We have been trained to think that all 9mm striker-firer pistols need to have a polymer frame. The truth is metal frame, 9mm strike-firer pistols have always been a thing. The first—the original 9mm pistol—was the Luger P-08 introduced in 1908. Since I’ve been concealed carrying the most common metal frame striker-firer pistol was the Kahr K and MK steel frames guns. The weight the steel added to the Kahr pistols made shooting them more comfortable. Within the past few years, I can think of a bunch of metal-frame striker-firer pistols that have been introduced: The Walther PDP Steel Frame series, the RIA STK100 line and SIG with the AXG grip module for the P320 series guns.
This is the parts where I segue into the SIG P320. I’ve wanted to like the P320 but I had a hard time shooting the P320 with ease. I tried the M17 model and quickly moved up the P320 food chain to the XSeries with the tungsten-infused polymer grip module and the flat-face trigger. The XSeries was better, but I still needed to pay attention to perform well with the gun. And that was odd, because a handgun that I can shoot well—exceptionally well—without having to pay too much attention to detail is the SIG P226 Nitron. That grip was made for my hand. I wasn’t that jazzed when I heard about the P320 being given the AXG treatment. What the hell, third time’s a charm, right?
AXG Pro Details
The P320 AGX Pro, like all P320 series pistols, features a trigger mechanism which is the serial numbered part that can be placed into any P320 grip module. AXG stands for Alloy XSeries Grip, which is an all-metal frame module.
The AXG module because it is made of aluminum gives the AXG Pro more weight. The grip also looks like more like an old-school SIG. The AXG module gives the pistol heft; about 5.8 ounces more compared to the polymer-frame P320. The P320 AXG Pro also uses an XSeries trigger module, which has a flat-face trigger that breaks at 90 degrees and is fast to reset.
In hand It feels like a classic SIG pistol, but with flatter grip sides, a nice trigger guard undercut and an extended beavertail. Hogue G10 grip inserts are fitted into the grip module’s side panels and backstrap. The texture of the G10 is checkered and not overly grippy. The front grip strap is checkered, too. You can easily hang on to this pistol when shooting it fast. A detachable metal mag well allows for smooth and fast reloads. The mag well can easily be removed if you so choose. There is a picatinny rail to mount a tactical light for boogie man verification at night.
The slide has three oblong slots on the left and right sides of the slide and one slot topside. Front and rear serrations—as well as the slots—make manipulating the slide for use or a press check easy and secure. The slide is relieved of more metal on the muzzle. Some of the added weight from the frame was lost with these slide cutouts.
The sights consist of SIG XRAY 3 Day/Night sights, which feature a three-dot tritium inserts. The front sight dot is larger than the two rear sights dots; the contrast in size is appreciated. The rear of the slide, just forward from the rear sight, is cut for an optic. Delta Point Pro, Trijicon RMR or Sig’s own ROMEO1, 2 and X red dots all fit the foot print.
A large, round magazine button dumps an empty mag with authority. The mags are fitted with Henning Group aluminum base pads that are compatible with the mag well. Remove their mag well and you can use any SIG 17-round magazine.
The ambidextrous slide stop sticks out from the frame enough so the thumb of your firing hand can manipulate it. The take down lever is easy to rotate and field strip the pistol or change grip module.
Flinging Lead
Training and defense rounds with a mix of bullet weights and types were used: Defender Ammunition 115-grain FMJs and Remington Golden Saber with a 147-grain BJHP.
I shot targets at 15 yards to satisfy that square range requirement, but I really wanted to see how the AXG Pro ran in fast shooting, like the Mozambique Drill (two to the body and one to the head) at 7 yards. First, the accuracy stuff.
My best group measured 0.6 inches with the Remington Golden Saber 147-grain BJHP ammo. The Defender 115-grain FMJs had a best group that measured 0.9 inches. Yeah, that checked that box alright. Now the fast stuff.
Going full speed Mozambique on the target, the first two shots were quick and smooth. The full metal guide rod ensures the AXG Pro slide cycles smoothly. The added weight helps with fast recoil recovery. The precise head shot atop the A-zone was easy to accomplish. The mag well assisted on reloads with smoothness.
Yet Another P320?
The AXG Pro is easy to shoot well and I think I have found a striker-fire compliment to this P320. I’ll keep and sell all my other P320’s to pay for it. I prefer the AXG grip module over the other P320’s I’ve tried. I’ve changed my mind about the model with this one.
Specifications
- Model: SIG Sauer P320 AXG Pro
- Caliber: 9mm
- Action: Semi-automatic
- Trigger: Striker-fire
- Overall Length: 8.2 in.
- Overall Height: 5.5 in.
- Overall Width: 1.6 in.
- Barrel Length: 4.7 in.
- Capacity: 17+1
- Weight Unloaded: 35.4 oz.
- Finish: Hard coat anodized
- Grips: Textured G10
- Sights: XRAY3 Day/Night sights, optic ready
- Street Price: $1,000
Rating
Fit and finish *****
The AXG Pro looks badass with the slide cut outs and matte black finish.
Reliability *****
Chewed through all the ammo with no hitches and it likes to be run hard.
Accuracy *****
At 15 yards, the smallest group measured 0.6 inches; yeah that will do.
Handling & Comfort *****
Smooth cycling, fast to reload, user friendly sights, comfortable grip angle and nice trigger; that’s checks a lot of boxes. The XSeries trigger module and aluminum grip module play nice together.
Overall ****
The P320 AGX Pro can pull double duty as a competition pistol or defense gun, though due to it being a full-size gun, concealed carry is more difficult. It’s pricey but worth working overtime for.
Check out Ammo To Go, the ammunition retail sponsor of TTAG gun reviews. Get your bulk and quality ammo for a bargain by visiting their site.
Is this a “just don’t drop it” Sig?🙄
Get with the times.
We’re way past “muh don’t drop it” memeing and are now into “goes off all on it’s own with no physics involved” territory.
Shit, with all the departments carrying it around the world and here and all the individuals carrying it and the various .mils around the world carrying it there’s like hundreds of instances every hour of this happening. Fucking thing just bangs and booms all over the place. Somebody call Ghost Adventures!!
This has been extensively tested. Despite the many lawsuits against SIG Sauer and claims of errant ‘uncommanded’ discharges (e.g. ‘just went off by its self’), in hundreds of tests by firearms experts, legal teams, police departments, and the military there has never been one documented case in such testing of a P320 ‘going off by its self’ in a controlled setting.
Sig released a statement on it, dated April 3, 2024 > https://www.sigsauer.com/blog/statement-sig-sauer-p320
“NEWINGTON, N.H., (April 3, 2024): “Contrary to prior reporting, claims that the P320 is capable of firing without a trigger pull are without merit and have been soundly rejected as a matter of law by thirteen separate courts, including a unanimous jury verdict in SIG SAUER’s favor. The P320 is trusted by the U.S. Military, law enforcement professionals, and responsible citizens worldwide. SIG SAUER is extremely proud of our outstanding safety record and quality firearms,” said Samantha Piatt, Director, Communications, SIG SAUER, Inc.
Below, for background on this matter, is a reference list of cases which have either been dismissed or adjudicated in SIG SAUER’s favor involving P320 model firearms. There has never been a final judgment against SIG SAUER in any case involving a claimed unintentional discharge of a P320 model firearm:
1. Northrop vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / March 2024
2. Slatowski vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / March 2024
3. Ortiz v. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / March 2024
4. White v. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / January 2024
5. Davis vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / January 2024
6. Jinn vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / September 2023
7. Tyler Herman vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / September 2023
8. Collette vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / August 2023
9. Hilton vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / June 2023
10. Mayes vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / March 2023
11. Guay vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – Jury Trial verdict in favor of Sig Sauer / July 2022
12. Schneider v. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / May 2022
13. Frankenberry vs. Sig Sauer, Inc. – DISMISSED / February 2022”
Wasn’t the point above about being drop safe and if so not every model in circulation (or issued firearm) is. As to it going off on it’s own of course not but it is far easier to have an unintended trigger activation through all kinds of methods than other firearms (even including Glocks for the same issues) so legally Sig is absolutely in the clear but it is a consideration we look at in contact proposals.
DISMISSED can also be another word for “Paying off the Prosecutor.”
Also leaves the P320 failing DoD trials and most recently frame cracking issues. Handguard/barrel problems with the new Speer rifles.
The P226 is one of the best pistols ever created but the P320 is one of the absolute worst. Over time Sig has been changing internal components around in the P320 during day to day manufacturing hoping nobody notices the changes.
Sig is expensive trash, there is significantly better on the market no matter your need.
Sig should put a loaded P320 in their Customer Experience Center under glass with a web-cam and see how long it sits there before it goes off all on its own.
https://sigsaueracademy.com/about-the-sig-experience-center
I wonder how many hits a day the cam would get?
That’s incorrect. A federal judge found that a p320 fired inside a holster after a full trial. Sig has also settled many of these cases and they just don’t talk about those. Don’t believe the sig propaganda.
I too was accustomed to my P226 and dissatisfied with polymer framed pistols, but SIG didn’t offer a full-size aluminum grip. So I bought a P320 Custom Works FCU and built the pistol I wanted around it, starting with an Icarus Precision A.C.E. 320 X-Full grip module. As nice as the XSeries trigger feels, it can still be improved with some aftermarket attention. My son likes mine better than the trigger in his XFive Legion.
I considered Icarus Precision’s A.C.E. 320 SOCOM Full but I need to be able to remove the magwell to avoid being bumped from Carry Optics into either Limited Optics or Limited.
I have four or five SIG pistols. None are polymer framed or striker fired. Not interested in this particular pistol. BTW; what are the holes in the slide for? Are they the same kind of useless appendage that Buick put on their fenders?
… useless? When Buick first came out with fender portholes, they were fitted with mini-sparkplugs that fired with the actual ones, a real sight to behold at nighttime.
In the same manner, the slide holes are there to let dirt and grit into the inner workings, so that when mixed with your favorite gunm lube turns into an abrasive, and crudely “polishes” the formerly precision parts to a ghetto sidewalk sheen.
Pb, didn’t know that about the spark plugs. That’s funny. Almost as much as those guys that were placing Buick fender vents on non-Buick cars lately. Reminds me of the curb scrapers of the ’70s. They put them on both sides of their cars. 😂
Gads… not sure how he’d mount curb feelers on it, but a jacked-up F250 in one of my sons’ condo parking ramp has 27 of those “J C Whitney” stick-on portholes down each side.
Not sure if it also has million horsepower “mufflers” on it, like the asian 4door formula none racecars have.
I have lived and parked on one-way streets where parking on the left side of the street was very common. If the curb feelers were installed on the passenger side then why not the driver’s side too?
Hey, these days you’re free to decide for yourself… 2 pen ises, 4 pen ises, no pen ises, change it up depending on your feelz that morning
Weight reduction that “might” help with some competition tuned loads with various configurations was the best explanation I ever heard. With that said tungsten grips and basic full sized slide for use with 357 Sig is what I tend towards for longer range pistol shooting with this model otherwise it tends to be goofy to spite my state’s various laws.
If Sadowski is writing for TTAG the bar has been raised a great deal!
Good report.
I’ve got several Sig pistols, among them a P320. But of all of them the P226 and P365 x-Macro Tacops are my favorites.
I’m romantically linked to my 365x with magguts modded mags. 15 rounds of +P hollow points within arms reach 24/7.
Someday I will have to try that out.
Rad Man, have you considered a support group for your problem? Cathexis can be cured.
my tacops came with four 17 round magazines
I had one striker fired pistol, a Taurus 738, I traded it for a futon or however you spell it.
Its camouflage. Before that all I had was a chair. I had to get rid of the chair because it kept making me want to tie a rope around my neck.
Bidenomics
The Taurus 738 is hammer fired. Had one. Didn’t like hollowpoint’s🙄
By golly your right. It did have a hammer now that I think about it.
Never got around to trying hp’s, velocity and expansion, figured the cheapo Fmj’s did about the same. They are nice little gunms I just don’t like a gunm without a safety though.
I only own hammer fired classic P series SIGs. Good for SIG for coming out with this but personally no interest. My DA/SA P226 is my perfect home defense pistol.
Sig comes out with the “tungsten infused polymer” P320. Now they have a metal P320. XD
This company is a crock, there is nothing better a P320 can do over a P226. It’s proven and has many varieties including polymer frame, Legion, and X series.
Adjust length, grips, weight, and calibers limited only by budget with multiple types of firearms for only one part that needs to be registered in states that do that. With that said yes 226 was an all around better design.
P226 has a sizeable aftermarket for customizing.
P320 is so modular, it’s much more customizable.
The only SIG parts on mine are the FCU, the striker assembly, and the spring and catch in the magazine release.
Imagine parts so good you don’t want to change them out. The P226 is a functional work of art, you don’t get 30,000 rounds tested without failure doing sloppy work.
I am interested to see how the various 320 setups do with round counts and what parts tend to fail and cost/ease of repair over time.
The only Sig I still have is a P228, it has never had any malfunction. To my amazment, it’s mags also fit a full size Taurus G3.
2011’s are making a huge comeback for a reason tbh
Actually existing in meaningful numbers and costs coming down to be a lower barrier to entry? Neat guns but much like 10mm it may just take a while to catch on and have the market catch up……..or will go in and out of popularity for various reasons.
as of last shot show yeah, they’re actually coming down in price and coming in, in meaningful numbers this year – theyre still more expensive than polymer frame striker fired handguns but specifically metal frame striker fired guns cost just as much, if not more – especially at the $1000 mark
That is cool to hear, always thought it a neat idea but that initial price killed it for my budget years ago and is slowly getting into the territory of trying one or a USP 45.
I have personally witnessed two P320s discharge out of battery, injuring the shooter, and one P320 discharge uncommanded.
There are dozens of videos of both of these happening floating around the internet.
These are not safe pistols.
Correct. A federal judge found that a p320 fired inside a holster after a full trial. Sig has also settled many of these cases and they just don’t talk about those. Don’t believe the sig propaganda.
Every one of the “Ring of Fire” zamak guns is striker-fired. Glock just took things one step further from the potmetal design to the plastic cereal box toy.
… but glucks being top-rack dishwasher safe sure cuts down on cleaning time and effort.
I thought the Sig 226 was made fir my hand too, until the first time I picked up a CZ-75 compact and….wow.