As you’ve no doubt heard by now, it’s been demonstrated that SIG SAUER’s P320 pistol may fire when dropped. That was shown first by Andrew Tuohy and Omaha Outdoors and then by TTAG in a controlled test conducted in our super-secret above-ground bunker.

However we’re getting reliable reports of P320 owners who are testing their guns themselves. Some are doing these tests are being conducted with live ammunition. Needless to say, that is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS (not to mention, it’s hard on the gun).

Please DO NOT drop test your P320 pistol yourself. More details about SIG’s voluntary upgrade program will apparently come next Monday. Until they release that information, please do not attempt to drop test your P320. Stay safe out there. That is all.

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73 COMMENTS

  1. Anyone intentionally drop-testing their pistol with live ammo deserves whatever comes their way. Hopefully they’re doing this before they’ve reproduced.

  3. Prime Directive, man. Don’t interfere with natural selection.
    Hmmm…. maybe testers should get their heads and faces as close as possible to POI. You know, so they can see how it happens.

    • Please read the post. Some people are actually testing their pistols with live ammo.

      While those same people may not have enough IQ points to read our posts, warning against this practice seems the prudent thing to do.

      • OH, yeah, r i g h t. . . . [puts down loaded mag with live ammo]

        Serious case of “DAMN THE SAFETY TIP, I WANT FRESH CONTENT ! ! !” from Proud.

        Important safety tip. Thank you.

  5. Why is that man wearing a plate carrier for a drop test? In the event of a discharge, the angle of the bullet will almost certainly render the plates useless for protecting his vitals.

    • It was explained in one of the 17 previous posts today on the same subject.

      They were playing dress-up.

      • What? I can’t drop test the pistol looking all tactical and $hit with vests and safety glasses and wooden barricades?

        Oh well.

        • After the first two people got shot, they switched to blanks everyone put on vests, a cup, mouth guard, hairnet, took a tetanus and B12 shot.

  7. I’m glad I have a Ruger p89. I know its an old gun. But it sat on a shelf in the house for almost 15 years before I started shooting it. Before that it had less than 50 rounds through it, brand new.

    If the excuse for Taurus dropped guns was Taurus in a cheap gun, then wants the excuse for the pricey Sig guns???

  8. LOL! Wow, as if making a blank is soooooo hard. God people are dumb.

    A side note, while it seems a bit absurd to wear body armor in the TTAG drop test since bulleted rounds we’re not being used, I appreciate that ya’ll went the extra mile in terms of safety. That way some retard can’t say “I saw it on TTAG!” as an excuse for hurting themselves.

      • You could have just run with it. But noooooo you just have to run around being all honest to a fault instead.

        This is why we can’t have… something… bah. I’m gonna go put on a plate carrier and do a game review now. Because I take safety seriously or something.

    • If you’re stupid enough to try it with live ammunition, you’re probably too stupid to make a blank.

      • I was surprised at the reference to pulling bullets from factory ammo for the TTAG testing.
        I was thinking “you have a bullet puller, but you don’t have priming tools, primers, and a bucket of fired brass”?

        • Can’t you just pull the bullet with a pair of pliers? I thought the bullet pullers were just so you could reuse the bullets.

        • Pulling a bullet with pliers usually mars the shit out of the casing or deforms the heck out of it.

          Besides, if you have a bullet puller…

        • Sure, but if you want to test your weapon at home, all you need is a pair of pliers and a single cartridge you’re willing to waste.

        • Well sure, provided that you’ve got a die set to resize the casing afterwords.

          You’re not going to pull a properly seated bullet out of a brass casing with pliers without 1) holding on to the casing tight enough to deform it, 2) wiggling the bullet around enough to deform the casing mouth or 3) both.

          Both issues generally create a situation where without dies you’re going to have a casing that won’t feed into the gun properly and therefore the gun won’t fully go into battery.

          *Does not necessarily apply to steel cased ammo.

  9. Anyone who drop tests their own pistol with live ammunition is just begging to win the Darwin Award! Due to government regulations, most idiots are no longer killed on the job before they can reproduce. However, the environment is always adapting new ways of removing those at the bottom of the evolutionary tree and this could be one of those environmental processes.

    (Note: Sarcasm
    noun
    1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
    2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark)

  10. Never had a Sig, never will. I’m poor.
    Never dropped my gun – at least can’t remember doing so in the last 50 years or so.

    I never want to interfere with people too dumb to survive… But whatever. Seems you’ve covered it for this deal.

    Can we talk about something else now? I’ll check back tomorrow and see what’s happening, of course.

  11. Has this P320 issue revealed that drop safety testing is inadequate?
    Why can’t the P320 and other handguns be carried in Condition 3? I’m genuinely interested in the answer and I’m not poking fun at this whole mess.
    I understand the need to have fast access to those rounds in the magazine in a dynamic situation, but if people are dropping their handgun, then what is the point of drop safety testing anyway?
    Locally, drop safety testing has been a ruse that gun controlly’s have used to chip away at available handguns for purchase, and this P320 kerfuffle seems to be next on their radar of infringement due to the volume of the story. I guess I’ll have to look into 80%ing this next as well, yay!
    p.s. lanyards are the answer?

    • A lanyard? Now why didn’t I think of that? And if we bring back the zoot suit nobody will ever guess that you’re packing, too.

      • Aaand I almost spit a cola drink on my phone. First thing that pops in my head is the cartoon of…. maybe Spy VS Spy? The two dudes low walking and snapping fingers down the street? Zoot suit? Thank you!

        • Oh, man. You just brought back a whole flood of 90’s memories for me. I still have that album somewhere.

        • Geoff – From Wikipedia: “Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket.” Who’s to say what’s on the end of that watch chain (lanyard)? And for those of you who have absolutely NO idea of what we’re talking about, here’s a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots

    • There’s no reason why the P320, or any pistol, can’t be carried in condition 3. The question is why you wouldn’t just get rid of it and get another pistol that can be carried safely in condition 1.

    • Condition 3, that’s an empty chamber (Israeli carry) yes?
      Many good reasons to not do that and that topic has been done to pieces here – let’s not go there again. My favorite: if you holster your gun unloaded it will still be unloaded when you need it.

  13. When I was a kid, (about 60 years ago) my dad dropped his 38 special duty revolver as he was getting dressed for his midnight shift.

    The only reason I knew about it, was because it discharged a round in his bedroom as he tried to grab for it prior to hitting the floor.

    Obviously, his motor reflexes caused a finger to inadvertently contact the rather heavy trigger, and SQUEEZE !!!

  14. Sure do as I say, not as I do.

    No way, I’m going home and spiking all of my firearms on the ground, including the antiques. We’ll get to the bottom of this drop test kerfuffle yet.

  15. Oh hell…I wish I had read all this first. I thought we were warned not to drop KICK our 320. Naturally, I had to try it (loaded chamber, full mag, etc., so the hang time and apex could be consistently duplicated in subsequent tests) but now I can’t find the damn thing. It’s out there in the corn somewhere, but at least it didn’t go off…yet.

  16. So, are there any plans on testing other pistols in the same manner? This particular drop is one that is outside of the normal standards for drop testing, so I have to wonder if other pistols would also discharge. Right now lots of people are talking about SIG being dangerous for failing it, but no one knows if other pistols would pass or fail.

  17. As good as Sig’s marketing department is (their products look so dang cool), and as cutting edge as their development is (Pistol Braces, Suppressor designs when Brittenham was around, attempt at integrated muzzle break on MPX rifle, MPX short piston PCC platform), they keep demonstrating that living on the cutting edge is bound to get you bloodied from time to time. Whether it’s MPX Gen1 vs Gen2 issues, MCX discharge issues, or these P320 issues, Sig doesn’t seem to be executing premium quality assurance/testing. Granted the P320 isn’t exactly a premium or expensive product like most of SIg’s other offerings, but they clearly need to spend a little more on testing before releasing products into the wild… Once you get into the price ranges of most of Sig’s products, I think we can all agree that an extra 5% doesn’t hardly matter if it means never having to make a Gen2 product, or recalls, etc.

    I’m honestly still surprised this wasn’t caught during military testing…

    • As I recall, it was somewhere mentioned that the Sig had passed all of the standard protocols for drop-testing, leaving some to question the adequacy of the tests. It makes me wonder, too.

  18. Manual safeties will get you killed, because you’ll forget to switch them to ‘fire’!
    Funny how many cops have been killed or wounded in non-combat shootings involving duty weapons that didn’t have manual safeties in the last decade or two…

    A Series 80 1911 doesn’t look so silly all of a sudden, does it?

  19. …and then by TTAG in a controlled test conducted in our super-secret above-ground bunker.

    Sounds manly, but then I saw the “art” in your bunker and it doesn’t much feel like a bunker. Lol.

  20. What people were expecting from a gun the United States Army got from SIG because they were they lowest bidders, not the best option?

    SIG produces fine firearms and I proudly own many, but the 320 is a monstrosity on steroids.

    • 21 round magazine, interchangeable ‘firearm’ trigger that can be swapped into different calibers/chassis shipped to your door, available red-dot ready slides… so much about the P320 I wanted to like. Got to shoot one and it completely underwhelmed. I was saddened, but my wife couldn’t be happier that our account stays an extra $500 richer.

  23. This is the sanest take I’ve seen on this matter so far:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6EqxHMO3U

    Bottom line: It’s still a great gun, the problem should definitely be fixed and SIG will do that, and otherwise don’t worry about it because in the universe of things that can go wrong, this is a relatively minor concern.

  24. so you had to issue a Darwin Award article to keep people from winning more awards? why? let them weed themselves out.

  26. I was going to go to Cabelas and pick up a P320 and a box Tula 9mm to drop test it…. Ah! forget about it!!!.

    • I bought mine at my friendly local dealer…got a below MSRP and love my P320. My husband bought a Sig AR 15 while we were there, too. Great deal. Pays to deal with a friendly local dealer.

      • My comment was a attempt of humor about drop testing with live ammo, hence the “to drop test it”.

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