P226 Stainless Elite vs P226 standard alloy

[mattwaage]

ah that is to bad to hear that. has the factory corrected the problem on new production units or is it still ongoing?

[Joe L]

Trader--I tried the extractor this morning after bending vertically and it didn't work well for me. I will check it this evening to see if I distorted the claw position enough to make things worse. I may have gone too far or been too sloppy.

Joe

[Trader]

Did it not extract or did you have feed problems? I have been using a heavy recoil spring

and I paid some attention to the hook area before refitting.

[Joe L]

Trader--I think I found the problem. When I bent the extractor "up" I lost some tension. When I checked it in the shop just a minute ago, there was clearly not enough tension. I increased the tension by bending the extractor in the middle a little and then tried it with snap caps. The snap caps will load and extract just fine if I let the slide go, but the casing drags some as it climbs the breech face when I move the slide slowly. So now, I bet it will extract fine, may not chamber if I have the tension a little high. Will check it on Wednesday.

Joe

[Joe L]

ah that is to bad to hear that. has the factory corrected the problem on new production units or is it still ongoing?

Mattwaage--Trader and I are talking about the X-5 in 9mm which is known to have extractor issues. Trader has had gun luck tuning the latest SIG extractor for his gun and I am trying to duplicate his success on mine.

Joe

[Trader]

Trader--I think I found the problem. When I bent the extractor "up" I lost some tension. When I checked it in the shop just a minute ago, there was clearly not enough tension. I increased the tension by bending the extractor in the middle a little and then tried it with snap caps. The snap caps will load and extract just fine if I let the slide go, but the casing drags some as it climbs the breech face when I move the slide slowly. So now, I bet it will extract fine, may not chamber if I have the tension a little high. Will check it on Wednesday.

Joe

I also lost tension after I tweaked it upwards, sounds like you are now on the right path.

[Joe L]

Trader--A good day today. Added a little tension last night, went to the range today, took vise and pliers with me. Had 1 FTExtract so I removed the extractor and added a little more tension, this time I knew I was close as I had to tap the slide to go in to battery as the extractor tension now was borderline too tight.

Next I changed the recoil spring to a pink one, a lot stronger than the 12 lb variable I had been using. I also changed to a stronger magazine spring to help force the case up in to the breech against the tight extractor. With these changes, I ran three different kinds of ammo through the pistol, without any problems at all. No failures to extract, no failures to go in to battery, no hang ups, nothing. So far so good, last 165 rounds with no additional changes. I will continue to shoot the pistol as currently configured. If I can go a total of a 1000 rounds without a problem, I will declare victory. If I still have some problems and can't adjust it any more, I will go through the same exercise with the Gray Guns extractor next.

Joe

[Trader]

Joe L.

Good! I think you found the spot. I shot gun # 2 (AA) this evening 300 rounds. Mostly reloads, both of my guns

are still at 100 %.

Trader

[Joe L]

Trader,

I appreciate your help. Last night was the first time I had shot the gun when I was finally liking the darn thing. I've spent too much time jumping from one gun to another. All the other SIGs and the one CZ run 100%, shoot well, and were less expensive than the X-5. After spending nearly $1000 with Gray, I had a rather expensive X-5 that I wouldn't use for IDPA matches. Might get there yet. Too early to tell for sure, but I should know in the next month how this one will turn out.

Joe

[Joe L]

I shot another 50 rounds today through the X-5 without any problems. Looking good.

Joe

[Joe L]

Back to the original topic and results with the Stainless Steel Elite P226 9mm. I have worked over the trigger a bunch and am through making tweaks. I've smoothed out the double action pull and got the single action just the way I want it, at about 3-1/2 lbs with very little creep. I've done a smaller group than this one at 25 yards standing with this gun but I did many more sub 3" groups this morning than before. I'm getting there.

Next I decided to try the gun standing at 50 yards, so I put up a 9" plate and loaded 10 rounds. Hit the plate well with 5 rounds and got 2 more on the plate for a total of 7 out of 10. I've done better with the 22 but this is good for me.

I am very happy with the Stainless P226 and am glad I decided to get one. I may be selling an X-5 and one alloy P226. More ammo. More ammo.

Joe

[Joe L]

Finally got to participate in our club's Thursday night IDPA stage drills on Thursday night of this week. I used the P226 Stainless Steel Elite instead of the alloy P226 or the CZ or the X-5. New SSE worked great and handled fine. I am going to shoot it in the club match in a week and a half. I do notice the additional weight on the draws and transitions, but I like the weight once near target.

Good success with the X-5 extractor, one fail to extract in 500 rounds, and I am not sure what the problem was on that one, maybe a reloaded casing, not sure.

Near as I can tell, I have 3 good SIGs right now and the CZ, that's enough 9mm for me.

Joe

[Joe L]

Shot the Stainless Steel Elite P226 9mm in our monthly club match this morning. Gun worked perfectly, I love the balance and feel of the gun during the match. I am very happy with it and with the work I have done on it myself. Will try the CZ again, maybe...right now, very happy with the SIGs I have. I could have only one SIG, it would be this standard size all stainless version.

Joe