The FBI Sig P320 Files
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Great work. I’m a bit surprised they responded to the FOIA request by transferring the full FBI document over to anyone.
With this done now, it’s hard to see how the Sig lawyers or designers move forward without a whole host of lawsuits and without an announcement and complete recall of the firearm.
For the record, I have nothing that says ‘Sig’ in my locker. I don’t do striker-fired guns and I don’t do Sig. I have heard that this pistol was originally intended to be a hammer-fired gun and then later redesigned to striker-fired. If that’s true, they should have left it hammer-fired.
On July 9, 2025 at 2:00 pm, Tony M said:
I had a hard time figuring out if the design is flawed, the manufacturing process was poor or wear to the parts (again, crap manufacturing) is to blame at the end of the day? And which, if any of those is worth fixing?
On July 10, 2025 at 7:37 am, John said:
When is the report going to be released so I can make up my own mind? I hear a lot of seems to be, maybe, more research needed, and in my opinion. I wonder if you did the same test on a Glock, a S&W, or a Ruger what the results would be? Remember that Glock had to add the trigger thingy to keep it from popping off unexpectedly. There used to be a bunch of videos about that.
Remember too, that according to the FBI, Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. So do you have a credible source?
On the plus side, SIGs will be cheaper at gun shows. I intend to keep buying them.
On July 10, 2025 at 7:42 am, Archer said:
I’ll point out that the activities listed as typical to law enforcement — running, jumping, climbing, fighting, pressing the holstered weapon against a wall or side of a vehicle, etc. — are also not unusual for private citizens who lawfully carry firearms. (Okay, maybe not fighting, but the rest; we don’t sit quietly in a chair all day.)
Ergo, if it’s not suitable for safe law enforcement use, it’s not suitable for private citizen use, either.
As gun people, reliability is an important consideration in a firearm. This is a good reminder that reliability swings both ways. We want the gun to reliably fire when the trigger is pressed, for sure, but we also need the gun to reliably not fire if the trigger is not pressed. This model fails the second condition.
@Tony M: I’m not qualified to say the design is flawed — in theory they have their bases covered — but the test pistol exhibited what seemed to me to be quite a number of manufacturing defects, from poor machining to very loose tolerances. It’s documented they had to “fix” the trigger because it was out of spec, but there’s no word whether the “play” in the striker safety spring or the loose fit between the frame and slide is within specifications.
If it is, then I’d say flawed design; if not, then poor manufacturing. But it’s not addressed either way and neither looks good for Sig Sauer or the M18/P320.
On July 10, 2025 at 8:47 am, george 1 said:
The Sig P320 design has the striker spring compressed prior to trigger pull by design, as I understand it. I had never heard that before about a month ago as I had never looked into the design. That, at least to me, seems rather sketchy. I was told by an armorer that this design is so the weapon has a better trigger. As though the designers are trying to make the gun have a 1911 like trigger pull in a striker fired weapon. I was told by an armorer that the weapon design is safe and all the talk of unintentional discharges is internet gossip.
For example the Glock mechanism differs in that the striker spring is not compressed until the trigger is pulled. The action of pulling the trigger compresses the striker spring.
Well we have had quite a few examples where the model has fired while in the holster and no external object seems to have made contact with the trigger. I am with Herschel. I would not own one of these pistols and because of Sig’s handling of the situation I would also not purchase any Sig product at this point.
On July 10, 2025 at 8:59 am, Herschel Smith said:
I believe Glock is a partially tensioned, pre-set striker. I believe that most striker fired guns are that way. I could stand to be corrected if I’m wrong.
https://www.glocktalk.com/threads/glocks-how-cocked-are-they.1396856/
On July 10, 2025 at 9:02 am, Herschel Smith said:
@John,
Full doc. Remember, this is the FBI “Ballistic Research Facility” with test equipment you and I don’t have. Watch the video again and read the doc below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L7RXrneHlzfjrewMFIeeyc-nel3bsDnM/view
On July 10, 2025 at 10:39 am, Tony M said:
I personally know of two unintentional misfires (second-hand, friend of a friend). Both involved Glocks. One was an IDPA shooter with a highly-improved trigger. Also, while I believe that some of these are possible, most of the cops I’ve known are pretty subpar with their weapons skills, handling and maintenance. One cop I knew didn’t know what kind of weapon he carried. When we went to his apartment to check it out, the thing was filthy. He said he only cleaned it after the yearly qualifications. This was a 6 year veteran cop with FWPD.
I’m going to talk to a gunsmith I recently went to here in town. Super professional guy. Going to ask him to look at the report and then disassemble and inspect two of my P320s at my expense. I just need to know if the problem is endemic or anything we can find. I’ll post that up when I get it.
On July 10, 2025 at 11:29 am, John said:
Thanks.
Having now read the report. Still “may be possible” and “merits further exploration” are in the conclusion. Also, I can not count the times I have cleared an AR and noticed a mark on the primer.
I do assure you that I have a vice and a hammer in my tool kit. I do not have an X-ray machine. :(
I watched each video once and see no need to watch them again. Their attitude is “Whee, we found something to hit SIG with” and I do not countenance them. Their bias is obvious. I checked out their YouTube pages.
Why are these incidents always with PD’s and not the military? Could it be that a manual safety is beneficial?
BTW: I do own a Glock. Colt, H&K, Tokarev, and S&W too. I even have some painted ordinance. No high point though.
On July 10, 2025 at 12:45 pm, John said:
Oh. I have had a personal N.D. I have learned not to place a live round under the hammer in a Colt SAA. It was in the holster with the thong over the trigger and my hand was nowhere near it. Maybe we should ban SAAs.
99%+ of NDs are operator error. Read the -10 first.
God will not help you if you do not do PMCS.
N.B: I am NOT advocating Israeli carry, even they don’t do that anymore.
Be safe. Off the net.
On July 11, 2025 at 8:40 am, george 1 said:
Herschel you are correct. The Glock mechanism is about 65% pre cocked. I should have said that the Glock system is such that even if the striker block safety failed somehow, there would still be insufficient energy for ignition.
Of course this might be negated if aftermarket parts are used. I am not sure. In any event the Glock striker safety system is robust. I have never heard of one going off in a holster absent some object pushing the trigger rearward. The fact that we have Sigs apparently doing exactly that shows that no where near enough testing was done on the design and also their manufacturing/assembly process.
On July 11, 2025 at 9:51 pm, X said:
“The Sig P320 design has the striker spring compressed prior to trigger pull by design, as I understand it. I had never heard that before about a month ago as I had never looked into the design. That, at least to me, seems rather sketchy. I was told by an armorer that this design is so the weapon has a better trigger.”
Yep. Sounds like the Remington/Walker trigger nonsense all over again. SIG will deny it and quietly settle out of court like Remington did for decades.
But it’s a shitty design. The Glock striker system is better. Hersh is right — the decent SIGs were the hammer-fired ones.
On July 12, 2025 at 4:56 pm, Nosmo said:
So…..maybe a return to hammer-fired guns instead of striker-fired? Completely different mechanism, and comes with a couple centuries of engineering expertise.
On July 12, 2025 at 7:41 pm, J J said:
Sig made a lot of money on government contracts for the 320 so they could grease the process for approval of additional crappy designs for the government to buy, like rifles and SAWs.
Sig made $$$$$, people in the pentagram made $$. Everyone is happy.
On July 13, 2025 at 8:39 am, Latigo Morgan said:
@ JJ – I’ve been asking if Sig has an Epstein Island of their own, the way they’ve been winning all the military small arms contracts, lately. It’s not like their products are so much superior to American designs by American owned companies.