A friend’s wife once said something about firearms that stuck with me. A small-framed lady, she said, “I like a lot of gun around my bullets.” She was referring to having a large, heavy handgun which helps to dampen recoil, but there might be another meaning to that phrase. Considering the less-than-lavish pay the law enforcement profession provides, most of us can only long to own a custom shop pistol.

The Legion Series

SIG SAUER is doing something about that with the Legion Series. The Legion Series provides custom shop features in a production line of pistols.  Eventually, Legions will be expanded across more of SIG’s products including rifles, optics and suppressors. For now, the consumer has three Legion Series pistols to consider: The P226, the P229 and the P226 SAO (single action only). These popular and well-established platforms are the perfect place to launch the Legion. An alliance between SIG and Grayguns, Inc. is partially responsible for this excellent product line.

The Legion Series offers custom shop quality pistols that cops can actually afford.

The Gray Matter

For the uninitiated, Bruce Gray of Grayguns Inc. is a highly-respected competitor and gunsmith.  He earned a sterling reputation in particular for his work on SIG SAUER pistols. He is especially renowned for his aftermarket trigger work. When SIG began the Legion project, it only made sense to bring Gray in on it. The end result is an advertised 10-pound double action trigger. Our review gun’s double action pull was right at 10 pounds and incredibly smooth. This standard double-action trigger is simply on another level. This partnership is proving to be quite the success for both Grayguns and SIG SAUER. However, the end consumer is the real winner.

Legion Features

Speaking of the Legion Series features: The beavertail is reduced and contoured. The frame is relieved under the trigger guard to allow for a better purchase. The finish is PVD. That stands for Physical Vapor Deposition. I looked that up out of curiosity, but it’s too boring for a gun article. For most of us, knowing it’s a durable, quality finish is as technical as it needs to get. The Legion comes standard with aggressively checkered grips and a solid steel guide rod. The Electro-optics X-Ray™ High Visibility Day/Night Sights are easy to rapidly acquire in any lighting conditions. Anyone in law enforcement knows three magazines is the bare minimum for a duty pistol. Many come with two, meaning the officer must seek out and buy another before the pistol can be put into service. At this writing, all Legion Series pistols come with three magazines.

The real winner in the partnership between Grayguns and SIG SAUER is the consumer.

One of the first things I noticed about this P229 is its smooth functioning controls. SIG always excel in this area, but the Legion is a step above. The magazine release is noticeably more smooth and positive. The slide operation is similar to a highly-customized 1911. Even the take down lever feels as though it received some extra attention. The frame is an alloy/stainless steel combination which helps keep this gun’s weight just under 30 ounces unloaded. The P229 has a 3.9-inch barrel and a sight radius of 5.7 inches. Of course, most modern full or medium-size pistols of today must come with a Picatinny rail as does the Legion P229. I found it worked well with both my TLR-1 and Surefire X300.

Speed and Direction

The 3.9″ barrel yielded impressive velocity with Corbon 100 grain Pow’rball.

When testing for general accuracy, I use a sandbag because mechanical rests are expensive, time-consuming and take a lot of the fun out of getting paid to shooting someone else’s gun.  Five-shot groups were fired at 25 yards with only my fading skills to guide them to the target.  Chronograph testing was done at 10 feet.  The Federal HST 124 grain +P impressed with its 1141 average feet per second average, but I was only able to eke out a 2.9″ group with this loading.  That was only the first attempt and I knew the gun could do better.  I was able to manage a 2.4″ group out of the P229 with Corbon 100 grain Pow’r Ball screamers.  Finally, I shot a 1.9″ group with Remington Golden Saber 124 grain +P.  Imagine what this pistol could do in the hands of a skilled shooter.  After several days of shooting, we put about three hundred rounds through the pistol without issue.

SIG is doing something special with the Legion series pistols.  They’re putting custom shop quality pistols into the price range of us normal folks.  Granted, they’re still not exactly cheap with an MSRP of $1428.00 and a street price of around $1250.00, but pistols with these features would normally bring upwards of $3000.00.  If you purchase a SIG Legion pistol, you get a lot of gun around your bullets.

Originally posted on the Team SIG SAUER website.

Shooters tend to spend a lot of time debriefing our performance after a match. We often look at “good matches” and “bad matches.” This performance often dwells on what we screwed up. Yeah, say it. We screwed it up. Shot too fast and missed a bunch. Missed a reload and the magazine went tumbling to the ground (then the rounds shot out of the magazine and salted the ground). Maybe we hit a no-shoot. It happens to say the least.

And then we dwell on it. We furrow our brow and grit our teeth as if some how we can bring those rounds back, not miss the reload, or not hit the no-shoot.

I have yet to meet a shooter who successfully willed those rounds back. But, it seems the more competitive we are the harder we make it on ourselves for poor performance. Been there, done that.

Learn from it and let it go. Even when you are mid-match.

We all see shooters throw a round into a no-shoot or miss a target. You’ll see the facial expressions and probably a few choice words not suitable for small children. My advice to the shooter? Let it go. That round is never coming back. The target is in the past. Keeping a positive mental attitude is the key to sustained performance.

This is easy to say. I blew a couple of stages over the weekend. I made some poor choices and the penalties hit me hard. In the next installment, we’ll discuss the difference between pride and ego. They aren’t mutually exclusive, but both serve a purpose in our performance.

I am a huge fan of carrying enough gun. I have a lot of friends who went the small, single stack route for their carry needs. At my job, the Springfield Armory XDS 9mm is extremely popular. I like the XDS. I have shot just about every one that has came through our firearms program. I find them to be extremely accurate, and a pleasure to shoot with even the hotter +P+ stuff. I just never could wrap my head around carrying a gun with that capacity as a primary means of defense. The guys/gals that chose them, love them.

I’ve always leaned toward the smaller double stack “baby” guns like the Glock 26 and Smith & Wesson M&Pc. I’ve carried a G26 for a number of years, and was pretty happy with it. The thing I didn’t like about the G26 was that some of the magazine extensions, and all of the regular capacity magazines would pinch my fingers when I was shooting them. I eventually started looking at other options.

After a lot of back and forth, I traded for a M&P9c. I found that I could run the little gun almost on par with the larger M&Ps. .25 splits are pretty much the norm. Mine does not suffer from any of the accuracy issues that some of the larger ones do. It doesn’t seem to be real picky on digesting various different types of ammo. Nor is it picky about producing good groups at distance with said ammo. It handles the hotter loads without a lot of chop on the recoil impulse. And best of all … it doesn’t pinch my fingers even with the use of factory 17 rounders. What is not to like? The little guns performance instills confidence in me.

At the end of the day, a lot of these smaller guns can be shot really well. Choose what you like, and train with it. I don’t know if you can go wrong with a little experimentation on what you can get away with as well.

As we tune in to the news on just about any given week, we see more and more copycat active shooter situations in movie theaters in the United States. This unfortunately is the new norm. Because this is the new norm, our tactics are going to have to shift to combat these cowardly acts of seemingly random murder.

The active shooter equation

In examining the events of past theater shootings, the only constant variable is they occur in the darkness of a movie theater, aside from the constant that the shooter is mentally ill. The scenarios have presented different targets, different responses by victims, and different guns involved used by the shooters. The shooters have sat in different parts of the the theater, struck at different times in the movies. Based upon that, our tactics must be fluid.

The first decision we must make is about the sign on the door of the theater. The one that says “NO WEAPONS PERMITTED”. The easy answer here is just not to go to the movies. A $10 cup of ice with a little Coke splashed on it is seemingly reason enough. However, the conversation can easily apply to someplace you do like to go. What weight does that little “NO WEAPONS PERMITTED” carry? Does it carry the weight of your local laws? In Kentucky, if you are discovered, you can be asked to leave. If you refuse, you can be arrested for disorderly conduct. For the sake of this conversation, concealed means concealed. If it is a state level suggestion, it is a moral decision of “Their House, Their Rules” and will you honor it. This is a decision that I can not make for you, and that you will be responsible for the consequences either way. If you do decide not to carry, either by the weight of state law, or by conscious, there is a consequence. Just as there is one if you decide to carry. You must choose.

The next thing is an obvious one. What about the gear? Your selection of your CCW pistol comes into play. Some people believe that a J frame in the pocket is far better than a HK45 in the car. I agree that is another personal decision and discussion for another time. Do you have a reload for your CCW pistol? Does it have a light attached? Do you have a handheld light to have independent to the pistol mounted light if you have one? One is none and the like. I do not carry a light mounted on my off duty pistol. I do carry a light and a spare magazine. My off duty pistol has night sights. Those are the tools I bring to the table. The rest is up to tactics.

Your placement in the theater will drive your tactics. The top row with your back up against the wall, near steps seems to be the ideal spot. This is not always feasible, nor is it always desired. So, a compromise will have to be made. Good situational awareness will go a long way at this point. Before the movie, while everyone else is eating popcorn and texting, study the people around you. An experienced street cop will tell you that this ten to fifteen minute window could make all the difference in the world. People that stand out the most will be those who are by themselves. They will really stand out most likely if they do not have their face buried in a smart phone. If you spend enough time watching people, you’ll see what it is I am talking about. We have become a nation that is self absorbed by technology. This technology is hurting our situational awareness, but it is also fast becoming a sure way to see who is not paying attention to their surroundings.

When the shooting starts, it will be pure pandemonium. People will run everywhere screaming.. It will be loud. There will be blood. That is this reason why as you read this article, you should decide your priorities, and manage your expectations. Some people believe that intervention is not their bag. Their priority is to get their family to safety, and engage if necessary. And I am good with that. A man has got to know his limitations so to speak. If intervening is in your playbook, have a plan. Play the “what if” game. The time when the shooting starts is not the time to figure this out. HAVE A PLAN. Be realistic in your plans and expectations. Even way back in grade school, we practiced fire drills, tornado drills, and the like. As we got older, most of us forgot the reasons why we did this. The reasons were basic and still hold merit today.

Most likely, the idea that you may have to engage a threat across the theater is probably going to be false. I say probably because at this current moment my crystal ball is on the fritz. I’m the guy that constantly preaches about being prepared mentally and physically to shoot distance on demand. But the factors are against you in a crowded, panicked theater to engage at any kind of distance. Too great a chance of hitting something you don’t mean to. Likely, if you choose to engage, it will be in close quarters and you will have to close the gap. It will also likely pay a dividend to shoot at a downward angle, if at all possible.

Next, you have to take into account the police are coming. Have a plan to deal with the police after the fact. Standing around an urban area after there has been shots fired with a gun in your hand is not a sound plan. They don’t know you, and you don’t know them.

I say all of that to say this. Have a plan. Manage your expectations. Know your limitations. I expect that the active shooter problem will persist, if not worsen. We can’t take the fight to them if we don’t understand the fight and plan for it.