I recently had a chance to spend some time with a pair of P210s.
One was a heavy frame model from the very end of original P210 production where they were mostly built in Switzerland and finished up in Germany. The other was a new-production Sig-Sauer target model that was purchased in the hopes of sparing the original some miles and wear and perhaps be suitable for some competition sports.
It was also hoped the ergonomics would be better with the push-button mag release and such.
OK, so what I don't like about the original P210:
The 8-round mag capacity is a bummer, no way around that. What makes it worse is the magazine spring is very stiff so it's unusually hard to load.
To make matters much worse the heel-release is extremely stiff to actuate, so much so that a person without my hand strength gave up on the weapon after just a couple magazines. I don't usually mind a heel release particularly but this is the worst I've ever used.
What I like about the old 210:
Well, of course the trigger is amazing.
The weapon is also accurate, yeah, shocking I know.
I had to move back to 50 yards to really get a better sense of how my loads were printing at which point the average was about a 5" 10-shot group off the bench for me.
It was interesting to see how much things opened up between 25 and 50 yards, in particular the plated bullets just did NOT hold up. The Hornady XTPs out-performed the Sierra V-crown by a significant margin.
That said, under 25 yards this thing was more remarkable for how consistently it shot good groups with almost anything. It was far less fussy about bullet profile, powder, whatever, all shot well and with a lot less POI shift with different loads than I'm accustomed to. Whatever that magic is, I really like it. I'm also a little surprised that that isn't more remarked-upon in other folks notes about this item.
Reliable, yes, perfectly despite a wide variety of profiles, lengths, and power levels. The only thing was the first round from the first mag sometimes needed a little push to strip and chamber the first round.
OK, so how did new production stack up?
The trigger was still excellent, anything I thought it was lacking was subtle and likely just made up in my head because one was "old world craftsmanship" and cost 3X what the other cost.
The look did change, they moved the safety and slide release to improve ergonomics and make the drag-mark the originals made under the safety go away. They also changed the lockup on the weapon. The new one has a wider slide, which makes for a wider frame and overall just a wider weapon. This makes an already full-sized sidearm even bigger. They went to a push-button magazine release sure, but for my average-sized hands I can't reach it! Remember this is a SINGLE STACK 9mm here and it feels bigger than a 1911. I can't get to the slide release with my right thumb either but the mag release just hurts. More magazine misfortune, it's still an 8-round mag. On the target gun they put some extra long grips on the gun so put an extension baseplate on the mag, it would have been so easy to make it 9-rounds or even a nice even 10 with a little follower work, then you could at least run limited-10.
Speaking of those extended grips, they increased the length of them making the weapon feel a bit clunky and also increased the magazine opening to accommodate the extended baseplate but it has a sharp edge so exactly fails to act as a flared magwell extension. The magazines are also somewhat difficult to slide home over the release. So rather than really fixing the worst part of the old P210, they just make it less bad.
Accuracy... well, it's fine but not amazing. A little worse at 25yds and a lot worse at 50 yards. I didn't run as many rounds through it as the old generation one so it's hard to quantify but looked about 30% worse.
Reliability is actually better. No failures just like the older P210 but feeds the first round very smoothly and easily as well.
The grips are comfortable and fit well though they are much longer than I'd need them to be.
The grips and the size of the weapon do make it amazingly soft-shooting. "About like my Trailside .22" said someone along for the experience.
The undercut below the trigger guard, beavertail, and hooked trigger guard all make it less like the original, weather this is a good thing or bad depends on what you like, so whatever.
Also, it's just a little thing, but the fiber-optic in the front sight is visibly off-center. Just the sort of thing you don't love in what is supposed to be a target firearm.
Overall I *really* wanted to like the new P210 "Target" model from Sig Sauer and for it to capture the magic of the original but at a more affordable price, but it wound up being a compromise that weakened the original's strengths and only sort of redressed it's shortcomings... that's a little bit sad and boring.
One was a heavy frame model from the very end of original P210 production where they were mostly built in Switzerland and finished up in Germany. The other was a new-production Sig-Sauer target model that was purchased in the hopes of sparing the original some miles and wear and perhaps be suitable for some competition sports.
It was also hoped the ergonomics would be better with the push-button mag release and such.
OK, so what I don't like about the original P210:
The 8-round mag capacity is a bummer, no way around that. What makes it worse is the magazine spring is very stiff so it's unusually hard to load.
To make matters much worse the heel-release is extremely stiff to actuate, so much so that a person without my hand strength gave up on the weapon after just a couple magazines. I don't usually mind a heel release particularly but this is the worst I've ever used.
What I like about the old 210:
Well, of course the trigger is amazing.
The weapon is also accurate, yeah, shocking I know.
I had to move back to 50 yards to really get a better sense of how my loads were printing at which point the average was about a 5" 10-shot group off the bench for me.
It was interesting to see how much things opened up between 25 and 50 yards, in particular the plated bullets just did NOT hold up. The Hornady XTPs out-performed the Sierra V-crown by a significant margin.
That said, under 25 yards this thing was more remarkable for how consistently it shot good groups with almost anything. It was far less fussy about bullet profile, powder, whatever, all shot well and with a lot less POI shift with different loads than I'm accustomed to. Whatever that magic is, I really like it. I'm also a little surprised that that isn't more remarked-upon in other folks notes about this item.
Reliable, yes, perfectly despite a wide variety of profiles, lengths, and power levels. The only thing was the first round from the first mag sometimes needed a little push to strip and chamber the first round.
OK, so how did new production stack up?
The trigger was still excellent, anything I thought it was lacking was subtle and likely just made up in my head because one was "old world craftsmanship" and cost 3X what the other cost.
The look did change, they moved the safety and slide release to improve ergonomics and make the drag-mark the originals made under the safety go away. They also changed the lockup on the weapon. The new one has a wider slide, which makes for a wider frame and overall just a wider weapon. This makes an already full-sized sidearm even bigger. They went to a push-button magazine release sure, but for my average-sized hands I can't reach it! Remember this is a SINGLE STACK 9mm here and it feels bigger than a 1911. I can't get to the slide release with my right thumb either but the mag release just hurts. More magazine misfortune, it's still an 8-round mag. On the target gun they put some extra long grips on the gun so put an extension baseplate on the mag, it would have been so easy to make it 9-rounds or even a nice even 10 with a little follower work, then you could at least run limited-10.
Speaking of those extended grips, they increased the length of them making the weapon feel a bit clunky and also increased the magazine opening to accommodate the extended baseplate but it has a sharp edge so exactly fails to act as a flared magwell extension. The magazines are also somewhat difficult to slide home over the release. So rather than really fixing the worst part of the old P210, they just make it less bad.
Accuracy... well, it's fine but not amazing. A little worse at 25yds and a lot worse at 50 yards. I didn't run as many rounds through it as the old generation one so it's hard to quantify but looked about 30% worse.
Reliability is actually better. No failures just like the older P210 but feeds the first round very smoothly and easily as well.
The grips are comfortable and fit well though they are much longer than I'd need them to be.
The grips and the size of the weapon do make it amazingly soft-shooting. "About like my Trailside .22" said someone along for the experience.
The undercut below the trigger guard, beavertail, and hooked trigger guard all make it less like the original, weather this is a good thing or bad depends on what you like, so whatever.
Also, it's just a little thing, but the fiber-optic in the front sight is visibly off-center. Just the sort of thing you don't love in what is supposed to be a target firearm.
Overall I *really* wanted to like the new P210 "Target" model from Sig Sauer and for it to capture the magic of the original but at a more affordable price, but it wound up being a compromise that weakened the original's strengths and only sort of redressed it's shortcomings... that's a little bit sad and boring.
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