SIG SAUER Opens the New Custom Works P320 FCU and P320 Studio

1. The Russians did it well also, with the TT-33 Tokarev, Sig just has 80+ years of technology advancements in machine tools and metallurgy advantage.

2. I’ve always been fan of 1911s, Glocks, and certain quality wheelguns, but I hafta admit that my curiosity is finally becoming piqued about the Sigs. Now that they’ve had enough time to be vetted by real-world users, it may finally be time for me to explore the idea of a Sig.

3. One of the things I like about the p320 is its really a platform (similar to the AR15). You can configure the gun anyway you want it and without having to use tools.

4. The Studio is a great idea but frames for thumbs safeties aren’t available nor is the normal trigger group.

   • I think you’ll see those once they start adding 3rd party parts to the studio. Sig just rolled this out yesterday and all I saw was Sig parts in the studio. They promoted the 3rd party parts for the FCU at Shot Show, so my bet is we will see alot added over time.

     • Wow what a ridiculous statement, nobody buys something they know sucks and have to modify to make it ‘good’. I got the p320 when it came out, the p250 before that and loved the new stock versions. They were good in my opinion, of all the striker fires with no hammer, sigs stock triggers are the most acceptable in my opinion. And what do you mean like glocks? They are the longest running successful polymer frame striker pistol company in the world and its most certainly not because they suck. Neither company makes guns that suck, sig has had some recalls with some things but nothing to end the company, and glock is cheap because it is a polymer frame striker. First of all the only things I changed out on my p320 is the trigger, apex, and recoil spring and guide rod. Everything else is stock and works flawlessly. I have a couple glocks I tried upgrading to see if I liked the way they shot, but after years, rmr sights, trigger jobs, zev, with ghost disconnector and one had a custom trigger polish and fitting done. I just hate the triggers. I can guarantee you the navy seals and other SF guys, which just switched sidearms from the p226, 228, 220, 227 to the newest gen glock which finally caught up to the level of combat reliability the p series sigs had dominated for years aren’t going to be toting around shiny, colorful, unnecessary upgrades with 200 dollar trigger jobs, every internal part switched to a name brand like zev, wilson combat, grey ghost, lone wolf, which in my opinion makes almost no difference in how much I dislike shooting glocks for periods of time. It also makes no difference to the seals whether they like the glocks or not, its what was chosen and with completely stock g19s, probably shoot better with the ability to hit moving targets repeatedly than a person who was a 3 to 4k glock upgraded to max. And what do you even consider which parts of these guns to suck? Can you tell me more than what i mentioned or does less money mean something sucks and more money is better? Neither of these guns need to have modifications whatsoever, we as humans just like to make things our own. If there is one gun I can say literally sucked, it would probably be the m16a1 first issued in Vietnam, who know how many soldiers were lost because the gun was a pile of crap, jammed constantly, could only put 15 or 16 rounds into a mag or the top rounds would misfeed and jam, it was a sight to see the marines refuse the m16 and ask for the m14s back, and when those were gone, they would take m1 garands over the m16 along with 12 Guage shotties just in case. The m16 sucked so bad professional killers preferred semi auto rifles, shotguns, Thompsons and grease guns if they were in a bad place and needed a lot of bullets fired really fast, and there was little to no trust in the weapon. It had a pretty high chance of getting you killed. Can you see a pattern? Army soldiers weren’t trained as proficiently as designated marksman as the marines and so they sucked using the m14, with an almost uncontrollable full auto mode. Does not mean the m14 sucked. In the marines hands it was a devastating weapon giving almost every soldier the ability to fire back against aks, which the m16 was out if range of to shoot and lacked the penetration of the m14s 7.62 through brush and trees.
       The army and the marines both picked up the polymer frame p320 as the m17 and m18 military variations sidearm as well as awarding the next generation weapons systems project to sig Sauer, accepting their new 6.8 mm cartridge as the standard sniper and lmg ammo as well as the mcx spear and sig cross sniper rifle.
       Last word, even a 150 dollar hipoint pistol 45, does not suck. Of course there are many aspects about it that are super annoying, it feels like a toy to me, but if it came down to me having practiced a thousand rounds and reloads with the hi point versus a glock I’ve only recently put maybe a hundred rounds down range with almost no fast/tactical reload practice, the glock would suck for me, even if it were a 5000 dollar zev or similar. I would hopefully not make the hipoint suck but do its job of firing accurately and without malfunctioning. Sorry for the rant, I just thought this person needed a little knowledge on the companies he was talking about like they were the shittiest firearm companies in the world and not the most widely used pistols around the world. I guess I was right saying the m16 literally sucked and though better now, the ar15 civilian version I think is a real hit or miss if the gun shoots on target or not. I prefer my ruger mini 14 for 5.56 which I suppose some people would say is a rifle that sucks. I however after owning it for years, learning its tendencies and how to handle contrasting range/movement would rather have 5 rounds and let the person who dumped thousands into their ar15 but shot maybe a hundred rounds with it a full clip of 30 amd with no real knowledge of shooting techniques and leading targets correctly, good luck hitting me even once. With every shot your recoil will throw off your sights from target and follow up shots would be close to none. I would take a glock even though I hate them, just to show they don’t suck and are actually quite easy to shoot accurately, with practice and are intuitive to people who haven’t become used to something else like a 1911 or p320 in my case. Hell, a over under or side by side 12 g would be fine and not suck for me. I could double reload those barrels in my sleep and with a slug in one barrel and 00 8 pellet buckshot and no sight needed, just the bead, spines, vent rib maybe? Its devastating at close to medium-long range and being accurate with a slug is easier than a rifle, i don’t care where you get hit by the hp slug, you aren’t going to be fighting back or even able to move. If only the cops who had shotguns at the la bank robbery had ap slugs, or incendiary, it would have been over in a heartbeat, I bet most people think that shotguns sucked in that situation, but they were the only weapons the baddies were afraid of approaching at close range. Aks did kind of suck that day in that all they did was fire a crapload of ammo, injure a few officers, and impound a lot of cop cars. It probably wouldn’t suck at all in the hands of a Russian Spetnaz operator and they probably think m16s suck. No weapon sucks in the hands of a person who knows what they are doing and trained to do so. My father was air force and brother a marine, they can each tell you one thing that sucks in the wrong hands, such as the t72 Russian tanks in Iraqs hands which were obliterated, mig 15s in Vietnam were only sent out on kill missions to get low speed prop planes doing close air support, they were no match whatsoever against the navy pilots. Air force pilots sucked as they only really practiced beyond visual range missle combat and navy pilots were still dog fighters so f4 mig killers were primarily navy/marine pilots and the kill ratios prove it. The jets the air force flew did not suck by any means, they were just not utilized correctly at all and the pilots were not skilled in close aerial combat. When the af decided to bring back aerial combat regiments, my dad switched to a helicopter pilot as a air force s/r pj pilot. Which i think he said was more deadly than being a fighter pilot actually. Anyways, no weapon sucks, its whether its utilized correctly and practiced with. People say not to buy .45 acp anymore or 1911s because they suck in weight, ammo, and are less feature laden as more modern pistols. Be accurate, yea I know its always better to have ammo than not have it when needed, but I’ve seen videos if cops dumping entire clips of 9mm out of glocks point blank at attackers and didn’t stop them one bit, and you can see the cop panic and firing rounds every which way, scared to get hurt than put one where it would stop it. The cop also has a fail to eject because the slide comes back and is stopped short by the vest of the cop, and instead of clearing it by racking the slide, drops the current mag, has rounds in it, grabs a new mag and dumps that out. The guy had a knife, and made the glock suck there. There was no need for that amount of gunfire to occur with 1 person and who knows who could have been hurt by the stray rounds. I believe less rounds forces you to think, a bigger round gives you confidence, and forces you to engage and get close to actually see whats going on, instead of letting range and ammo turn you into a cowardly cop. Who cares about the 8 inch drop at a 100m with the 1911 vs a 9mm?, do cops ever get into firefights from even that distance? If you are just go grab your ar from the trunk or car, why worry about the sidearm ammo when you have over prob 120 150 rounds. Probably because most cops are terrible with ar15s and don’t practice enough, which is why you should trade back to a shotgun with some slugs on hand for distance. Not giving cops shit here, but some of the things I’ve seen them do are plain outrageous. Less cops, highly trained with increased salary , and empathetic people are what we need, not more cops poorly trained, racist, and don’t give a crap, and also willing to take lives unnecessarily. During this gun rush everyplace I’ve been to has nothing over like 1500 dollars, people think more expensive things are better and cheaper things suck. Just stupid, plain stupid

5. Maybe I don’t understand, if you have to change out all of the parts to make a good gun out of it then why buy it in the first place? just like glocks?

   • Large market between “have to” and “want to”.

   • There is a small market for customization and it gets a lot more attention than vast majority of gun owners who buy and shoot an out of the box pistol. It started with aftermarket parts to fix issues with Gocks and now it has spread to designer pistols. It’s not going to make you a better shooter

     • No, but some can be snobs about people that do shoot out of the box guns. Most of the time just saying you spent an outrageous amount of money for a $349 trigger feeds the addiction for some.

   • I think you’re misreading it. It’s not that you need swap out all the parts to make it good, it’s that you can, if you so choose, swap out the parts you want to make the gun uniquely yours. Different sized hands are going to find different grips more or less comfortable. Some people want super light trigger pulls for competition. Some people prefer curved triggers, some prefer flat. I’m in a couple P320 Facebook groups, and by and large no one’s gun looks like anyone else’s.

     There is no humanly possible way Sig or Glock or anyone else can make a gun that is absolutely perfect for everyone stock. This allows you (especially once they get the 3rd party vendors onto the site) to build the perfect (or near perfect) P320 for you.

     • You don’t need to buy a seperate FCU. Buy your first P320 and play away.

6. IMO, this is the first really significant advancement in pistol design since the Broberg pistol (which is a pretty neat invention, IMO). It’s a shame that it was brought on by regulatory and contract parameters, but then again, the whole development of German drillings (exquisite as they are) was a response to a regulatory environment.

   The aftermarket component market for this is going to exceed that for Glock. Now you choose so much more about your pistol than with a Glock, where Glock has pre-ordained what your grip size/volume/etc configuration is going to be. Here, you could have a slim grip, a fat double-stack, you could use this to create a IPSC/USPSA competitive pistol, then pull the FCU and put it into your carry pistol configuration. This makes the “gun-a-month club” proponents lose their minds.

   • “This makes the ‘gun-a-month club’ proponents lose their minds.”

     Precisely. And won’t that be a shame?

     The only potential hiccup would be if the Democrats get control of the Senate and manage to push through a ban on internet sales of gun parts. Then you’d have to rely on your LGS to stock (or order) grips/slides/barrels/whatever for you.

     • Just because you can reconfigure it you still have only one workable gun.

       • Until you start working on re-creating a FCU of your own from bits of sheet metal, rivets, springs, and such.

         Look at that FCU. I mean that literally – look at it. Look at it with a critical eye, folks. What’s in there? Some sheet metal. Some curves/bends. Some radiuses in the corners, some holes drilled in it, etc. A couple of pins, some springs, etc.

         Now, start thinking of what you need to do to make one. The level of metalworking there is easily within the range of tools that most people will have in their garage. They’ll need some teaching and coaching from someone who knows how to drive a file, hacksaw, jigsaw, etc, but there’s nothing on there you cannot make with a good bench vise, a hammer, files, saws, and a hand drill. With a factory-produced one as your template, you could knock out one of these FCU’s under improvised conditions a heck of a lot easier than you could make the frame for a 1911 on a mill or the frame for a Glock in an injection mold.

         Sig did us a solid here, people.

       • You are projecting. Only a relatively few people have those skills. Sure they could supply others but that is how you go to jail.

       • That is usually the case with modular guns, suppressors, sig x change caliber swaps, .22lr conversions, AR uppers, etc… It sounds good to buy one gun and change it to as bunch of configurations but a lot of times it is almost as cheap, and certainly more handy, to just have multiple guns in whatever calibers or setups, ready to go. Unless you live in a European country that limits how many guns you can own, in which case conversions make a lot of sense to stretch the limits of what your allowed gun can do.

       • Since I’ve taught dozens of people from 18 to 68 to have those skills, no, I’m not projecting.

       • Dozens in a country of 330 millions is an unseen number.

   • The grip frames are roomy enough that they provide amazing space for gunsmithing projects / experimentation, even if one is using a system quite different from SIG’s.

     The only downside for me is that the fact that the P320 came before the P365 (and won huge military contract(s)) means SIG sees no incentive / point in providing similar aftermarket support for its (theoretically equally modular) new improved model.

     • Don’t be so sure. The P365 has been hugely popular and it’s every bit as modular as the P320. If the 320 FCU program proves popular (and profitable), I wouldn’t be surprised to see 365 FCUs sold too, someday.

       • Oh, engineering-wise, it certainly is equally modular. For me it’s not about the availability of FCUs, though: I own a P365 already, and it’s such a game-changer in its category that countless others are buying them as well. It’s about the plethora of grip frame sizes, slide/barrel lengths, etc. that are everywhere for the P320 and (AFAICT) nowhere for the P365.

       • The P365 has been a complete game-changer for me, at least.

         First, the little gun is quite accurate for the size of the thing. I’m truly impressed by the groups I get shooting it one-handed at 50 feet. Groups slightly under 3″, one-handed, bullseye style stance. For such a short barrel and “meh” sights, I’m impressed.

         Second, it’s so small, I now carry almost all the time. No printing, nothing seen, no holster on my waist, no shoulder rig…

       • DG,
         Exactly! People who haven’t experienced it pretend, on one hand, that pistol weight makes no difference; and then on the other hand talk as if one needs a belt forged from battleship armor to conceal properly. As time’s gone by (and I’ve moved to a warmer climate) I’ve grown a lot more casual. If I do my part, the P365 disappears under gym shorts and a T-shirt.

       • I can pass the Army’s Alternative Combat Pistol Qualification Course which is shot at 25 meters with a stock G42. It’s the archer not arrow.

         Now tell me how much better a tiny gun is when it’s January and the temperature is below zero.

         • If your summer carry conditions differ and you’ve found something that works for you, I’m glad. I wear what I wear and believe in buying gear that works for me rather than working around my gear.

           Versatility translates to consistency in training (same trigger, controls, etc.). From that standpoint, a product with a summer advantage that becomes unnecessary in winter is objectively superior to one that works in winter but is useless (or requires major workarounds; see above) in summer – particularly since my area doesn’t experience winter in any “below zero” sense. My most recent gym shorts / T-shirt errand was this week, to buy our Thanksgiving turkey.

           As the weather cools, I’ll wear a heavier shirt and maybe a jacket. My P365 will retain every capability it had in the summer, plus the 15rd magazine – gaining the capacity of an M9 without moving up to the latter’s cereal-box size, weight, and concealability. At no time will I find myself wishing the SIG was heavier, poked deeper into my bladder when seated, needed a bigger pants size, or required me to count the ounces of cowhide in my belt.

       • You might not but DG lives in Wyoming which gets very cold.

         As an afterthought, optics is what has revolutionized small pistols. There is nothing special about a P365 or Hellcat with iron sights. Sight radius is less important when you have a red dot. I would like to see how red dot compares to irons when you are moving. I have no preconceptions on how such a test would go but all I have seen is static tests.

         • Right – horses for courses! I probably came across as a subcompact-extremist before, but about 1/3 the time I OC with a pistol closer to the other end of the spectrum.

           From the standpoint of aiming and speed I loved the dot sight I tried, but unfortunately it turned my RIA 1911A2 into a manual repeater about 90% of the time, even with both springs lightened. I should try it on a different pistol.

7. Similar to an AK the FCU is a punched out & formed from sheet metal & now they have another excuse to charge a higher price!

   • Exactly!! Cost to manufacture FCU is probably in the $15 range

     • Will be curious to see if 80% FCU’s can become available (and are reliable). Now *that* would drive the gun grabbers nuts.

       • There are already 80% sig p320 fCUs. https://jsdsupply.com/80-p320-compatible-insert-mup-1/

   • Yes, which provides them an opportunity to cut prices once the market becomes more established.

     Sig (and I’m sure others) have learned what we learned the really hard way in the computer market: You cannot introduce a product and later raise prices easily. It is much, much easier to introduce a product at a higher price (even if that price is only to inflate the profit margin) and then later lower the price – because that is what the consumer expects.

8. I have a sig P320 in 9mm compact and .40 full-size configurations, as well as a p365 and p229. As you can tell I really like sig. I will say an exception has been made with a CZ shadow. I like it so much I put my p226 on consignment at a local gun store. I still have a beretta 92A1 so I really don’t need all of those full-size pistols.

9. It’s funny, TTAG keeps running these press releases from Sig about how amazing their modular P320 is and how they keep adding new customization options. From the media blasts you’d think the entire gun world was clamoring for this product, and yet I still see basically none in the wild or on store shelves (and my local LGSs still have plenty of handguns in stock), and from what I’ve seen, anecdotally of course, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of grassroots buzz. The P320 has been effectively dead in the water since it was revealed that their combat handgun liked to fire itself when touched by a strong wind.

   This *could* have been earth shattering if it had actually been done by a trustworthy and competent company. What a shame.

   • Ugh I think that is because they are sold out.

   • There are none in the wild because they are shipping the first FCUs to dealers this week.

10. This level of customization is an industry first and the virtual experience offers the consumer countless options and endless possibilities to build and view their custom P320,” continued Taylor. “We are planning to take the customization element of this one step further, because we recognize that the consumer wants what they want, and sometimes that’s something SIG doesn’t offer. By working hand-in-hand with premium after-market component manufacturers, FCU customers can quite literally build their dream P320 however they want.”
     v88.ca/3f5h 

     v88.ca/3f5h 

11. “I always wanted a frankstein’d $2,000 plastic gun instead of just buying a good entry-level 2011” said every Glock fanboy ever.

Comments are closed.