20151030_141221

I live in Arizona and work for a rather well-known online retailer that specializes in tactical firearms. I picked up a SIG P229 SAS used and haven’t bothered looking back. As we are an Constitutional carry state I carry my 229 openly in a Kydex holster made by Ares Armor in California. I use this pistol for plinking in the desert, as a demo gun for customers, and have taken it to a few pistol classes. The only upgrade/change I’ve done to it was the custom Cerakote that my friends over at Vang Comp Systems did for me, they call it Midnight Bronze . . .

I choose the SIG P229 SAS as I felt the most comfort when holding the pistol in my hands plus I liked the features it had to offer. It’s chambered in 9MM and with the current generation of bullet technology and science, using a larger caliber just sacrifices magazine capacity for no real gain.

Compared with other pistols in the same size and mag capacity range, a DA/SA pistol with a decocker makes it slightly more safe with a round in the chamber, decocked vs. a striker fired pistol with a trigger safety like a GLOCK. Of course this is all just personal preference.

I own several other pistols that I carry at times; a 1911, a Smith & Wesson 9MM Shield, but my SIG P229 SAS is my constant carry companion that I trust and enjoy carrying the most.

(See the rest of the posts in this series here. Send your What I Carry and Why submissions with a photo to [email protected] with WICAW in the subject line.)

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

35 COMMENTS

  1. Nice piece, Lucas. 🙂

    However, you failed to indicate your “carry caliber:” these are available in 9 MikeMike, .357 SIG and .40 ‘Short&Wimpy’.

    • MikeMike? When I hear people say “nine-em-em” it makes my blood boil. Now you’re intentionally trying to annoy me.

      • I learned to say 40 mike mike, 81 mike mike, 90 mike mike and other terms like willy pete in my misspent youth. Takes a while to train yourself out of those things.

        It ain’t 1700. It’s 5 pm.

        • That is very strange. What branch and unit were YOU in? It makes a lot more sense and just as long to say the whole “Millimeter” instead of that.

        • Anonymoose. I don’t know why slang gets used when it’s easier just to say the thing outright? What sense does saying zero dark thirty make when you can just say 4.30? Some things just are.

          As for my unit? It was the one with a lot of guys wearing green outfits with black boots and steel helmets.

          We served the whim and will of the American people.

      • “MikeMike? When I hear people say “nine-em-em” it makes my blood boil. Now you’re intentionally trying to annoy me.”

        It’s probably the military phonetic pronunciation, which has changed over the years.

        I learned it in the 70’s as “Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel,” etc., but there were earlier (like WW2 era) and later changes to the pronunciation…

        • Still weird to pronounce a literary abbreviation. It’s like saying “point five quotation mark” instead of “half inch.”

    • I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here? He says he openly carries it, what does concealed carry have to do with anything?

  4. Sig coatings aren’t too shabby, can you tell us why you went with (also known to be awesome) cerakote?
    “Midnight bronze” = really good looking. Proprietary color? If you don’t mind, can you tell us how much of the weapon gets the coating (i.e., how much of the non-visible sections of the weapon) are treated? Also, again, pardon, but about how much something like that costs.

    Thank you sir.

    • The Colour is not really proprietary, it is 50% Black mixed with 50% Burnt Bronze, the whole frame and slide is coated, even the portions that you do not normally see. Thus far I have found that it has held up remarkably well, even in the areas where you would see the finish wear the most (ie Slide Rails)

      As for why I went with it…well I was offered the coating for free, I had purchased the pistol used and I was looking to spice things up a little. As for cost I think they told me it would be around 150.00 for a single colour.

      • Thanks for answering so many individually posed questions. I asked for the same reason that you did that one, have used firearm(s) and they could use some fresh coatings. Sorry to pry, but I was somewhat also fishing for hiccups and/or horror stories, and happy that you did not offer any. Thank tou again.

  6. Finally! Someone who admits to carrying the world’s finest, most reliable handgun. I was beginning to think I am the only one!
    Very ergonomic to hold and shoot. Points naturally at the target—try this experiment—-pick up the gun and thrust your hand out at a target; now, without moving anything but your eye, look down the sights at the target. 99% of people will find the gun to be exactly on target. You don’t get that with a lot of other guns, yet being on target is crucial.
    Look at the trigger guard—your finger will not drag on the guard like with some other guns and you can actually get a gloved finger in it without discharging the gun in the process.
    The sights are easy to use.
    The decocker is a plus in my book as is the firing pin block that only moves out of the way when the trigger is pulled.
    Some object to the DA/SA mode of operation but that has never been an issue with me.
    This brand has passed every test ever thrown at it by every agency that has ever tested it including the RCMP and the Texas Rangers (no, not the ball team), the DPD, elite military units and the US military. The only reason the Barretta was selected over the superior SIG was cost; Barretta offered to beat the price of SIG by $10/unit on 385,000 units. Of course they snatched it up even though it did not meet the requirements or pass all the tests.
    Oh, did I mention accuracy? Groups average about 1-1/2″ at 25 yards. Try that with other brands. Some will pass but most will not so out comes the old excuse about no one cares about accuracy in a gunfight! Yeah, right! We don’t care if we hit our target in a gunfight???
    I think you have made a fine choice!
    Oh, just for the armchair experts who think it’s all theory, I did serve 7 years in the US Army, 5 years in a major city as a police officer and have been an avid shooter since the early 1960s.
    Happy Veterans Day! Thanks to all who served.

  7. “It’s chambered in 9MM and with the current generation of bullet technology and science, using a larger caliber just sacrifices magazine capacity for no real gain.”
    (This will get us off to the races…lol)
    Ahem, the larger calibers will, ah, well… bigger holes let the evil out faster.

    • Given tha a good 9mm hollow point will expand to double its diameter, with larger base diameters you quickly reach the point of diminishing returns.

      • If the goal is touching/disrupting a nerve, the larger calibers stay just as much larger when similarly expanded. If it is to back up failure to disrupt nerves with blood loss, fluid dynamics would suggest a super linear increase in effectiveness with increases in caliber.

        The 9 is “as” effective as a larger round IF it allows a given shooter to place more lead properly on a target than a larger round, due to faster/more accurate followups, less chance of flinching etc. The nonsensical internet notion that there is something magical happening between 8.5 and 9 mm that renders all sub 9mm rounds “marginal”, and all >9mm rounds no better than 9, is just silly. Terminally, all else being equal, bigger is always better. If, as the FBI seems to suggest, keeping all else equal is not really realistic, it becomes a tradeoff. In which, given their current body of recruits and preferred fighting practice, the 9 comes out looking pretty good. But unless one has ascertained that one closely resembles an average FBI recruit, and intends to practice and fight like the FBI teaches their recruits to do, ones optimal caliber may well be very different.

      • The returns only diminish once the perp’s dead.

        Many people seems to still model their possible gunfight needs on the conflicts between Columbian drug gangs of the 1980’s in Miami. Better have it and not need it than need it and not have it? Load up with 5.7mm if you really believe that. No?

  8. Dream carry gun right there. I’ve got a P229 Extreme model but it would be nice to not have a rail like the SAS model.

  11. I have to admit as I scanned the article titles on the home page I first read it as “Lucas’s SIG P229…”

    And thought, Cool! Luca Brasi (Vito Corleone’s personal enforcer) carries (carried, I suppose…) a Sig P299…

    *sigh*…

    The real question is, does your employer allow carry at work by the employees?

    • Yes, most employees in both of our locations routinely carry, either concealed or open. I also bring my LWRC AR to work as well as I have found it makes a good demo rifle when describing upgrades, differences in gas systems, and showing off Suppressors.

  12. Great gun. If I could only have one handgun, it would probably be my Sig CPO P229. Mine is in .40, but I also have a beautiful Bar-Sto 9mm conversion barrel that works like a charm. (For this gun, all that is required to convert to 9mm is a barrel change).

    However I have to admit the gun is big and heavy. It makes an excellent duty or service piece, but its not my first choice for CCW.

Comments are closed.