Sig P365 SAS Review

This is our Sig P365 SAS Review. The Sig Sauer P365 is one of the hottest concealed-carry guns on the market.

The manufacturer wanted to capitalize on that success by introducing their brand-new P365 SAS.

The variant has some features that differ from the regular P365.

On the surface are the controls and the sighting system, but there are also a couple of different minor features.

We’re going to cover every little detail to see if the Sig Sauer P365 SAS could be the right gun for you.

Role-Based Off Size

The Sig P365 SAS is the exact same size as the Sig P365, so it’s a very small 10-round 9mm. With its compact size, it’s definitely an easy gun to carry.

AIWB (Appendix Inside Waistband) Carry

If you’re carrying a gun appendix then you may want to consider the short slide.

The short slide on this gun is actually less comfortable when you’re trying to carry concealed.

The reason for this is that the short slide is going to ensure that most of the weight of the gun is above the beltline and the gun is going to want to tip out away from your body.

This is going to force the muzzle into your groin and create a hotspot.

You’ll likely want to go with a gun like the Sig P365 XL if you’re going to carry an appendix.

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Pocket Carry

The Sig P365 SAS is really designed for pocket carry.

The gun features extremely low-profile sights and the controls have been profiled to avoid snagging. This gun is designed to be a snag-free gun and is really optimal for this carrying style. 

That said, it might be a little big for most people to pocket.

I’m six feet tall, weigh 175 pounds, and typically wear regular-cut jeans.

In that pant style, this gun is going to fill up most of my pocket. With the right pocket holster, it can definitely work, but this is something you’ll want to take into consideration.

Most people will probably be better suited with a smaller gun.

Features 

The Sig Sauer P365 SAS comes with two ten-round magazines, one of which has a pinky extension.

Personally, I find that kind of stupid considering the gun is designed for low-profile carry.

I think they should have shipped it with two flush-fit magazines instead of giving you the option for either or. 

It would have been nice if they would have at least shipped the gun with an extra flush-fit base plate just so you have the option of running both flush-fit magazines.

The capacity is definitely great on this gun and if you want to carry more rounds in it, you always can. 

Sig makes both 12- and 15- round extended mags for the Sig P365.

The 15-round magazines add a lot of lengths and aren’t something I would suggest carrying, especially with the SAS, but the 12-round mags could work if you’re carrying this gun IWB.

The 15-round magazines could work as well, but as I said earlier, they’re going to add a lot of length to the overall size of the gun.

Magwell

The magwell on the Sig Sauer P365 SAS might be a feature that we needn’t discuss.

This gun is really designed for concealed-carry and pocket use, so it’s not a gun you’ll likely be reloading quickly.

If you’re trying to do a speed reload on the Sig P365 SAS, it’s a fairly quick gun to reload.

Not because the magwell is super well designed, but because the grip is so small that it sits inside your hand and the hand actually acts as a funnel to get the magazine into the grip of the gun. 

When you are reloading, like any Sig P365, your hand will likely stop the magazine from dropping free. You’ll have to compromise your grip to get the magazine out of the gun.

As stated earlier, I don’t see this gun as a gun you’ll be reloading under-speed, so I don’t see it as a significant issue.

Grip/Ergonomics

The ergonomics can really make or break a firearm, and the Sig Sauer P365 SAS is no exception.

We’re going to cover them in-depth and in detail right below.

General Feel

The general feel of the Sig P365 SAS is pretty good. It fills the hand nicely and is a small firearm that will work well even with people with larger hands.

If you carry the gun inside the waistband, the small circumference might work against you as it forces you to get more of your hand between your body and the gun and therefore a little slower to draw. 

This doesn’t sound like a big issue for most people, but it can be if you’re trying to draw the gun very quickly.

If you have smaller hands, this might actually be a pro, but if you’re a larger-handed individual, this is definitely something I’d keep in mind, especially if I’m shooting this gun off a bench and slowly working into my hand. 

I can get a fantastic grip on the Sig P365 SAS.

However, if I’m drawing it from the holster it takes a lot more time to get a good grip on the gun, especially if you’re comparing it to something like the Springfield Hellcat with its slightly larger in diameter grip.

Texturing

The texturing on the P365 SAS is excellent.

It’s like very light sandpaper encompassed 360 degrees around the grip and does an excellent job of keeping the gun in place while not moving around in your hand. 

It’s not too abrasive and will work for experienced shooters with calloused hands or newer shooters who haven’t built up those callouses yet.

I think Sig really nailed the texture on the P365, which is the same texturing they’re using on the SAS.

Slide

The Sig Sauer P365 SAS uses the same slide as the regular P365 with one exception: there is no cutout for a front sight.

The front of the slide is completely slick with the exception of the front slide serrations.

The slide serrations aren’t going to snag, so that’s a good move. 

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Having the option of using either the rear or forward slide serrations is always nice.

The texture on the finish of the slide itself is also slightly matte.

The slide itself has a true matte finish and just a little bit of texture that allows you to get a little more grip than a slicker, finished wood.

Originally, the top of the Sig P365 SAS was ported for recoil control.

Some argue that that actually caused the gun to lose a decent little bit of velocity and on a short 9mm barrel, this could be an issue for ballistics.

I’ve never gotten to shoot one of those guns or put it through a chronograph, so I don’t know for sure. 

Currently, Sig Sauer is manufacturing the P365 SAS without the ported barrel so you can get full velocity and don’t have to worry about the porting causing issues for you at night with your vision.

Like I just said, I never got to shoot one of those guns or specifically shoot it in low-light conditions, so I can’t verify that the ported slide would interfere with your night vision, but that was a concern many had.

Sights

The sights on the Sig P365 SAS are really the centerpiece of the gun.

They use a system that was introduced two years earlier by Meprolight called the Meprolight Bullseye Sight.

The sight itself is a bit of a unique design.

It has fiber optics in it while also being charged with Tritium, so during the daylight, you’re going to get a bright bullseye ring with a front sight and then a ring around it that is charged by the fiber-optic.

At night, in theory, the Tritium itself charges the optic. 

One thing I will say is that Sig uses Meprolight for their supplier and Meprolight sights, in general, are not known to be the most reliable.

I’ve seen a lot of their Tritium vials lose gas and stop glowing. I’ve seen more SigNight sights dead when they arrived at the store than with any other brand.

The first Sig P365 SAS I ever handled had this issue, so this is something you may want to keep in mind, especially during low-light conditions. 

Your only way to see the sight is going to be from the charging of the night sight itself.

If you want to test while you’re in your store, you can just use your hand to cover the Tritium sight itself and see if it glows at all. It really doesn’t glow that strongly — even on a sight that is working — so even if you’re shooting this in low-light, you want to make sure there’s some sort of ambient light around to help charge the fiber optics.

Getting A Sight Picture

Many say this bullseye-style sight operates like a red dot, meaning that you pull the gun up, target focus, and then place the sight on the target.

I don’t find this comparison to be accurate. When you’re using the red-dot, you normally are focusing on two planes: a primary focus on the target and a secondary focus on the red-dot itself.

With traditional sights, you have three planes in the target, the front sight, and the rear sight.

This bullseye-style setup is more similar to that.

Really, it all comes down to focus and how you plan on focusing on the target when you’re shooting.

It’s actually kind of tough to pick up the bullseye sight. It’s very similar to a red-dot in that you have to develop a technique, I guess.

As you go on to target focus, It’s just not the most natural sight system to pick up.

Depending on lighting conditions, I’ve also had issues with the rear lens reflecting in a certain position providing a little bit too much light on one side or the other.

You have to be in very specific lighting conditions to see that, but be aware that it could be an issue.

If you look at the rear lens like a tunnel, you’ll notice reflection off one side or the other depending on where the sun is positioned in the sky.

This is not something you’ll likely notice when handling the gun inside a gun store pre-purchase or indoors.

Accuracy Sig P365 SAS Review

Accuracy with the bullseye sights is also a concern.

The bullseye-style sites are not the most precise sights in the world and they just don’t show precise movements. The good news is that they’re not going to leave you second-guessing a lot.

The bad news is they’re not going to easily tell you when you’re significantly off-target.

If you’re shooting inside seven yards as you would in most self-defense scenarios, I don’t see this as an issue, but the second you start getting out further than that, these sights are likely going to become a lot harder to shoot.

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They also don’t focus quite like a red dot with your eye when it comes to the planes, so if you’re trying to focus on the target with a minimal sight picture, that becomes much harder to do than it would with a red dot.

It seems to be slightly harder than it would with more traditional iron sights as well.

If you’re carrying this gun IWB, I don’t think there’s any advantage to the system over getting a red-dot or even traditional iron sights.

If you’re carrying it in the pocket, having a snag-proof system may make a lot of sense on a day-to-day basis. 

To Sum It Up

Overall, I think these sights are a bit of a gimmick, but I kind of like the gimmick.

It’s very cool and interesting and reminds me of the ASP pistol, which was one of the first defensive-built concealed-carry firearms custom modified for carrying.

The sighting system on that was a bit odd for the time as well.

It was cool, it was eclectic, and that’s what this SAS variant is.

There are a lot of people who have really been pushing the firearm and if they’re pushing it because they think it’s superior to a standard set of iron sights, I think they’re incorrect.

In fact, I think you would be better off getting a standard Sig P365 and adding big dots if you want a gun that is very easy to shoot with gross motor skills.

They’re going to be easier to pick up for most shooters and require less practice.

They’re not going to be as precise as normal iron sights, and personally, I’d rather have normal irons than big dots, but if picking your sights up quickly is an issue, big dots are going to be much easier than this style of setup.

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t practice a lot, this is definitely not a gun you should buy. The sights are going to be tough to pick up.

If you practice a lot with it, you can probably train with these and get over it. That said, I still think traditional iron sights or a red dot are going to be my suggestion on what you should look at overall.

Controls

The Sig Sauer P365 SAS also diverts from the regular Sig P365 when it comes to controls. They’ve done quite a bit differently with this gun to make things low-profile.

Mag Release

The magazine release on the Sig P365 SAS disappointingly was not changed at all from the regular P365.

Making the magazine release on the Sig P365 frame any more low -wouldn’t make sense, but what would have made sense for this gun is a heel-style magazine release.

If you’re reading this in 2021 and have no idea what I’m talking about, you probably think I’m crazy.

A heel-style magazine release is something that was very common on European pistols at the turn of the century (meaning 1899 to 1901, not 1999 to 2000).

It was a very common design on these older pistols, and while it doesn’t make sense on most modern counterparts, it would make sense on this particular gun.

This gun is primarily designed for pocket carry and for situations where a speed reloads is not likely to be a factor.

It would’ve made this gun really cool and eclectic, but this is also the gun nerd in me coming out.

I’m not saying it would have been the best choice for sales from Sig’s perspective, but it would have made the gun better overall.

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I have to give credit to Alex (the manager of my gun store) for pointing this out to me.

In fact, he’s got me wanting to 3D-print a frame for the P365 SAS and add a heel release to it somehow.

I know that sounds odd, but I think this gun would be really cool with that feature and that it would tie the whole piece together.

Slide Stop

The slide stop on this gun is almost nonexistent.

There technically is a stop, but it definitely will not work as a slide release. If you absolutely had to, you could probably take your fingernail and press in, but you better have strong nails or it’s not going to work.

This is a gun that you’re going to want to operate using the slide only.

Once you do a reload, you’re going to have to rack the slide to get the gun to function.

As a side note, they also took away the take-down lever on the P365 and replaced it with a flathead screw area. This way, the entire portion sits flush to the gun.

By making the slide release and the take-down lever lower-profile, I’m not sure they actually reduce any snag hazards as those were pretty well-designed and slim, to begin with.

That said, it is a nice touch and it does make the gun seem more specialized. 

But I think that without a heel-style magazine release, it kind of seems like it’s for nothing.

You probably have as much of a likelihood of snagging the gun on the regular release as you did on the slide stop or take-down lever. They could have just switched out to the bullseye sighting system and called it snag-free.

Trigger Sig P365 SAS Review

The trigger on the Sig Sauer P365 SAS is a standard P365 trigger. It has a light take-up, getting to a wall where you’re going to feel creep, and then a subsequent rolling break.

The reset is right in front of that creep and the rolling break. It’s a good trigger and great for defensive use. 

With a normal set of iron sights, I can easily shoot this gun on silhouette still out to 100 yards.

I don’t believe I could do that with the bullseye-style sights, although I plan to try at some point. Like I said earlier, without an extreme amount of concentration, this gun can be hard to shoot past seven yards if you’re looking for extreme accuracy.

Aftermarket

The Sig Sauer P365 series has a lot of aftermarket options out there, and most of those will work with the P365 SAS.

Obviously, you’re not going to be mounting a set of standard iron sights on this gun, but pretty much any other Sig P365 accessory will work with it. You can always mount an XL frame on this or switch out any of the internals, triggers, barrels, etc.

I have seen some companies come out with adapter plates that allow you to take off the bullseye-style sighting system and mount a red dot.

When the SAS variant initially came out, this was a pretty big deal as Sig Sauer did not offer a factory red-dot cut Sig P365, but now they have the Sig P365 X, which has an XL frame with a P365 link slide and a red-dot attached.

You’d probably be better off buying that gun and then adding a P365 frame if that’s the setup you desire, but always know you do have the option here to take the bullseye system off and use an adapter plate to mount a red dot.

Maintenance Sig P365 SAS Review

Maintaining the Sig P365 SAS is going to be a little bit harder than most because instead of using a regular take-down lever, you’re going to have to lock the slide back and then use a screwdriver to take the gun down.

You just have to use that screwdriver to rotate the lever 90 degrees, so it’s not that hard, but it is something you’ll want to take into account.

Once you get the slide off, you can take the gun apart just like any other standard firearm and easily clean and reassemble.

Aesthetics

Aesthetically, this gun is attractive.

The slimline look makes it look great and from the right-hand side of the firearm, I really like it. But on the left-hand side, that magazine release just bothers me.

It looks out of place when you compare it next to the slimline slide block and take-down lever.

It really would have been nice if they’d have made that heel magazine release. (I know you’re probably sick of hearing me talk about heel releases, but it really would have tied this entire gun together.)

Sig P365 SAS Review Shooting

Shooting the Sig P365 SAS is very similar to shooting a regular P365. The recoil impulse is absolutely excellent for a gun of this size and it’s very easy to shoot.

The issues really come with regards to the sights.

Now, one issue I will mention that my gun store told me about is that most of the P365 SAS sights do not come zeroed from the factory and there is no way to adjust them. They’re naturally a little bit off-center.

This is a problem as there is no way to adjust this style of sight.

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As I said before, this is a sighting system that seems cool in theory but is in actuality harder to get to work.

You can’t even get the right-to-left windage correct and then estimate your elevation. There’s a lot of manufacturing challenges that go into making a gun and using this style of sighting system. 

That means they have to be a lot tighter than what is viable for a gun at this price point.

Not only does Sig have to get their manufacturing tolerances right, but so does Meprolight. You’re relying on two companies to have perfect quality control to get the guns to shoot properly.

Closing Thoughts

I really have to give props to Sig for their innovation and the idea of bringing something like this to the market, but they failed on a few points.

The system itself should have had some sort of user adjustment built into the sight, for both user error and to account for the manufacturing tolerances.

I’ve also got to keep harping about the heel magazine release.

A heel magazine release would have made this a real enthusiast’s gun and given it a different life and perspective for many shooters.

I really hope we’ll see Sig come out with this option or we’ll see somebody develop something on the aftermarket, as it would probably be easier to accomplish than one would think.

This is definitely a cool gun, but at the end of the day, you’re probably better off picking up a standard Sig P365 or one of its other variants.

The sighting system on this is a great novelty, but in actuality, you’re probably better off with something else.

Personally, I would suggest a Sig P365 with a red dot or a Sig P365 with big dots if you want a comprehensive and easy-to-use sighting system.

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