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The SIG P210 Carry is an interesting gun. When SIG SAUER first announced it, I thought, why? The new SIG P210s were pretty sweet and are very well made, accurate, and oh so fun to shoot. What is the purpose of a carry model?
Especially when you looked at the size, the capacity, and the price of the P210 Carry (about $1400) versus SIG’s ultra-popular P365 carry gun. Even so, after firing one briefly at the PSA Gathering event earlier this year, I wanted to know more, so I reached out and SIG sent me a loaner to test drive.
Breaking Down The P210 Carry
The original P210 was designed in 1949 and the P210 Carry still shows that it’s a product of that 1949 design. This includes being single-action only and hammer-fired. It’s a single stack that packs a mere eight rounds of 9mm in a gun roughly the same size as a GLOCK 19. SIG took a saw to the barrel and brought it down to 4.1 inches from the original’s 4.7 inches.
Along with the shorter barrel, SIG went with an alloy frame to lower the weight to 29 ounces. Still, this is a hefty all-metal gun.
Those beautiful wooden grips are gone, replaced here with a set of practical and slim Hogue G10 scales. SIG added a set of SIGLITE night sights to finish it off and further modernize it.
SIG’s new small gray boxes fine for small guns, but they’re annoying here as there’s hardly any room to fit the gun and its spare magazine. Inside you’ll also find the typical manuals, gun lock, etc. Nothing too crazy by any means. The magazines are the same as the current generation of P210 Classic pistols.
Ergonomics
There is something to be said for single-stack magazines. The overall width of the SIG P210 Carry is similar to that of a GLOCK 19, but the grip feels more svelte and is shaped to better accommodate the hand. It’s not efficient per se, but it’s very comfortable.
A full-length grip fits my large hands perfectly without my pinky pinning in the magazine or dangling off the gun.
The big beavertail and well-crafted grip allow your hand to choke up on the gun nice and high. The safety is large and sweeps downward with ease, as well as offering a nice place to rest the thumb when shooting.
The slide lock lever certainly departs from SIG’s tradition of tiny slide locks placed just far enough to be eternally pinned down by your thumbs (or at least mine). The P210 Carry uses a great big slide release lever that is super easy to use.
At the Range
Let’s stop talking about it and start being about it. I grabbed a smattering of 9mm ammo including brass cased, steel cased, aluminum cased, and some JHPs mixed in among mostly FMJs. The P210 Carry loads easily enough, and I was excited to get to the range with it. After dry-firing the little fella, I was super excited about that single-action trigger.
I set up a B8 target, stepped back to 15 yards and slowly fired a magazine’s worth, striving to get a perfect sight picture and control. That resulted in an impressively tight group. It all fit within the ten ring, making it tighter than the 3.36-inch ring. This was my first magazine and it inspired me to reload and back up.
I stepped back to 25 and 40 yards using a 10-inch steel gong. That gong gets awfully small at 40 yards and the front sight seems awfully large (this isn’t a target sight). Even at 40 yards, though, I heard the ding a lot more than I heard the sound of silence. Of course, this was slow fire and I was letting the gong slow its swing between shots.
I tried my hand at a modified Dicken drill. I set up an ISPC steel silhouette and cut my time down to twelve seconds. I only had eight rounds instead of ten and didn’t have a holster, so I eliminated the draw and shortened the time.
After a few tries, I went eight for eight on the target, albeit I don’t have a marked A-zone to measure much accuracy besides minute of bad guy. This is a supremely accurate handgun helped greatly by its excellent ergonomics and a superbly crisp single-action trigger.
Recoil and Control
The Dicken drill also allowed me to test the gun’s ergos. Slow shooting isn’t a measure of control, but going against a timer certainly is. I found the SIG P210 Carry to be very easy to control. A 29-ounce 9mm with an ultra-low bore axis will be like that. The gun rose, and the sights settled consistently and quickly. Recoil was very minimal, and controlling the gun was very easy.
I pulled a classic El Presidente drill and scored an easy six seconds with all shots in the A-Zone. The key to keeping that time with a gun I had little experience with was my consistent control over it. I even had my wife and 11-year-old son try it out, and both found it pleasant and easy to shoot. It’s a gun I could hand to a beginner when they graduate from 22s.
The Big Why
Why not might be a better question. Admittedly micro compacts now offer the optimal mix of size and capacity that seem to blow old school guns like the P210 Carry out of the water. Still, the P210 Carry is much like a 1911 and plenty of people carry them every single day. The same goes for snub nose revolvers.
The P210 Carry isn’t necessarily “optimal” or high-tech, but it’s an excellent handgun that’s a very viable option for concealed carry.
The SIG P210 Carry certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is a very well-made, premium pistol that handles fairly well. There are a lot of people out there who want and value what the P210 does so well. The absurd degree of accuracy and control this gun offers is very nice. I can shoot this gun further, faster, and more accurately than my P365 and there is some real benefit to that.
Also, as always, it’s the Bill of Rights, not the Bill of Needs.
Specifications: SIG SAUER P210 Carry
Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 8+1
Sights: SIGLITE night sights
Magazines: 2 8-round steel magazines
Overall length: 7.75 inches
Overall height: 5.63 inches
Overall width: 1.44 inches
Barrel length: 4.1 inches
Sight Radius: 5.6 inches
Weight (w/magazine): 29 oz.
Price: $1399
Where To Buy
Ratings (out of five stars):
Accuracy * * * * *
The SIG P210 is remarkably accurate and easy to reach out and touch a target with. The sights are great, albeit a little on the large side, and I feel like SIG could have made it red dot compatible and taken full advantage of that truly awesome trigger.
Control * * * * *
Much like the CZ 75, the P210 Carry emphasizes easy control and low recoil. It’s a gun you can keep on target with ease. There’s not a hint of snappiness to be found.
Ergonomics * * * * *
Everything is placed perfectly for easy access here. The svelte grip panels and smartly placed controls are worth imitating on other carry guns. To me, it excels beyond the standard set by the 1911.
Reliability * * * * *
I fired a variety of aluminum with mostly Remington brass cased FMJs and JHPs, some old Federal Aluminum and Winchester forged, and the gun just doesn’t care. It eats, ejects, and keeps on ticking.
Bang For Your Buck * * *
On the one hand, it’s a very well-made firearm that excels. But it also carries a price tag well over a grand which will makes it more of a specialty gun.
Overall * * * * ½
The SIG P210 Carry scores well in accuracy, ergonomics, reliability, and control. It certainly lives up to the high expectations set by the original P210. No, it’s not for everyone, but to me it’s the concealed carry equivalent of a BBQ gun. And a great one at that.
“There is something to be said for single-stack magazines. The overall width of the SIG P210 Carry is similar to that of a GLOCK 19, but the grip feels more svelte and is shaped to better accommodate the hand.”
More to the point, there’s something to be said for non-bulky steel magazines, purpose-built for 9mm (and for molded grips). There’s no reason an equally svelte and contoured grip couldn’t be built around a double-stack Hellcat, P365, or CSX mag.
I guess it matters on how large the 220 magazines are in comparison to something like the 365x (typically 12 but welcome to NY for 10). It is wider than the 1911 (45acp haven’t seen other calibers magazines) by over a quarter inch (.3ish I think) so depending on width of the SIG mags you may have some internal modifications needed to fit in something like the 365 mags.
If you’re talking about P220 magazines, they are wider than 9mm mags because .45ACP is so fat. Any magazine that will accommodate a full double stack of .45 (or .40, like a Glock) is fatter than a 9mm mag needs to be, even in 9mm. Plastic just makes it worse.
I understand that even a slim steel 9mm double-stack mag won’t fit into an unmodified P210. Some of the width in the P210 is due to grips screwed to a separate frame. Micro pistols’ slenderness formula is slim steel mags, originally designed for 9mm, plus one-piece molded grips.
Dumbass moment that was supposed to be P210 in my previous reply for 9mm to 9mm different mag issues. I only happened to have a 1911 .45 mag for function checking when I reload 45 for a friend but made for a handy quick measurement on a generic single stack (don’t know p210 mag width off hand) so my bad on the mixup.
Sorry for not catching that myself. In any event, it gave me an excuse to clarify my earlier point(s).
drool.
seems like a swing and miss; a cz75 has double cap and a 1911 has flying ashtrays. i’ve lusted after an original since i became aware of them.
i think i’d settle for a nice target model.
It’s a single action only. Can it be carried Male Rooster’d and locked or do you have to carry it hammer down?
I like the feel of a single stack gun.
i trust sa safeties. as strych has pointed out, with appropriate trigger pro, leaving the safety disengaged is ok. i find my ambidextrious safety clicked off on occasion. safe to say the p210 was designed for condition one carry.
my da/ sa has a halfkok, i just leave the safety off.
There may be some concern about something smacking the hammer and forcing it down without the trigger being pulled. Otherwise, I don’t see much difference between a Glock and an SAO with the hammer back, even without a safety.
I had great hopes for the P210 Carry but, the trigger disappointed in comparison to the P210 and P210 Target.
The article is accurate regarding ergonomics and functionality.
Walther PPQ or PDP
for the injection mold inclined, sure.
maybe one of those sig single stacks can be had sa, but i don’t think so… 229 is sao double stack and 225 is single stack da/ sa.
still, a 225 is much less than the 210.
tsbhoa, I like the 210 and the 225. I want one of each. Back in the day I said I need a 9mm in the battery, even though I don’t care for the caliber. So I bought a Hi-Power. I guess I have a half dozen 9mm’s now. But, if I could just get my hands on a 210 and a 225 that would be enough. I swear.
one each sounds fair. especially since cz hasn’t single stacked.
One thing to understand is that, even today, when I buy a firearm chambered in 9mm; I bought the firearm. Not the caliber.
i understand the distinction; when i say it i mean the same thing, the difference being that 9mm is my go to.
i don’t carry my .44mags, and i would opt for a large 10mm.
would love an ithaca .45, probably just sit in the presentation case tho.
Your buying the famous name not in any way the quality of the “original” Sig-Neuhausen P210.
Notice the author did not conduct a standard 25 yard accuracy test and it is rather obvious why. When accuracy does not meet the expected standard of the original gun naturally you would not want that known to the prospective buyer.
This gun also has an aluminum frame and notice the author did not use the word aluminum but “alloy” ( a cover up word for munimula , aluminum spelled backwards). Every munimula framed gun I ever used had far more rapid frame wear than a steel framed gun. Also if the gun is not designed correctly for the munimula frame it will eventually crack. I have had a Mag98 (Modern made Polish Radom), a Smith M39 and a Colt Commander all go snap, crackle and pop and at relatively low round counts, read that 5,000 rounds or less. This is not to say some munimula frame guns do not crack at low round counts as the Sig 226 and Beretta M92 have fairly long lives but frame rail wear is still more pronounced than with a steel framed gun.
The New Sig p210 also has a cast frame, and MIM cast internal parts and if that was not enough of an insult the fire control mechanism that was a tongue and groove lift out is now held in by a cheap Nickle and dime chrome plated Philips head screw. If that does not make a gun connoisseur throw up all over his shoes nothing will.
The magazine has been cheapened as well. Gone is the continuous welded spine on the original magazines and the stainless steel grooved follower, which was replaced by a folded over and spot welded spine and a thin stamped follower. Again enough to make P210 purists gulp down a full bottle of tranquilizers.
You wonder where the minds are of the people who market such new model guns. Its a big gun and not very concealable and has a low capacity magazine. It is about as wanted as a wart on the end of the nose of a gorgeous blond movie star. When a person buys a 9mm he wants huge firepower, not a gun designed back in the 1940’s.
If you collect all things Sig P210 buy one now as it will not last more than a year in the market place.
If they had at least made the frame out of steel I could have used it as a door stop or boat anchor.
Can you honestly be that clueless? Do you actually believe you have any credibility here?
referencing his previous handle?
Damn! You are a nuisance, aren’t you? Did you read anywhere in my comment that I was going to buy this P-210? Although I think it is an affordable alternative to the original. The relocation of the magazine release is an improvement. And a good review by the author. BTW, if I want a misinformed opinion I’ll ask the next idiot I see on the street. Odds are, it will be you!
is he wrong about the cast aluminum frame and MIM internal parts in it? If he is wrong then what is it made from?
Wrong. There’s nothing wrong with aluminum framed guns. I have one that I shoot the hell out of and it’s just fine after years of use.
I think I figured this guy out. He’s not really an idiot. He’s making fun of idiots. It’s performance art. The “What, Me Worry?” avatar kinda gives it away.
While the capacity for caliber does seem to lean towards obsolescent given the size of the pistol it does look like a comfortable set of ergos that could be used for inspiring more modern designs. I saw the model number for this pop up every so often but never looked into the details so fun learning about it.
Would rather have the P225 A1 than this.
The real question is does this piece do anything that a less pricey but nice 9mm 1911 does not? The low bore might help control maybe (I’m interested cause I like CZs a lot)? Your still missing out on 10 rnd mags for the 1911s favor though.
The idea that a slide-in-rails pistol has a lower bore axis is a long-disproven optical illusion.
Umm, what you say may be true, but a lot of people, that have a lot of respect for, have reported that the slide inside the rails does aid accuracy. I know that the P-210 has been known as the most accurate service pistol ever fielded. Too bad it’s only a 9mm.
I’ve read that in some places, while others say it’s become less of an issue with today’s manufacturing tolerances. Either way, I do love my Witness Hunter.
Why did they not make this a double stack. It was the one update I was waiting for and with all the magazine tech these days the grip would have stayed the same shape/contour.
That’s my question too. From my limited research, I learned that the P-49 prototypes were made in both single-stack and double-stack versions.
They were sent to Sweden to be trialed by a shooting club and they commented that the single- stack was marginally more accurate. Why you would want your military service pistol to be tested by a Swedish target shooting club is beyond me. Now I could understand if it was the Swedish Bikini Team…
I’ve wanted a Swiss P-49 or P-210 but they have been more than I could afford. But, I did buy the American made P-210 about 3 years ago and I really like it. One complaint: as I get older, my hands have gotten weaker and I struggle pulling the slide back, “sling-shot” style, not much purchase on the slide.
I will never understand why companies introduce new, half-way-modernized updates of classic guns. The Sig P210 and FN’s new High Power being excellent examples. If they’re going after the nostalgia market, making the new version with 0% parts/magazine compatibility with the old classic pistols kills any interest from fans of the original designs. It’s like Dodge re-introducing a car with a Charger badge on a four-door family sedan. And if they’re going for shooters who want modern pistols that are something different from the polymer/striker category, then not including the features modern shooters want – in the case of the P210 skipping the double-stack mag and not including ambidextrous controls, and in both P210 and High Power cases completely missing the accessory rail and optics-mounting system – means almost everyone who might’ve wanted to compare one of these to a Glock will write it off as well. If you’re going to re-introduce a classic pistol, actually make the classic pistol. If you’re going to update an old design and make it competitive in the current market, actually include all the features modern shooters want. This half-assed bullshit is just…bullshit
It’s weird that Sig didn’t give this their better sights that even the much cheaper P365 has.
“The big beavertail and well-crafted grip allow your hand to choke up on the gun nice and high.”
He said, ‘beaver’ and ‘tail’… 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS3LWOTCW4A
I can see a gun like this for a lot of things but marketing it as a “carry” gun is… strange. It’s a saturated market with guns that do carry things better.
So it’s geared towards someone who wants to carry a full or near full size pistol but with low capacity and without stepping up to something more powerful than 9mm? Someone who is willing to drop over 1k for that without having something custom or any particular notability?
How many of these are they making?
Not a large market segment, I imagine. Other than the Yankee Marshall. I’m a big fan of the P-210, but this seems like a real miss. It would seem to make more sense to just buy a CZ or a CZ clone.
I could see carrying it if someone wants a great shooting gun in a capacity limited district. A ten round magazine would have been better.
Taylor Freelance makes a +2 mag extension so you’re up to
10+1
I already have a P-210, and I had hopes for this Carry model when it first debuted at the SHOT Show several years ago. If it only offered an ambi safety, I’d buy it in an instant.
“concealed carry equivalent of a BBQ gun” OK, I give up – what is a BBQ gun?
Fancy, usually expensive, sidearm to carry at a social gathering – more “cool points” awarded if it’s bearing custom gripes, been enhanced by a well-known pistolsmith or any type of single-action, auto or revolver. Custom holsters from obscure leather craftsman is usually in the mix too.
But it’s got to work, as in be an effective tool for self defense – just being fancy doesn’t cut it, a good BBQ needs to be a good gun first, then add in the hip jewelry factor.
I hope they make a version that takes P365 X-Macro magazines, adds a standard rail, and make it cut for the same optics platform as the P365.
Yes. Give me all of the blasphemy. All of it! ALL OF IT!
🙂
In all seriousness, I would buy such a gun.
If the price of this model is any indication I’d say what you’re wanting is going to be about $4762.00 If you’re lucky.
So this is the perfect backup gun for someone with an armed security detail? It’s got the brand, the price, the cache and the…um, presence (as in size, if you know what I mean) for a person of some importance but with that ratio of rounds to pounds hopefully the guys with briefcase subbies will take care of any problems before the boss has to whip this out if his custom shoulder rig. Though it’s perfect for applying the coup de grace with style…
I kid, I kid, not a pistol I’d care to carry (or buy, I lean towards the economical side) but I get the appeal – though with current 9MM ammo optimized for shorter barrels SIG could’ve easily trimmed the barrel a bit shorter, another quarter inch or so might even have looked better on top of making drawing from concealment easier.
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