PMCI - May 2021

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FIREARMS - SIG M18 320
M18 SPECS
CALIBER: 9mm
MAGS INCLUDED (1) 17rd / (2) 21rd Steel Mags
SIGHTS
SIGLITE Front / Night Sight Rear Plate
PISTOL SIZE SIG Carry
OVERALL LENGTH 7.2 in
OVERALL WIDTH 1.6 in
HEIGHT
5.5 in
BARREL LENGTH 3.9 in
WEIGHT 28.1 oz
SIGHT RADIUS 5.8 in
TRIGGER ACTION Strike Fire
GRIP COLOR Coyote Tan
BARREL MATERIAL Stainless Steel
SLIDE FINISH Coyote PVD
SLIDE MATERIAL Stainless Steel
RANGE TIME
As eager as I was to get on the range and really get some time
in with the M18, I must admit there was fear of some early bias.
After being spoiled with the heavier Tungsten infused
polymer frame of the 320 X5 LEGION and the 1911 style spring
set up, I feared comparing the M18 a bit too harshly. Fortunately,
this was not the case as I began often carrying the pistol during
my trips to the indoor range at Bullseye Guns in Jacksonville,
FL and the outdoor private range known as the Baldwin Pistol
School ran by good friend and training expert, Tom Martin.
As the only really negative in my SIG 320 X5 LEGION review,
front sight found on the pistol. As it was designed as an “out
of the box” competition gun, the thin bright red infused front
sight in combination with a blacked out rear sights made
perfect sense to see small targets in good lighting conditions
quickly. As a self-defense instructor and primarily a defensive
minded shooter, I was not a fan of the fiber optic sights in the
least. In my training and carry world, targets are large, up close,
typically in low to no light. The possibility of the gun striking a
wall or the ground in a fight is real enough that I prefer to have
steel night sights over fiber optics. The SIGLITE night sights on
the M18 were perfect for my eyes to acquire quickly and carry
with the confidence of having durable battle-ready sights. As
an added bonus, the rear sight plate is removable to allow for
optics such as the robust SIG ROMEO1 PRO or crowd favorite
Holosun 507 red dot.
During these COVID defiant range sessions, as mentioned,
I was joined by NRA / USCCA Instructor, Clint Steele to help
weigh in on the long-term research in conjunction with the M17.
While the testing round counts did not reach into the
thousands due to the early onset of the current ammo shortages,
it did exceed the 600 round mark between teaching classes,
field testing and shooting demos. During this time, there were
only four stoppages in the form of misfires. All four were found
to be part of a bad lot of bulk ammunition sent to us from a
previously unknown small company. At the suggestion of our
wise PMCI editor, Bill Pryce Thomas, Clint and I explored the
world of supplemental training via the M17 Green Gas 6 mm
(Airsoft) pistol sent directly over from SIG SAUER.
tAs Clint mentioned in his previous article, the overall
feel and performance of the reciprocating slide and 21 round
limited magazines gave us a great concept of round counts
and action familiarity. While as evident with the success of our
sister publication Airsoft Action, the concept of 6mm training is
not at all new to the rest of the world, but here in the United
States, we have been so distracted by real steel and lead that
alternative sources for safe and innovative training are sadly
slow to be explored. While our Swanson Training Group has
been spent the past two years learning all we could from our
teammates such as Bill and John, we as former real-world
operators have not seen, until recently at least, many of our US
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