A Review of the SIG P245 Pistol

I am a fan of SIG pistols. The first pistol I ever spent my hard-earned money on was a stainless SIG P226 in .357 Sig. Thousands of rounds later, it has been flawless and accurate and I still own it. If you had asked me three weeks ago to leave my house with and trust my life to one pistol, I would not have hesitated, it would have been my P239 in .40 S/W. The P239 has been in my bugout, SHTF bag [Flickr link to bag, contents] since I purchased the pistol three years ago. The P239 is compact and easy to conceal, always feeds, goes bang and extracts no matter what I feed it. And, with the right ammo (Double Tap 135gr JHP is my favorite and go-to) it is very, very accurate. Finally, like all Sig pistols, it is easy to disassemble, clean, lube and put back together. Of all the guns I own, I feel confident that I could take apart and reassemble any of my Sigs pistols blindfolded. I wish I could say that for my bull barrel Wilson and Nighthawk 1911s.

About six weeks ago I bought a LNIB SIG P245 - loosing yet another bout with fiscal restraint to low impulse control. I didn't wander into my local gun store intent on buying anything, certainly not a P245. I had done some research on the P245 and handled a used one once or twice, but at that time I was in mid-1911-buying-rapture mode and felt that the P245 wasn't greatly different enough from my P239 or my P220 to warrant owning one. In the store, the empty pistol felt a bit nose heavy, a perception reinforced by the shortness of the grip. I also found the grips themselves to be a bit thick for my hand with a fair amount of palm swell.

The double-action trigger pull was a bit long and heavy, but it broke cleanly. The reset too felt a bit long, but to be fair, I am rarely completely satisfied with production pistols. I also reminded myself that I wasn’t a big fan of the P245’s larger sibling the P220. I had purchased my stainless P220 for the sole purpose of having Gray Guns in California convert it to 10mm.

About six weeks ago I bought a LNIB SIG P245 - loosing yet another bout with fiscal restraint to low impulse control. I didn’t wander into my local gun store intent on buying anything, certainly not a P245. I had done some research on the P245 and handled a used one once or twice, but at that time I was in mid-1911-buying-rapture mode and felt that the P245 wasn’t greatly different enough from my P239 or my P220 to warrant owning one. In the store, the empty pistol felt a bit nose heavy, a perception reinforced by the shortness of the grip. I also found the grips themselves to be a bit thick for my hand with a fair amount of palm swell. The double-action trigger pull was a bit long and heavy, but it broke cleanly. The reset too felt a bit long, but to be fair, I am rarely completely satisfied with production pistols. I also reminded myself that I wasn’t a big fan of the P245’s larger sibling the P220. I had purchased my stainless P220 for the sole purpose of having Gray Guns in California convert it to 10mm.

At the range, with a round in the chamber and a magazine full of 230 grain FMJ the P245 in the hand has a similar weight and balance to that of a 1911 Concealed Carry Officer (CCO). According to Fjestad’s Blue Book a CCO (which is based on the lightweight version of the Officer receiver) weighs approximately 26 ozs, while the P245 weighs in at approximately 30 ozs. This forum discussion reaches a similar conclusion in terms of the P245’s balance and tangentially examines capacity as a limiting factor in low sales and the lackluster popularity of the P245. Reasonable people can disagree about calibers and capacity particularly for a carry gun and it’s a subject on which most gunnies have a opinion.

I found that the P245 easy to shoot. In double-action and single-action usage the trigger was consistent, broke cleanly and had a nice happy ending. That ‘extra’ weight forward at the muzzle helped tame the recoil for follow ups and required a little less grip leverage than some of my other pistols (thinking my Kahr PM40 here). The trigger reset is what you’d expect on a factory side arm - which is to say that it is unobjectionable, but not perfect. In fact I found that the reset, more than recoil, influenced my ability to make quick follow up shots. The trigger group (reset et al) would benefit from some custom attention, (I am thinking Gray Guns here) but it is by no means unusable. The P245 I purchased came with the standard contrast ‘dot the eye’ type sights, which I found very usable and generally easy to acquire.

I found the factory P245 to be at least as accurate, possibly more accurate than my P239 - which has been (prior to the P245), the standard against which I judged all of my non-1911 type pistols. Whether it is truly more accurate or simply my ability to shoot the pistol well is up for debate. What I can say is that I am able to shoot smaller groups with the P245 than I can with it’s larger sibling, the P220, using the same ammunition (Double Tap 230 grain Match Grade FMJ) and with the same sights.. As far as ammunition goes, the P245 was 100% reliable with everything I fed it. I shot several hundred rounds of range-quality ammunition (FMJ) and maybe one hundred rounds of mixed self-defense rounds (JHP). All of it fed and extracted perfectly

The P245 has a few idiosyncratic physical factors that that are worth noting. First, the grip is short. It feels shorter than my 1911 Nighthawk Talon IV which is based on an Officer-sized receiver. The Talon’s grip feels longer, but this may be because it has had work done to the front strap and trigger guard. After putting two hundred rounds downrange in a single session, I found that the P245’s trigger guard chewed on my middle finger. The wider your hand, the more I suspect this will be a factor. Second, the grip is thick and the the grips have a fair amount of swell. I have short fingers and the P245 really feels like a handful. Replacing the factory grips will be the first modification I make.

Since my initial trip to the range, I have made two purchases for the P245. First I bought a Comp-Tac Minotaur Gladiator holster for the P245 an have become reacquainted with the joy and comfort of carrying a side arm in and outside the waistband holster. And, as a happy byproduct of sending my P220 in for 10mm conversion, I have two P220 magazines that I have converted into two 8 round P245 magazines using the xGrip. This combination of the P245 6+1 tucked in the Minotaur Gladiator with an extra 8-round magazine in my pocket is both comforting and comfortable. Concealed by a lightweight shell or sports jacket, it has found it’s way into my weekend carry rotation this fall.

The P245 is probably a pistol without a lot of middle ground - it will either fit your hand, or it won’t. If you’re looking for a reliable and accurate carry side arm in a caliber that you can believe in, you could do much worse than the Sig P245.