As SIG SAUER’s Chief Marketing Officer, Tom Taylor, told a room full of gun writers, accessory makers and even a few competitors last week, the New Hampshire gun maker wants their modular P320 to be thought of in the same way as the 1911 and the AR-15. They want it to be a “universal” platform around which revolves scores of parts, accessories and add-ons made by custom shops and parts makers all around the country.

That’s why SIG has decided to sell P320 Custom Works fire control units as a stand-alone item beginning the first of October.

You probably know that the internal fire control unit is the part of the P320 that’s legally a firearm. It’s the serialized part that requires a background check and transfer through an FFL. Every other part of the P320 can be and is sold over the counter. The grip, the slide, the barrel, the guide rod, sights…every other part can be delivered right to your door.

The stand-alone P320 Custom Works Fire Control Unit, to be sold at gun stores, will be an upgrade over the standard FCU that’s in most SIG P320 pistols currently sold. They’ve given them a gold titanium nitride finish and a Legion skeletonized trigger.

You’ll be able to buy the FCU, then add your own slide, barrel, frame and other parts to complete the gun the way you want.

Or…

SIG is putting the finishing touches on a P320 configurator site — the P320 Studio — that will let you choose from a range of all the parts and build your own gun.

So you’ll buy your Custom Works FCU at your local gun store, then take it home and register it in the configurator. Any parts you buy through the P320 Studio will get a 10% discount and be shipped to your door. As you’d expect, all of those parts will be made by SIG…at least at first.

The reason all of those other makers were in the room with us last week is SIG will be including competing companies’ products in the configurator, too. Which is why they’re calling the entire program the P320 Collective.

We got to see and shoot other makers’ plug-and-play P320 parts with the new SIG Fire Control Unit. Names that are part of the initial P320 Collective lineup so far include ZEV Technologies, Faxon Firearms, Grey Ghost Precision, Parker Mountain Machine, Wilson Combat, Rival Arms, L2D Combat, Icarus Precision and more. And there are other makers that have expressed interest in joining and having their products included in the program, too.

So eventually, you’ll be able to build your gun using the P320 Studio configurator and select from parts from a range of companies, mixing and matching the slides, sights, grips, etc.

Here are a few of the products and configurations we saw and shot:

Rival Arms slides, barrels and guide rods

 

A Norsso Reptile slide, Mirzon overmolded grip and Faxon threaded barrel

 

A Grey Ghost Precision slide on an Icarus Precision billet aluminum grip

 

Wilson Combat slide, barrel and grip

 

Grayguns full size and compact slides on their customized SIG grips

 

L2D Combat slides, barrels and customized grips
Zev Technologies slide, barrel and grip

There were a lot more combinations there, which is the benefit of the modular P320 system. The point is, SIG has done a lot of work and assembled products from an impressive array of other companies in the industry to make the P320 Custom Work Fire Control Unit the basis for an entire ecosystem of parts and accessories to let you pick and choose, then build exactly the gun you want.

Look for the full rollout of the fire control units and P320 Studio configurator about the first of October.

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47 COMMENTS

  2. Depends on the price. I can buy a stripped FCU on Gunbroker for $30.

    The price of slides, barrels, recoil assemblies and grips is already the cost of just buying a complete gun from the start.

    • “The price of slides, barrels, recoil assemblies and grips is already the cost of just buying a complete gun from the start.”

      Once any patents expire, the aftermarket can start selling cheaper knockoffs…

      • Why?

        That’s not how it works with Glock. You can buy a factory complete Glock cheaper than you can build one, even an 80%, all day everyday. People have been making Glock stuff for ages.

    • I looked at the price of assembling a second pistol except the FCU and it was about $80 less than buying a full unit. I would rather have two guns that work rather than one and one that doesn’t.

      One of the factors that made me go with the APX, which is drop safe right out of the box.

      • Borrowed a friend’s APX for a couple of days. Most likely will never own one…could not get used to the shallow (almost slippery) slide serrations.

        Speaking of Sigs…those of you who own and carry a P365 and have complained about the mag release should take a gander at the Armory Craft extended release. Ordered two a couple of weeks ago. Installed one in my P365 (standard model) EDC last week and took it to the range…perfect! Now I have nothing to complain about regarding the P365….except, if only the 12-round magazines were more plentiful and half-price.

        • I didn’t try racking the APX with gloves on (I normally only wear gloves for a month or two in deepest winter).

          My buddy likes his Burrito and that, when all is said and done, is what counts.

  5. Meanwhile, the fire control unit alone doesn’t fit the legal definition of a firearm, regardless of whether or not it has a serial number on it.

    • I wondered about that. If Sig has to serial number them how do manufacturers of aftermarket triggers for other firearms not have to?

      • Sig doesn’t serialize their receivers. Other aftermarket trigger makers products go in receivers that already have serial numbers.

    • Almost nothing in U.S. gun regulation (anti-gun laws) makes any sense. The legal definition of what is today on the books and under U.S. law that is to be considered a firearm is not being met by this SIG fire control group nor is it in any way being met by a stripped AR-15 lower receiver or even one that has been completed. And yet we have these items regulated and people are put away in prison for violating a law that by their own definition does not exist. But please do not take my word for it, look it up.

      Going further, the entire notion and argument that government has the authority to regulate the firearms industry is completely flawed because every provision in the Constitution that they may and have relied upon for this authority is negated by the fact that our Constitution was amended. Amendments to a document serve to permanently alter and change its provisions. And because the amendment overrides and “supersedes” everything that came before it, the provisions and changes in the amendment will always prevail and serve to win whatever controversy there may be that needs to be settled. And as no further changes were ever made to the peoples Right to be armed; “the Right of the people to keep and bear arms shall NOT be infringed” remains as the Supreme Law of the Land and is also a very clear and explicit command directive to the government.

      Remember that it took the passage of the 21st Amendment to finally put an end to the era of Prohibition brought about by the 18th Amendment. But nothing, absolutely nothing lawful has ever been done to change the provisions of the Second Amendment.

    • That would be my question. I have never heard a satisfactory assurance that the issue is resolved. Perhaps now somebody will be able to design a striker block or other safety to address the issue, though I feel it would be ideal to address it in the FCU since the actual mass of the trigger, moving from inertia is the “smoking gun” as it were.

      I’m speaking from memory here. Perhaps someone more conversant with the issue can provide better detail?

      • Documented unintended, triggerless discharges have continued to happen even on pistols that have upgraded triggers. See the guns and gadgets video on the latest class action suit.

      • All police investigation I have read or seen was either pre-upgraded guns that the police decided not to do or the office said one thing but in fact, was playing with the gun, G&G is 100% bullshit in his reporting. he made claims about M17/M18 having loads of issues too that where false.

        • Sorry, but there are dashcam videos of guns discharging in the holster as the officer exits his vehicle as late as May of this year. The list of cases included unmodified pre 2017 pistols, modified pre 2017 pistols and post 2017 pistols. G&G owns P320s and has carried them until the lawsuit.

  7. I can see the AR-15 analogy, but not the 1911. Sure, there are many aftermarket parts, but to get into the “performance space” of the 1911 you kinda need to know what you’re doing, or know a good gunsmith. (Preferably before you find out you really don’t know what you are doing.)

    I would have said, rather, that the Gen 3 Glocks are a better analogy.

    Still .. the more the merrier.

  8. I suspect that SIG has an ulterior motive here.
    We all know how “spare” AR lowers/uppers have a nasty habit of becoming a complete rifle, guys will look at the extra frames or slide assemblies they have and think “For only a few bucks I will have another working pistol”.
    Sneaky, sneaky.

    • I’m having that issue with 10/22s.

      I built one to be convertible from pistol to rifle with folding stock, to rifle with traditional stock, and back to pistol.

      Now I am thinking I should leave this one a pistol and just buy 2 more receivers, and trigger groups. I haven’t told my wife yet. But she has been hitting the new clothes pretty heavily this summer so I have some cover.

  9. Been looking at building one for an exchange kit I have doing nothing on the shelf but pricing it out I’m always within $50 of just buying a whole pistol.

    If priced right I’m in for one.

  10. What they NEED to do is seel more Gen 2 magazine plates at a lower prices so Everyone who has a old 320 can use the Gen 1 Mags!

    • you can just cut the wings off or bevel them with a dremel. no need to buy anything. I’ve got 6 or 7 full sizes I’ve modified to work with the Xgrip, then switched to a Wilson combat module and they still work great.

  11. Trying to push me to Glock. Am I the only one who dislikes these custom pistols unless they’re 80% jobs?

  15. I have owned my P320RX since 2016. It went through the voluntary recall and has not had any issues before or since. I shoot numerous USPSA. IDPA and other matches monthly and I carried it daily. In these incidents I have never read what kind of holster was in use. I always use a Kydex holster that fully covers the trigger. I’m guessing that most, if not all of the incidents involve supple leather or crappy nylon holsters – or firearm mishandling that the user didn’t want to disclose. There is a video online of a Glock discharging in a guy’s pants who was appendix carrying and simply bent over. No explanation of his holster type either.

  16. I notice the first thing people look at is price, and comparing them to prebuilt models and stock firearms, when this isn’t the point of this project at all. The point is to be able to customize your pistol in any number of premium ways at a range of premium pricr points, depending on the companies you want your parts from. This kind of market plan, if it succeeds, will push the p320 past the 1911 in terms of customizability. The 1911 is a very good pistol, but rarely is it ever cheap. The reason you get a 1911 is for something both custom and quality, not looking too hard at the budget. As a SIG fan, I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t been all that impressed with the P320 series and its endless problems, but this looks like SIG is seriously pushing the platform to its real potential. And I’m hyped for it.

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