SIG P320 in the Mountains

[EVR]

Interesting. I am about sixty miles north of CDA and prefer to carry a revolver during the winter- specifically a 5” .500 S&W. This past season both mine and my hunting partner rifles (bolt action) froze shut overnight while my revolver worked fine. I also find a DA revolver pull to be simpler and easier to manipulate in cold weather, as mentioned by another poster.

ETA I carry my revolver either strong-side or across my chest and have not noticed “close to the body frost issues.”

Well I can't speak for your experience, only mine. Ours, actually. I carried wheelguns for years but gave up on them.

Choice of handgun is an interesting topic. We were just yapping about it the other day. My son is a production forester for a timber company and all of his fellow foresters carry semiautos. I don't know a single one anymore that carries a wheelgun and nobody I know carries a caliber larger than .40 S&W or .45 ACP anymore. My son carried a Ruger Redhawk for a year but it was too heavy and bulky and that was annoying. I had the same experience with .44's and .45's years ago. He also had it jam up tight from dirt and pine needles and whatnot getting into the hammer fall area from work {no, he didn't clean it very often!! }. And he like most of us tried shoulder holsters and found he doesn't like them and didn't want to wear a heavy flap holster. He's not going to carry a big revolver like a .500. Nobody I know that works in the woods does. Doing what I do, I don't want a large-framed revolver, either but if you like it, by all means, carry-away!!

I used to post on Glocktalk and some years ago I posted up quite a bit of commentary from my correspondence with a member of the Grønland Slædepatruljen {Danish Navy special forces "Sled Patrol" in Greenland}. I have a special interest in them due to my heritage. Anyway, it might still be searchable over there, I don't know but if it can be dug up it was interesting stuff. I can't find a single fault in their reasoning. They had been issued Danish SIG P49's {the "210"} but had replaced them with the Glock G20 some time before. At the time, there was a move to replace those pistols due to the lack of factory ammunition options. In fact, I did some research for them in that regard. Their organization in Denmark was investigating the adoption of a revolver {I do not know which one} but the patrol members were dead-set against it for a number of reasons which reflect the same sort of concerns we have, tho their conditions are far worse than ours. I'm not sure what has happened since then??

I'm not saying if you carry a revolver when the lake freezes over it is going to fall apart and won't go bang. That's ridiculous. I'm not saying "Revolvers are bad. Semiautos are good". I own them and use them when I want power levels above the 9mm. I don't have a .500, but that caliber is light years ahead of a 9mm in performance on heavy game as you know. I'm saying that all guns have their advantages and disadvantages and for me and us and everybody I know, unless power of the .44 Mag level or up {like your .500} is needed, for us the advantages of the semiauto outweigh those of the revolver. I and just about everybody I know who actually carry a pistol day in and day out in the woods prefer autos in the typical service calibers. There are lots of reasons why. For example, in reloading especially in very cold conditions it's easier to deal with two things; gun and mag and one hole to stick the mag in versus a gun, speedloader and 5 or 6 holes or worse, gun and 6 loose rounds. With a semi, all I have to do is push a button and the mag falls out and one goes in. If the slide is in battery and the chamber is empty, I don't even need a second hand to rack the slide. Magazines are flat, hold lots of bullets and a 17 or 20-shot magazine provides a lot of rounds in a self-contained "box" of its own, not loose. I carry spares as the pistol is as important for signalling as for anything else in truth. Revolver speedloaders are round and I don't like the pouches they are commonly carried in. I've had them twist somehow and dump their rounds. I find them annoying. Reloading is a pain with gloves on. Revolvers carried in dirty conditions attract crap under the extractor star. Semis have essentially enclosed mechanisms. The frost issues I spoke of don't happen when the gun is carried, they occur when the gun is withdrawn in deep cold and sweat condenses on the gun tho it's not that common in our weather. If dropped or if snow from trees falls on the gun in reloading, it is a mess, especially so with a revolver.

I'm not trying to make sweeping statements covering everybody else's experience. I'm just saying we have experienced what we have, and almost everybody I know has deepsixed the wheelgun. I'm not condemning your choice. If you want to carry a big revolver that's great. If you feel some need for a .500, by all means carry it. For myself, I have enough gear to carry on skitreks I have no interest in a big revolver when to carry equal weights will get me many more rounds with a semiauto. I have no personal need for anything approaching a .500.

Semi's aren't perfect either, and they can be jammed...



I agree with you about DA pulls. I like the pull on my P250's which are more or less like a nice tuned DA revolver. However, you can see in the test above the DA pull on the P250 was no advantage especially in one-handed shooting when the cumulative time numbing took effect. But there is a wild flyer even on the Ruger as well.

Bearing down hard with two hands helps for sure, but I consider any handgun just that, a "hand"-gun not a "hands"-gun. LOL.

On the COF we cooked up on the ranch here, train for two and right and left hand shooting. It at least helps a guy know his limitations.

At this nite shoot {it was cold, about 9 degrees} I actually experienced a couple bumpfirings with my SIG SP2022. Thick gloves, numb fingers, gun slopped around enough to allow contact with the trigger in SA mode after shots which tripped another shot. More or less doubled. Never have had that experience with any other pistol.

[lonnie1120]

Thanks for the detailed replies, EVR!

[EVR]

Thanks for the detailed replies, EVR!

Thanks. I find the topic very interesting personally, and always am curious as to what others do as well. Sometimes experience leads to a similar conclusion, other times, not.

[WickedWillis]

Awesome. I am loving the Northern Idaho post! Stay safe and have fun!

[gunnerblue]

I know quite a few guys up here who carry 10mm Glocks. I’ve been thinking about myself as rumor has it our department may be switching over to that platform. I see the benefits but am not wholly convinced as bullet weight and diameter are important considerations to me. And yes, thank you for the details.

North Idaho’s great. Although this weeks snowmobile recert will absolutely suck in this weather!

[WickedWillis]

I know quite a few guys up here who carry 10mm Glocks. I’ve been thinking about myself as rumor has it our department may be switching over to that platform. I see the benefits but am not wholly convinced as bullet weight and diameter are important considerations to me. And yes, thank you for the details.

North Idaho’s great. Although this weeks snowmobile recert will absolutely suck in this weather!

Yeah the 10mm crowd is insane in this area and in Eastern WA. Most of it for the wrong reasons though. It does make an excellent hiking caliber for most anything we would run into up here.

The rain and warmer temps should make that miserable Gunner lol

[G woody]

Exceedingly interesting thread. If we pay attention we can learn much from those who have lived "it". I have experience with most of the handguns & calibers you've "used", but not to your extent!! Thanks for sharing.

[EVR]

I know quite a few guys up here who carry 10mm Glocks. I’ve been thinking about myself as rumor has it our department may be switching over to that platform. I see the benefits but am not wholly convinced as bullet weight and diameter are important considerations to me. And yes, thank you for the details.

North Idaho’s great. Although this weeks snowmobile recert will absolutely suck in this weather!

I had one and to be frank, it was a gun I so wanted to like, but after over 1000 rounds I never could get it to function reliably with heavy loads, and they are the only ones I cared about. Eventually Glock took it back and replaced it with a G19 and a pile of magazines.



Here's a pick of the standard jam. Bolt overrides. Loose holding helped but did not solve the problem. Since my problem, I have read of others with the same issue. I don't get it. Glock was very helpful but we never could get the thing to run properly. The issue is that underpowered ammo is pretty common in factory loads and they ran fine, but boost the power and the gun jammed. The clue to hard holding being the culprit or at least part of the problem I found in the use of a shoulder shaft {long story, not an attached stock but a thing I designed and got approval to make from a legal review by BATFE/NFA Technology Branch}. More or less every shot jammed with that thing. Then, when hand held, it was variable. Sometimes 1 or 2 in a magazine, other times 3 or 4 mags ran fine and no jams. Frustrating.

I want another one. I just haven't been brave enough to try it again. I have piles of cases for the thing and would like to have another go at it. I really like the 10mm.

But bullets matter. The earlier pic of the bear and .44 was a bad fight which caused me to start testing all my field bullets. FMJ's or anything that acts as an FMJ is nothing but an ice pick, even from a .44 or 10mm. Look close. This rascal took one right in the center of the chest and barely blinked. I killed it by standing on it.





If you want "Lights Out", leave the service pistols behind!

I got this from a tracker I hunted with when we lived in Africa. A good Zulu knobkerrie and it's a Light Switch. Lift and drop fast into the "off" position...

[Fordtough25]

While I do not have a P320 yet I did enjoy this entire thread so far, very cool! Thanks OP and others, lots of neat ideas in this thread.

[WickedWillis]

Is it a tad ****ed though that you are taking pictures of these critters in traps knowing they are going to die before you ultimately put them down? Be it firearm or club? I'm all for conservation and very pro hunting and all that good stuff, but there is something a tad off kilter here.