Our favorite local gun store hosts manufacturer demo days every year, and they are a great way to check out a whole bunch of guns and ammunition at no charge.
This weekend, the shop in Macon, MO, The Gun Grove, hosted Sig Sauer Days, and Spice and I attended and got to examine and shoot a host of Sig guns and ammunition. This is a great manufacturer demo event.
Salty’s take on Sig’s manufacturer demo day
I’ve owned and shot Sigs for years, they are a quality firearm. I also own some Sig optics, and I like each one that I own. Still, they have a lot of guns & optics that I got to shoot/handle; several that I have been curious about, and these manufacturer demo events really help me learn and see first hand.
First, I got my hands on an Echo 1 thermal sight. I’ve shot with several thermals sights before, but none of them were anything like the Echo 1. Unlike “traditional” IR sights, the Echo 1 sits forward on your rail and works like a red-dot, which is both good and bad.
It is easy to see if your eyes are young and strong both, but for those of us with older eyes (people who need bifocals or reading glasses) this design can be awkward to use. I wanted to try it myself (without spending $2400) in a shooting situation, so this was a good opportunity. Both Spice & I could see through the optic just fine, however, I don’t really like the setup as well as traditional scopes. Good to know.
SBR? No, it’s a pistol (wink wink)
I’ll let Spice talk about the MCX Rattler PSB, she shot it more than I did, but the one we used was equipped with a suppressor with a quick-connect mount. That mount is the bee’s knees, it’s absolutely the bomb. Loved it. Going to get one when I get my suppressors.
I absolutely loved the P210 Target, a gun that I’ve officially declared “It will be mine… oh yes, some day… it will be mine”… even though it has no prepper usefulness. The gun is an absolute joy to shoot, and at 7 yards I was able to make one ragged hole the first time I picked it up. Shoots like absolute butta.
A lot of Sig’s long guns are based around the AR platform, at least in how they operate, and I have to admit I’m not the world’s biggest AR fan… so they really didn’t do much for me.
One other gun I really, REALLY liked was the P320. We have Glocks, but I have to admit I would definitely carry one of those if I had to start all over again… despite the cost. I love the take down, the interchangeability, the ease of doing a really, really complete field strip to where you can get to every single part with ease, I like everything about it. Great trigger pull off the shelf, but also an easy gun to polish up and give a trigger job to.
What about the holographic sights?
As much as I like the P320, I am NOT a fan of the red-dot sight that this Sig was wearing. I hate red dots that don’t have a consistent point-of-aim when my eye position moves. Yes, I could still hit center mass with it, but it’s not my thing.
In general, I am not really a fan of any of Sig’s red dots, but I am a huge fan of their magnifiers. I run one of their Juliet 4X manifiers on my Del-ton Echo 308 AR-10 clone behind an EOTech holographic, and I love it… so it’s kind of mix-and-mach on my like for Sig’s red-dot system.
I do very much, however, like their Tango 1-4X24 MM close quarters combat / mid range sight. I’ve not shot anything longer than that (the range we were on is pistol length).
We also got to use up a whole bunch of Sig’s ammunition, and it ran flawlessly as one would expect. I don’t really have much to say about it other than it’s fun to blaze away on .380, 9mm, .45 ACP, 5.56 NATO, .300 Blackout & similar for an hour or so using guns provided to us, and not have to pay for any of it, or clean any of the guns when we were done. Have I mentioned how much I love manufacturer demo events?
Spice’s take on Sig’s manufacturer demo day:
Manufacturer demo events are a great way to try out a bunch of new equipment to see what you like. Guns that look a lot alike can feel completely different, so shooting is critical to decision making. The .380 that felt so good in my hand and was getting consideration for concealed carry proved far less accurate in my hands than other handguns.
The AR styled ‘pistol with a shoulder rest’ MCX Rattler PSB’s length with the silencer on it is similar to my Tavor, but felt nothing like it. Salty and the Sig rep agreed that the fit looked good on me, but it felt cramped. The balance was pretty terrible. Much of my attraction for the bullpup rifle design is that I can get a rifle length barrel with the center of gravity close to my body. I know part of the problem was the silencer, but still the Rattler’s weight was much more toward the end of the barrel. The Rattler has a 5.5 inch barrel to the Tavor’s 16.5” as well, so you get a lot more muzzle velocity from the Tavor.
Hollywood has it wrong on silencers (big shock). They reduce noise considerably, but not to near silence. Only the .22 with subsonic rounds was Hollywood-quiet. That said, the easy-on, easy-off silencer would make it Much more likely to let you get a second shot off at a group of deer or hogs, so I’m not trying to trash talk the silencer.
Red dots on handguns …. Not my thing. Sure, it’s good for quick target acquisition, but it felt like not using the iron sights encouraged sloppy mechanics. That might just be my prejudice though. I habitually practice on iron sights, since going from them to optics is easy but the reverse is not true. That said, I’m with Salty on the P320. Ok, maybe not on the swapping it for my Glock; but I wouldn’t be mad about it if I had to make that switch.
Conclusion:
These manufacturer demo events are really interesting, fun and you get to try guns, optics and ammo the best way possible, by shooting them on somebody else’s nickle. We make it a point every year to go to the Sig Day at our favorite gun shop, and advise you to be on the lookout for similar events in your area!
p.s. by Spice: They also do all the cleaning on the guns, of course. I could get used to that…
