Have you ever fired an issue Beretta? Those things are not the same beautiful weapons I've fired on civilian ranges. They're Berettas in name only. The same thing will happen to the P320: It will be a mass-manufactured weapon by the lowest bidder, with the name "Sig Sauer" etched on the side. And in fact, most probably Sig will license out the design to other manufacturers, so it won't even be Sig manufacturing. It will be an "okay" sidearm that works in most situations. But it sure af won't be the beautiful weapon most people are expecting. I'm saying this as a huge fan of Sig firearms, but from the realist perspective of a long-time infantry veteran.

Really I didn't know they subcontracted the manufacturing out. That doesn't make sense at all to test the pre-pro sample and then choose based on that.

If they were going to do that then Glock would be the cheapest option. The best Glocks are 0% original Glock parts so I'd assume they'd have an easier time finding manufacturers that could do quality at a lower price point.

>That doesn't make sense at all to test the pre-pro sample and then choose based on that.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque nightmare that is military procurement.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/books/corrupt-from-top-to-...

> Have you ever fired an issue Beretta? Those things are not the same beautiful weapons I've fired on civilian ranges.

Is that the design or the use? I assume that the average civilian weapon probably goes through orders of magnitude less ammunition.

Yes, you're right, Army firearms go through a ton of rounds, but I've pulled brand new Berettas out of the plastic and they're just not the same weapon. I mean, they're the "same weapon" but they're just not the same. The Berettas I've fired in the civilian world are virtually night and day compared to the ones manufactured for the Army, the ones I've seen and used. It isn't fraud, but it isn't the same sidearm. Sig Sauer firearms are beautiful and built to some pretty tight specs. I think the only Sig firearm I've ever had problems with was the P250 subcompact, which had a weird problem with the ejector. They fixed it for free, though, and I haven't had a problem since, many rounds later. This P320 is going to have the same "problem": It's going to be a P320, but not really the Sig Sauer most people are expecting it to be, and probably not even manufactured by Sig Sauer.

Well, I'll admit I haven't yet tried the P320. I have no doubt Sig can make a great gun, especially if they decide not to overengineer the heck out of everything.