Gun Review: SIG SAUER P365 XL

Two years ago SIG SAUER shook up the concealed carry market with the release of the P365. By shoehorning 10+1 rounds into a pistol the size and weight of every other mainstream company’s 6+1 round offering, they turned heads and changed minds.

After carrying mine near daily since completing a straight-from-the-box 1,000 round test, I thought I’d take its big brother the P365 XL for a spin . . .

As the name implies, the P365 XL is larger than the P365. With a slightly extended beavertail and a longer slide, the XL is 0.8 inches longer overall and the barrel sports an extra 0.6 inches. An extended grip length increases the height by a cool half inch.

While a half inch certainly isn’t much, in the P365 it allows another two rounds of capacity to fit in its flush-fitting magazines. Capacity of the XL is 12+1 rounds.

You’ll also have room for a full firing grip, pinky finger included, with that flush-fit magazine base plate. It’s about the shortest a grip frame can possibly be while achieving an all-fingers-on, standard grip.

With the grip frame now extending below the base of your hand, SIG had room to flare the frame out a little and create a slight magazine well funnel. It isn’t huge, but it looks good, it aids magazine insertion a bit, and it’s a nice touch.

As you’ve likely already noticed, the P365 XL has one more trick up its sleeve: it’s optics-ready as standard! My Shield RMS bolted straight on. Better yet, the built-in rear sight notch on the RMS lines up perfectly with the front sight on the P365 XL, so you still have back-up irons should you want to go old school.

SIG’s truly excellent X-RAY3 tritium sights come standard on the P365 XL. The rear sight is easily removed along with the blanking plate for owners who won’t be mounting an optic.

Compared to the smaller original model, the XL’s sight radius is 0.7 inches longer.

Grip texture is the same as on the standard P365, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It manages to be grippy and secure without shaving my love handles down. Which may or may not be good, now that I think about it.

Despite fitting a double stack magazine in there, the grip is slim and sculpted and highly ergonomic. I like the larger beavertail on the XL model but have never had an issue on the standard P365, so can’t say it actually brings much to the table for me.

One final change that SIG built into the XL is a flat trigger. Given how the trigger rotates during its travel, relatively short though it is, I’m not as “into” this flat trigger as I usually am.

While I typically gravitate toward and prefer a flat trigger, in this case all it does for me is look cooler and slightly increases the reach to the trigger, which I also didn’t find either better or worse than the standard gun’s curved trigger.

Out on the range, the P365 XL was understandably familiar. Eyes closed I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and my P365 carry gun that I’m so very used to. Well, minus the straight trigger and more securely-perched pinky finger, of course. But they shoot the same.

Which, to be clear, is a really good thing. I love how the P365 shoots. It’s more controllable and shoots flatter than most other guns in this size category.

The mix of really nice sights, a crisp trigger, and controllable recoil is always a good one, and when combined with solid mechanical accuracy and reliability the P365 and P365 XL really shine on the range. Bottom line: they make me look like a better shooter than I really am.

With all that said, I’ll now underwhelm you with an average looking accuracy target. Actually, this is pretty much all I’m capable of at 25 yards shooting standing, off-hand. With a competition trigger I’d tighten that up a little bit, but the SIG’s definitely doing its job here and there are plenty of more expensive, full-size pistols that I wouldn’t shoot this well.

Though the XL is too large for pocket carry (at least for me now that I stopped wearing JNCOs) whereas the smaller flavor P365 just makes the cut, it otherwise conceals very nearly as well as the littler guy. An extra half inch in grip length just doesn’t make or break the concealment factor.

Like its little brother, I had zero reliability issues with the XL. Two brands of hollow points (in 115 grain and 124 grain) and two brands of FMJ (115 grain steel cased stuff and 147 grain Armscor) went downrange without a hitch. My own P365 has eaten every sort of ammo on the market over the course of 2,000-ish rounds and it has also never choked. I do trust these pistols.

SIG’s P365 has apparently been the #1 best selling handgun in the U.S. since shorty after it was introduced, and it’s easy to see why. As SIG continues to expand the P365 line with variants in different sizes, sight configurations, control options (i.e. manual safety models), and colors, it just keeps solidifying its place as first on my list of recommended concealed carry guns.

Specifications: SIG SAUER P365 XL

Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 12+1 rounds
Operation: semi-automatic
Barrel Length: 3.7 inches
Overall Length: 6.6 inches
Width Across Controls: 1.1 inches
Height: 4.8 inches
Weight: 20.7 ounces
Sights: Optics-ready with X-RAY3 day/night sights
MSRP: $649.99 ($579.99 at Brownells)

Ratings (out of five stars):

Style and Appearance  * * * * 
I prefer the somewhat refined, “executive” styling of the P365 to the looks of most other pistols in its size category.

Reliability  * * * * *
Never a hitch, glitch, or . . . wild pitch? Bitch? Twitch? Snitch? I dunno. A little help, please?

Ergonomics  * * * * *
Nailed it.

Customize This  * * * * 
From the factory there are multiple trigger options, multiple frame colors, multiple magazine lengths and different baseplates, lights, lasers, and more. Plus, of course, it’s optics-ready. Then, due to the popularity of the P365 there’s plenty of aftermarket support for things like threaded barrels, billet strikers, compensators, holsters, and other modifications and accessories (65+ listings at Brownells).

Accuracy  * * * * *
I shoot the P365 better than just about anything else of this size and better than many full-size pistols. It’s decently mechanically accurate, but more importantly it’s extremely accurate in practice. Everyone seems to shoot the P365 better than they shoot most other pistols (at least based on the 10 or so people who have shot mine back-to-back with other guns and from what I’ve seen in videos and other reviews, heard from various people, etc).

Overall  * * * * *
The SIG SAUER P365 has been my #1 CCW recommendation for a couple years now, and the continued expansion of the P365 line just further locks that in. It’s a fantastic handgun.

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All images by Jeremy S. for TTAG unless otherwise indicated.