Hypothesis Concerning the Sig P320
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Military, police, and private gun users have seen problems with the Sig P320 series — which includes M18s — for years now, Laramie-based gunsmith Brian Dimoff told Cowboy State Daily in a July interview.
Dimoff did not immediately respond to a Monday morning voicemail request for a follow-up interview.
Dimoff said last month that he believes the issue is that Sig Sauer tried to design its striker system without infringing Glock’s patent of that same system, and so made an ill-fitting design that may slip over time.
The internal pieces are under spring pressure and a block keeps the firing action at bay. If the pieces don’t fit together well, they’ll loosen over time and be prone to jolts.
“If one part begins to slip off another part, it’s a matter of time before it moves all the way down and you’re going to have a striker hit the primer,” Dimoff said.
As for Dimoff, he owns a P320 and says it’s a “great gun,” but he’s had it both customized and tested to the point of comfort.
It’s difficult for me to see how any striker fired gun can be “great,” but I’ll leave it at that.
This is an interesting hypothesis. I’ve always thought (and have said so over these pages) that the problem stemmed from tolerance stacks and parts wear. He’s adding to it by saying the specific design was to prevent patent infringement.
I’ve also read that the project began as a hammer fired gun (they should have left it at that) and evolved to a striker fired gun. Because big army: “We want a striker. Give us a striker.”
On August 26, 2025 at 4:25 am, Stefan v. said:
Why not just use the proven Glock? Various sizes, so simple to use even the drug gangs use them.
On August 26, 2025 at 5:29 am, Wes said:
@Stefan v.
Quite possibly Glock didn’t sufficiently grea$e the skids. Sig is like a monolith inside the puzzle palace for some years, especially during that pistol procurement, according to a couple former colleagues.
On August 26, 2025 at 9:16 am, George said:
My thought was and is: quality control issues. thousands made, only a handful giving problems. your thoughts?
On August 26, 2025 at 9:21 am, george 1 said:
Striker guns in general are much easier to maintain, Glocks in particular. I am not aware of any well regarded pistol which can be completely disassembled, every part in it replaced and reassembled in less than five minutes. And, you can do that with no tools save a ballpoint pen. H&K VP 9s are reasonably close.
So if you are the military or large police force, it is vastly easier to maintain thousands of Glocks vs thousands of 1911s for example. Berettas are in between as far as maintenance. While disassembly/reassembly of Beretta 92s takes longer than a Glock, they don’t require much fitting, in my experience. I am not sure if P320s are as easy as Glocks to maintain, I have no experience with them.
As an individual 1911s, and many other pistols, hammer fired CZs for example, are great. If you want to maintain them yourself you need the time, skills and tools necessary to do so. Replacing many parts in 1911s and other pistols requires fitting. When mine have issues I take them to a gunsmith I trust.
On August 26, 2025 at 4:56 pm, The Gaffer said:
For a handgun most of DOD can easily get by with a .38 revolver. Better yet, let officers and senior noncoms bring their own (within reason).
For the rest, Taurus has a lifetime warranty on a fixed sight six shooter – match made in heaven.
SOCOM is gonna get whatever they want anyway.
On August 26, 2025 at 6:48 pm, Michael Gilson said:
Kind of reminds me of Remington, IIRC the trigger system of the 720/721/700/7 was designed to copy the Winchester 70 without infringing Winchester’s patents.
On August 27, 2025 at 11:47 am, Frank Nobody said:
Highly skeptical about any design choices to avoid patents. Any patents of Glock’s would have expired by the late 1990’s. Sig P320 introduce in 2014.
On August 27, 2025 at 11:53 am, Frank Nobody said:
To George 1… CZs are great, I agree. But… easy to work on they are not, which may be what you are saying. They come apart just fine, but putting them back together, yeah, you need knowledge, and more patience than Axel Rose.
Dunno about the P320. P365s aren’t too bad, though I understand that’s a different design.