SIG Sauer touts its new P365 as the gun you can carry concealed every day of the year. Few guns have the distinction of being true everyday, all-year-round guns, but for me, I would say a J-frame revolver qualifies, as do many of the current slim nines. These guns are small, lightweight and able to hold five to seven rounds. Occasionally, they can be difficult to shoot due to their size. Sure, with the right holster and cover garments, you can carry a larger, higher-capacity, easier-shooting handgun concealed. Actually, with the right holster and cover garments, you can carry just about anything concealed. But this is the golden age of concealed carry, and we are enjoying wonderful innovations in design. Gun manufacturers have produced some small but very capable handguns not only to alleviate some of our concealed carry burdens, but also to demonstrate innovation and execution in accuracy and ease of shooting. Sig Sauer’s P365 does both exceptionally well — so much so that it may truly be an all-year-round gun and may become the new standard bearer in concealed carry. Here’s why it could happen.
Stocks and Grip
SIG Sauer nailed it with the grip angle and texturing of the stocks. Although you can train to master any gun’s grip angle, the P365 is a natural pointer. Moreover, the texture of the panels, front strap and back strap allows my hand to get a rock-solid grip on the stocks. It is really good with the flush-fitting magazine and superb with the extended magazine. At first, I thought the gun was too small. Then, I carried it, shot it and manipulated the controls. Fit is a relative, subjective concept, to be sure, but in hand, the fit, feel and force required to grasp and shoot this gun are nearly perfect.
Sights
The factory-installed XRAY3 Day/Night sights are standard. They are excellent and dead-on accurate. There is a big, bold green front sight and two smaller white rear sights. The three dots are very familiar. They are easy to see both in the day and in low-light conditions. There is no more need for buying separate night sights in the gun-buying process.
Trigger Stroke
The P365 has a short, double-action-only trigger stroke with SIG Sauer smoothness built in. It also has a distinct reset. It is truly one of the best small-pistol triggers I have felt in a long time.
Size
The P365’s dimensions are very close to those of other slim nines. It is 5.8 inches long, 4.3 inches high and 1 inch wide. In other words, it’s smallish. At only 17.8 ounces, it is lightweight but still feels robust. It is important to keep the P365’s dimensions in mind as we consider this final point.
Capacity
The P365 holds 10 rounds in each included magazine. If you put an extra round in the chamber, you could have up to 21 rounds of 9mm available (+P if you so choose) if an incident were to go down. This is the icing on the cake with this gun. I expected all of the other features from Sig Sauer but the increased capacity really pushes this gun to the top of the list of concealed carry guns.
I am working on finding a reason why this gun, which costs $599.99, is not a 365-days-a-year carry gun. A full array of holster reviews (IWB, OWB, appendix and pocket) may help reveal any flaws. So, stay tuned. For the next year.
