After leaving police work a few years ago, I decided to take a look at some other sidearms on the market for use when a medium/large pistol was appropriate. I was no longer restrained by what was on the "approved" list from my department, or what the supply division would stock a holster for. We had a fairly liberal policy for approved weapons when I joined the department in the early 90's. In wheelguns, we could carry anything .38 or larger, in a 4 or 6 inch barrel length. In autos, officers were authorized to carry anything 9mm or larger as a uniformed duty weapon, for which a level III holster was available. .380 or larger for off-duty or plainclothes carry. It was common to see some of the "seasoned" officers at our station carrying S&W .44 mags with 6" barrels on their belt with the "flap" holsters that many were allowed to use by virtue of "being grandfathered in." All of my generation were required to carry the S&W 686 through training and our probation period, but were allowed to carry semi-autos after taking a short familiarization course.
One of my good friends, after a few years decided that the .357 mag was of insufficient stopping power, that a a.44 mag was the only appropriate caliber. He found a beautiful S&W 629 "Mountain Gun" (stainless, 4" lightweight contour barrel, Hogue equipped from the factory), that Safariland (strangely) made an appropriate holster for. While this was a very effective caliber, we soon found out that there were important drawbacks. The worst of which was that when you were standing anywhere other than behind the gun upon discharge, it was like a flash-bang going off next to you. To describe this experience in an enclosed area as "disorienting" would be a severe understatement.
So when my search began, I had been carrying a Beretta 96 Elite, which worked very well and was versatile in that there was a uniformed duty holster available, and a Safariland hard-shell thigh rig manufactured for this specific gun for tactical work. This gun had the heavy Brigadier slide, which was very effective in controlling the muzzle, but the long DA trigger and large grip seemed to create a length of pull mismatch for me. I never seemed to be able to reach the same level of marksmanship I had achieved with other weapons I carried. One of my associates had been carrying a Sig SP2340, and convinced me to give it a test drive. I had not been particularly fond of other med-large polymer autos I had used, as i felt many were either too light, or were too bulky, or didn't have a conventional trigger mechanism. The first thing I noticed was that the 2340 neither looked, nor felt like a polymer gun. The weight and balance was similar to the P229, which was roughly the same size. My research indicated that Sig had developed the frame on the 2340 to cut the cost of machining that pushes the price of classic Sigs to over $700 in most markets. Nothing about it looked or felt cheap.
At the range I found that the DA trigger was relatively short and light, similar to a well used/LEO trade-in P220. The SA trigger broke nicer than some of the allegedly high-end 1911's I've owned. The polymer frame seemed to have some sort of recoil absorbing quality that didn't owe anything to flex during firing. My only complaint was that it had a proprietary rail molded into the frame (which actually is a non-complaint when carrrying it concealed, snag-free), at least until I purchased my own unit.
I was amazed to find (in 2004) that the 2340 was available, without night sights, at Texas guns shows for $389.00 (should've bought 3 or 4-wish I could've seen the future). I found during my range time, that this gun suffered from what almost every other Sig purchased by a fellow LEO suffered from, a 500-round break-in. Now I am one of those people who believe that you should put at least 600-800 rnds through a weapon before it goes with you to work (1,200 is a better goal), but I mean that I have talked to many owners of P229's and SP2340 whose weapons would not function right out of the box. All of which were told by Sig to go "shoot it in." This is one area where Glock and Beretta get praise from me. I've never seen a 96/92 or any Glock that wouldn't shoot either dry or right out of the box, or both. In the case of the 2340, the fit was so tight between the frame and slide, that the slide would stop about 1/4" short of battery. about 400 rnds into break-in, this completely subsided. I would have been more upset about this if I had just paid $650 for (LE Distributor price at the time) a P229. After Five years of hard use, and approximately 10K rounds down the pipe, I have experienced no problems. I use a lithium grease type lube during the hot and humid Texas summers (our summer is from April to September), and Mobil 1 10w30 in the winter. The finish on the slide is a blackened stainless, and not even use in rigid holsters had managed to wear through it yet. The pebbling on the grip panels still has a lot of life as well. After talking to more owners of these guns, I have found that those who purchased the DAO version (must be an agency contract for these, with overruns on the market) do not like them as well as the DA/SA owners. I have seen the DAO versions of the updated model (SP2022) selling cheap at places like Academy Sports. I think that the trigger group is modular and can be switched out to a DA/SA on, but I'm not aware of what Sig charges for the unit. Since purchasing my gun, I have seen contracts for the 2340/2022 awarded by the Army, DEA, and the French Gendarmerie.
http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125451
I welcome correction of any info misstated herein, but I have found that in a market where very few really poor handguns are produced by major manufacturers, this weapon is rarely given any press. Of note, I use a Safariland Raptor on both Duty Belt and tactical thigh rig-having made my own hybrid by attaching a Raptor unit to my old Safariland thigh-rig (same as the rig seen in "sand" with the M9 frequently). This required only minor re-drilling of holes in the leg piece, not the holster. I have also seen that Sig offers this gun with an orange solid training barrel, a nice feature for anyone involved in firearms training.
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