressor.
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That's a lot of potential. Has this Sig P322 lived up to that potential? I am very sorry to say no.
Let's start with pulling the trigger. To be honest, this is more of a detail than a serious complaint. It feels a little spongy. After the initial lift, the trigger has that springy plastic feel you get with some striker-fired guns. It's not as sharp as the cases on the P320s and P365s I photographed. So if you want to use this as a training analog for your core Sig, don't expect the trigger to have the same feel.
It is a very accurate gun. I was able to do a few groups of 5 rounds under shooting an inch from rest at 25 yards. But it's hard to take advantage of that accuracy potential with such a mediocre trigger.
The sliding stop does not work correctly. It *barely* locks the slide open. The slide will close if you look at it funny. Or whenever a loaded magazine is inserted. The slide does not always lock open after firing the last round. When this happens, if you remove the magazine, the slide closes. This gets worse when the gun is hot. It seems fine now, but every time we take it for a break the slide stop issues come back.
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Dual stack magazines work surprisingly well. We shot a little over 1000 rounds through the gun, all with the two magazines that came in the box. We tried several different brands of ammo. He did not like the self-defense ammunition of the Federal Punch at all. I didn't even want to carry the first round of these things. This is not very surprising because this charge uses an unconventional bullet shape. With almost everything else, it is operated very reliably. We had maybe three power failures, and at least one of them was probably due to loading the magazine incorrectly. About half of the ammo we used was CCI Mini-Mags of 40-grain round, and it didn't seem to have any problems cycling that load.
However, we had multiple failures when firing every load we tried. They became more frequent when the gun started to get dirty. But even when it was clean and oil fresh, we still get the occasional click where we expect a bang.
Of course, the issue of light primer hits is one that affects 22 guns in general. Whenever a new model comes out, we always hope they've found a way to get a more reliable ignition. Unfortunately, Sig does not seem to have solved this problem with the P322.
The last issue I want to mention didn't show up until we put about 400 rounds into the P322. Our cameraman, Kenneth, was shooting our steel from 50 yards and it just wasn't hitting anything. Then he fired a few rounds five yards at a B-8 target and that's what it looked like. Severe roof hole from falling or spinning bullets in flight. He checked the pipe and saw that the culprit was a significant buildup of lead, especially evident in the pipe.
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We cleaned the gun and picked it up the next day. After a few hundred more laps, we saw a few keyholes here and there, but nothing like the first time around. My guess is that most of the lead came from the loose ammunition we had fired the day before.
Anyway, I looked online and apparently this is a common problem with the P322. I don't know if the barrels are out of spec or something, but it seems like many other P322 owners have experienced an unusual amount of lead build up. Just like in our case, the first symptom is usually a decrease in accuracy and keyhole on target.
Now, even with all these problems, I still have hope that the Sig P322 can be a good gun. Maybe not this specific P322. This requires a lot of work. Maybe Sig will fix this for us. But I think most of these issues, other than the limp trigger, are manufacturing defects rather than design defects.
Unfortunately, it is common these days for gun manufacturers to treat first-time users as guinea pigs. They expect customers to tell them what problems have arisen in production. Then implement the necessary changes for the next batch of weapons. That's why it's almost always good to wait at least a year before buying a new model; especially if it's a completely new design like the Sig P322.
Sig Sauer / Gsg Mosquito Sand .22 Lr
And I'm not trying to emphasize
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