P365 XL ROMEOZERO

P365 XL ROMEOZERO.

The Sig P365 was not without its controversy. Almost immediately following the release of the gun shipping was stopped.

Problems were uncovered that involved the Sig Lite night sights breaking off, bad trigger springs, failure to go into battery, and light primer strikes.

Issues are documented by popular Youtuber Military Arms Channel over two P365s, Harry’s Holsters did a 1,000 round review and recorded a dozen or more different problems. Sig saw this and made a wise decision to do something about it.

Sig issued essentially what was a generation 2 pistol pretty early on.

P365 Gen 2 Reliability

Reliability is often the last category I cover, but with the problems known with this gun, most people would be curious as to how the Gen 2 holds up.

Mine falls in that Gen 2 timeline, and now that I’ve had it for some time I can say the kinks are ironed out, or at least with my gun they are.

I didn’t do any crazy 1k tests in one day, but after the first few months of ownership, I started keeping track of the rounds I’ve fired through the gun.

I have an approximate round count of 1,300 rounds give or take. Typically I shot Winchester White Box but mixed in some of Sig’s P365 ammo, Speer Gold Dots, SIG FMJ, Zinc Fmjs, Freedom Munitions, and some Tula made its way in there

In terms of failures, I only experienced two failures-to-fire with Freedom Munitions American Steel Ammo. I attempted a restrike and one did fire, and the second did not.

As of note, the second round would not shoot in an 80% Glock I also had at the range.

I’ve only had one failure to eject, and it occurred when firing a Dot Torture drill on the strong hand only portion. Ammo was SIG’s reduced recoil P365 load. Overall I’d say reliability is rock solid.

Striker Drag

One of the biggest complaints and potential problems with the gun is the MIM firing pin. MIM can be perfectly suitable for firearms parts, Ruger makes it work, but when it is bad it is bad.

Some owners experienced broken firing pins and a small aftermarket of steel pins has even popped up.

The design of the weapon seems to cause an excessive amount of primer drag. Most small striker guns have this, but the P365 seems to have a touch more than most.

Does this cause excessive wear? It would seem to. According to Sig, it does not. My firing pin hasn’t had issues, but many firing pins have broken or become bent.

Ergonomics

The ergonomics of the pistol overall are excellent. The gun is comfortable to hold onto, and the 10 round magazine with slight pinky extension is absolute money.

It’s as short as a grip can get and still allow me to hold onto it. Under the trigger guard is an excellent high undercut that helps maximize the grip.

The grip is also thin and comfortable in hand.

The magazine release is large and easy to reach which I like.

The problem here is dropping the magazine. I find my pinky and palm creating pressure and holding the magazine inside the gun when I hit the release.

This is a classic big hand, small gun problem.

The gun doesn’t have a beavertail, so to say, but it does have a nice cliff that allows you to get your hand high on the grip without worrying about slide-bite. An issue I have with this gun and most Sigs is the placement of the slide lock.

It sits right where my thumbs go with a thumbs forward grip. This causes the slide lock to be held down, and this means the slide won’t lock back after the last round is fired (at least for me). It’s annoying but something I’ll live with.

On the Range

Shooting the gun is very nice. The recoil is standard mini 9mm, so it’s a little stout and has some flip to it. It’s plenty controllable and the grip is undoubtedly helpful here.

Firing double taps and controlled pairs accurately is pretty easy to do with a little practice. The trigger is light and smooth. It had a clean break with minimal take-up.

The reset is tactile, audible, and best of all short.

he new X-RAY3 sights are fantastic. The sights are dual-purpose and work for both night and day shooting. The rear sight is blacked out with two hidden tritium vials.

The front sight has a tritium vial but is surrounded by a big, bright green insert. In the dark, the sights glow incredibly bright and are easy to pick up and see.

In the light, the big green dot is quick and easy to pick up and align with the blacked-out rear sights.

It’s straightforward to get that big front sight on target and to follow that sight with some well-placed lead.

The gun is more accurate than it has any right to be, and it’s not just minute of bad guy accurate. It’s plenty capable of reaching out beyond 20 yards and remaining not just accurate, but combat-capable.

By combat-capable I mean drawing and placing rounds on target as fast as possible. At 25 yards you can still slow down and hit small targets with excellent precision.

Small guns often have small sight radius, and SIG pushed back the rear sight as far as possible to help increase sight radius.

Carry and Comfort

The Sig P365 was a big hit, and plenty of companies produce holsters for it. I carry mine in a Clinger Holsters No Print Wonder V3.

It disappears in an IWB rig and is a gun you can forget about when carrying. It’s small and light, I mean, look at the specs.

It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago when I first had a chance to try out the then new Sig P365.  Since I had a chance to try out the new XL model there’s yet another to have been introduced known as the SAS.

I may be a little behind the curve with the XL but there’s still plenty to talk about regarding this remarkable little pistol.

The major differences between the standard 365 and the XL are the inclusion of an optics cut on the top of the slide which also contains the rear iron sights.

The slide and barrel are both slightly longer (from a 3.1 inch barrel to 3.7 inch.)  The grip has an enlarged beavertail to better guard against potential slide-bite.

A new flat-faced trigger comes standard.  But the part which I like the most about the XL is the redesigned grip.

The standard P365 has a flush-fit ten round magazine which makes it even better for concealed carry but a little more difficult to hang onto.

The XL version does away with that and goes straight to a flush-fit 12 round mag.

This means that the 10 rounders will not fit in the XL frame and ‘older’ model 12 round mags will need a different baseplate.

The new 15 round mags seem to ship with both baseplate options which is a great touch.

It might seem a little odd to take a wonderfully tiny and handy pistol like the P365 and make it bigger.  Isn’t that a step backwards?  I suppose that all depends on what you’re after.

For a little more slide and frame the P365XL turns a great little pistol into a greater slightly less little pistol.

The alterations made to the grip area have done an incredible job of improving this small pistol’s ergonomics, I can’t quite place my finger on it but the XL model really feels like it belongs in my palm.

I’m not alone in this thought either, many who have picked up one of these pistols has remarked about how good it feels.

This redesigned grip has been thought out beyond ergos as it also comes with a slight bevel in the magwell.  During my time on the range I didn’t have any issues with the magazine pinching my little finger which is always a consideration with smaller grips.

I’m not sure if this is due to the new grip shape or something else but one of my big complaints with the original P365 was a really mushy and awkward magazine release.

This has been vastly improved on the XL.  Now ejecting an empty mag feels more like a full size P320.  In fact, as a frequent P226 shooter it felt quite a lot more familiar to me.

Whatever they did here was worth the effort, it may seem like a little detail but little details always add up.  This makes all of the difference in my mind.

The added length to the slide may seem like a peculiar idea but it does have some real benefits.  The pistol itself is a bit less snappy and a bit more controllable.

A longer sight radius aids in accuracy.  Also of note is that the primer drag which had been quite pronounced on the standard P365 and was well documented online has been significantly reduced.

Whether this will extend the component life or not is debatable but it’s a point worth mentioning.

As with the standard P365 the X-RAY3 night sights are bright and easily picked up with emphasis on the larger front dot.

If a red dot sight is more your speed then the XL is ready to go with the latest Romeo Zero optic in Sig’s lineup, a sight which I believe was built specifically for this pistol as its dimensions and appearance perfectly match.

Adding a Romeo Zero to an XL pistol won’t increase its width any beyond the one inch mark.  Pretty cool.

As with the other models in the P365 lineup the XL comes with front and rear slide serrations, a proprietary accessory rail, a reversible magazine release, and the same easily accessed and non-obtrusive control layout as the original P365.

Personally I’m not a fan of the new flat trigger but I have been informed that a curved trigger can be swapped in if desired.

Looking on Sig’s website the curved trigger assembly is available for $19.  The new flat faced trigger is also available, however that one is marked at $49.95.  I guess you pay more to be trendy.

Shooting the P365XL is a much more pleasant experience than the original P365 which, while not horrible, was understandably snappy.

As with every striker-fired pistol I have experienced from Sig’s lineup there was a bit of mush in the travel and reset but I would rate it as being good overall, there have been worse and I feel that only the P320 X5 Legion’s trigger felt better.

The shooting experience was remarkably good, especially considering that this is a firearm intended for personal protection.

The grip was fantastic despite not offering much space for the off-hand.  Empty magazines flew out of the the way for reloads.

The recoil impulse felt much improved over the shorter P365 and it was quick to return to target thanks to the low bore axis.

This truly felt like a carry gun which could serve double duty as a range gun.  I quite liked it.