Sig P365 Review

SIG introduced the SIG P365 in 2018 and I was one of the first to do a Sig P365 Review.

For a long time, SIG had been having problems competing with Glock on the USA’s concealed handgun market.

A big reason for this was they did not offer a striker-fired small little firearm to compete with Glock’s very popular Glock 43.

The Smith and Wesson Shield was also a very popular item at that time. 

SIG has a long history of producing small concealed carry style firearms. Originally, it was the SIG P230 and the SIG P232 and 380.

Later in the 2000s. they introduced the SIG P290, which was a commercial failure with its double-action only design.

The gun had a very heavy trigger pool and the SIG P290 also was double action only with only six-round capacity, which did not make it favorable for the US market. 

They introduced the 1911 clones with the SIG P238 and the SIG P938.

Both of those guns maintained relative success within their niche, but they were nothing but niche guns without the feature set that the mass market as a whole was looking for. 

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Seeing this SIG decided to compete with Glock by coming out with something not equal to their Glock 43.

Coming out with a handgun that would undoubtedly have features that exceed those offered by the Glock 43.

SIG started teasing the SIG P365 a couple of days before the official release. They didn’t tell how small the gun was and nobody could really tell for sure, just based on how it looked. 

Rumors

The initial rumor was it was smaller than the Glock 42.

And they didn’t give any stats on how much ammo the gun held.

So, nobody really knew what to expect. When the gun was finally released, it ended up almost identical in size to the Glock 43 while holding 10 rounds compared to the Glock 43’s measly six rounds.

Everyone was skeptical. They were skeptical about reliability, they were skeptical about everything. Something like this had never been done before on the gun market. 

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Nobody had ever seen a gun that held 10 rounds in such a small form factor.

People were calling the SIG P365 a unicorn, a magical weapon. And then when they finally hit the streets, there were a lot of initial troubles, I was lucky enough to have one of the first 600 guns introduced.

I, unfortunately, had a lot of reliability issues with those guns. 

Those issues though began to become fixed pretty quickly, and SIG was ahead of the game. Once people started firing the guns enough to get rounds on them, a new issue developed. And that issue was a broken firing pin. Unfortunately, I was also one of the initial users to have that on the second P365 that I purchased. 

Upside

All these problems do have an upside though.

In further iterations of the SIG P365, SIG made sure that the gun was absolutely bombproof. The striker that is now in the gun is probably one of the best and most durable striker designs on the market.

You don’t have to worry about it failing.

Due to the initial problems they had, they way overbuilt the updated striker. 

If you buy a brand new SIG P365 the chances of you having reliability issues are extremely low. I’m saying this as somebody who’s had so many problems with the SIG P365 it’s hard to trust the gun.

That said, you’re probably pretty solid buying a brand new SIG P365 out of the box. 

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That said, I would be wary about buying a used SIG P365 with a lower range serial number. The SIG P365’s high capacity far exceeded all other options in this size class.

Due to this firearm was quick to overcome any stigma that might be replaced with its reliability. 

Eventually SIG fixed the reliability issues and the gun didn’t suffer the same fate that many other guns have suffered in the past. While the SIG P365 holds high capacity and now is considered reliable, it is still not a perfect handgun.

The flaws and the upsides are what we’ll cover in this article. 

Features

The SIG P365 features a 10 round flush fit capacity.

The gun ships with two magazines. One of those magazines has a pinky extension which allows you to get a little more grip on the SIG P365.

When the gun was initially introduced, SIG also offered an extended 12-round capacity magazine. This magazine had a sleeve on the bottom to offer you a lot more grip on the gun. 

A lot of people opt in for this 12 round length as it tends to be more comfortable for people with medium to larger size hands.

Now SIG also offers a 15-round extended magazine that includes an ergonomic sleeve on the bottom of the magazine so that it seems like you have one big long pistol grip instead of an extension at the bottom of the magazine. 

SIG did a really good job designing these magazines and how they fit in the gun.

You wouldn’t even know that they’re an extension if you just held them in your hand without knowing.

One of the downsides to these magazines is they are expensive, usually costing over $40 to purchase. 

Aftermarket Magazines

There are no aftermarket options at this time.

There are multiple companies making extensions and accessories for the SIG P365 magazines, so you can look into purchasing those, although I don’t think they’re necessary with SIG’s offerings.

Sig really has you covered on what you would want when it comes to purchasing extended magazines. 

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While it would be cool to see something like a 30-round extended mag, it’s just not practical as the magazines on the SIG P365 are so thin, to get a 30 round capacity or even a 20 round capacity, the magazines would have to be exceedingly long.

Magwell

Now one thing to take into account with the SIG P365 is it is a very small firearm.

For example, half of my bottom pinky hangs off the bottom of the grip and that is only because the gun has a decent undercut.

If this gun did not have as good of an undercut, I would likely only have two fingers controlling the firearm instead of two and a half. 

The Magwell itself doesn’t have any real rounding or flaring to speak of which is not uncommon on a super small concealed carry firearm.

With a gun this small every dimension matters and the total width of the grip would have to be much larger to accommodate a flared Magwell. 

When trying to drop the magazine, one thing you’ll notice is the magazine hangs up and that is because most people’s palm will sit under the grip of the SIG P365 itself blocking in the magazine, so you’ll have to likely completely break your grip to release the magazine from the SIG P365 and you’ll have to do the same when reinserting a new magazine. 

If you don’t break your grip when reinserting a new magazine, you’ll pinch the crap out of your hand between the magazine base plate and the frame of the gun.

Personally, I don’t see this as a huge issue considering how small the SIG P365 is.

But, it is something you should be aware of. 

Grip/Ergonomics

Grip

The SIG P365 does not have any removable back straps or much modularity with the grip itself. Now one thing is the grip module is replaceable.

But, the only size grips they offer are the SIG P365 grip module and the SIG P365 XL grip module which is just longer and takes 12-round flush fit magazines. 

So, that said, it’s not like you have a medium, small and a large like some of their SIG P320 offerings.

There’s no beavertail to mention, but there is a nice ergonomic tang, which you can get your hand in fairly high, it would help if the grip was a little bit longer, but that would defeat the purpose of the size of this gun. 

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So, you’re going to lose a little bit of ergonomics from the standpoint of getting the most control over the fire impossible, just due to its minute size.

Now, if somebody were to have small to maybe medium sized hands and I say medium as a big maybe, this gun will probably fit you perfectly.

For larger handed shooters such as myself, you’re not going to be able to get as much grip on the gun as you would like. 

Texturing

Texturing on the SIG P365 is really good.

It encompasses pretty much the entire grip with little lines in each corner that separate the texturing itself. But, for all intents and purposes the texturing is wrapped 360 degrees.

It’s just aggressive enough that allows you to get a good hold on the gun. 

The texturing is just slick enough that it will not cause chafing when you’re carrying the gun in your safety 365 holster right next to your body. Overall the feel of the SIG P365 is really good.

There’s not anything I can complain about the gun considering the small size, I think most will love the ergonomics of the gun. 

There is one downside due to the small size that we’ll cover later and there are some guns that do one thing better than the SIG P365 in this size class, but we’ll get to that in the next section. 

Sig P365 Review Sights

The SIG P365 does come with a pretty decent set of the sights out of the box.

The sights it comes with are the SIG Siglite night sights.

There are three dot tritium sight and the front tritium site has a green luminescent ring around it while the rear site has a square notch and no painted ring around the rear. 

So, it functions as a blacked out sight during the daylight.

These aren’t my favorite sights, but for a gun like this, they’re arguably perfect.

I mean the front sight could be a little bit brighter like a yellow Trijicon HD, but they’re good enough that I can’t see spending 100 to $250 to replace the sights. 

Out of the box you really can’t ask for more for factory sight options.

As of right now there are no factory red dot mounting options but I thoroughly expect SIG to offer something soon for their SIG RomeoZero.

SIG does offer the SIG P365 SAS variant that comes with a Meprolight Bullseye sight that is quite different from anything else on the market. 

Preference

Personally, I don’t care for that style of sighting system as it isn’t any faster than regular iron sights.

While it offers you a much more crude sight picture many say the sight functions similar to a red dot but they are incorrect, as it’s not nearly as accurate as a red dot or is easy to pick up. 

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There are companies that are making aftermarket mounting plates where you can remove the Meprolight sight and then add a RomeoZero using their adapter plate. 

Controls Sig P365 Review

Safeties

On my SIG P365 there are no external safeties, but SIG does offer an ambidextrous thumb safety which is really well designed.

It’s a little low profile for my taste and personally, I prefer that thumb safeties be large enough that you can ride them like a 1911 style safety when shooting the firearm. 

The SIG P365 safety is much more low profile, and it stays out of the way so I would prefer to see a little more meat on that safety.

There is no trigger safety on the SIG P365.

The gun is deemed drop safe by having a trigger light enough that hopefully, it will not continue to fall with the momentum when a gun is dropped. 

Magazine Release

The mag release on the SIG P365 is reversible. It is not an ambidextrous design, but on a small pistol like this, every millimeter counts.

So, making the design just fit on one side I think was a very smart move on SIG’s part, you can reverse it to the other side so the left-handed shooters will get a similar feeling to a right-handed shooter. 

That said, you can access the magazine release easily with either your thumb as a right-handed shooter or as a left-handed shooter, you can still use your middle finger or even your trigger finger to activate the magazine release if it’s mounted on the left-hand side. 

Slide Stop

The slide stop on the SIG P365 is set up for a right handed shooter being on the left hand side of the gun.

There is no ambidextrous option and again on a gun this small where every millimeter counts, it keeps the guns profile nice and low. 

The slide stop itself is a piece of metal injection molded metal that sits really close into the gun but it has a nice ledge that allows you to get a good purchase on the gun with your thumb when going to drop the slide. 

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Now that said, if somebody has shorter thumbs, they might have trouble reaching the SIG P365 slide stop.

The gun is almost perfect for small-handed shooters in every aspect, but this, now for my left-hand friends, the slide stop is not so far forward that you’ll be able to drop it using your trigger finger. 

It’s just shy of being that far forward, but unfortunately not quite that far forward.

If somebody has really small hands and you’re a left-handed shooter, you might be able to drop it using your trigger finger but for most shooters, I don’t think that would be a reality. 

Sig P365 Review Trigger

The trigger on the SIG P365 is something that a lot of people will argue about, the original triggers that came with SIG P365 felt absolutely amazing.

But, as they fixed a lot of the issues, they felt the trigger also got somewhat worse.

That said for a defensive trigger it is the best trigger of the nine-millimeter micro nine pistols. 

Trigger Pull

Now for the trigger pull itself when you go to pull the trigger you feel a slight amount of light take-up before you hit a wall.

Once you hit that wall, you start to feel a couple of layers of creep before you eventually fill the trigger break in a rolling break.

From the reset, it resets to this point of that wall and then you feel that creep again before the trigger breaks. 

It’s a good rolling break and the trigger is really easy to shoot. I have multiple videos of myself shooting targets at 100 yards.

I can’t shoot a Glock 19 with iron sights as reliably at 100 yards as I can shoot the SIG P365. 

Overall Ergonomics Sig P365 Review

Overall ergonomics on the SIG P365 feel really good in the hand, even as a larger handed shooter minus the issue of the gun just being short, I can’t really give it any qualms from a shooting standpoint, at least when I go and pick the gun up off a bench and have time to work it into my hand.

Now, drawing from a SIG P365 holster, that’s a whole different story.

The distance on the SIG P365 from the back strap to the front strap is much shorter than most of its competitors, like the Glock 43, the Springfield Armory Hellcat, and the Smith and Wesson Shield.

What this means is the grip itself seems to be a smaller circumference, so a larger portion of your hand wrapped around the entire grip. 

To give you an idea, the tips of my fingers almost touch the palm of my hand when gripping the SIG P365.

There are not many guns that I can do that with. Now, the major downside of that is when I go to get a grip on the gun from the holster, my fingers have to travel a lot further going up between my body and the gun itself. 

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That will mess with your cuticles and just makes drawing the gun somewhat uncomfortable.

It also makes getting a good grip on the holster under speed uncomfortable as well. Now what we’re talking here is when you’re trying to say shave a 10th of a second or less off your draw.

But, it’s something you should be aware of. 

Draw Speed

Most people who own the SIG P365 are going to hate me for saying this.

But, it’s reality. It’s faster to draw something like the Glock 43 than it is the SIG P365 and that’s just due to the distance from the front strap to the back strap. 

And many might disagree but they also have not done so on the timer with paper targets.

When they do so with those numbers, they’ll probably be surprised to see how well a slightly larger gun will do when drawing from a Sig P365 holster. 

One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is the slide.

The ergonomics of the slide itself are quite good. There’s forward serrations and rear serrations that are just sufficiently deep to get a good grip on the gun, but they’re not sharp in a way that you feel like you’re going to cut yourself. 

Really, I think SIG designed the perfect serration depth and aggressiveness for a gun of the size, the forward serrations you could use to fully cycle the slide, but I wouldn’t suggest doing so under speed, but they work perfect for something like a press check.

They’re well-positioned so you don’t get your hand in front of the muzzle when press jacking, which is a concern on a gun this short. 

Sig P365 Review Maintenance

Maintaining the SIG P365 is really easy. It’s similar to the SIG P320.

And that you just need to lock back the slide and rotate down the takedown lever 90 degrees before letting the slide come off the gun.

It’s actually easier to take down because the takedown lever is easier to operate than the SIG P320 takedown lever. 

It takes down like any other gun, and it has easy access to the internals, if you want to switch something out.

The grip module is not quite as easy to get off as the SIG P320. But, you can still take the grip module off and get into the chassis system without any major issues. 

Aesthetics

Overall, the SIG P365 is a gun that I would call proportional.

The gun looks fantastic.

It is perfectly proportioned in all areas, and it looks like a scaled-down full-size gun. Honestly, it seems a little bit like a toy due to its diminutive size. 

The forward and rear serrations add a nice touch of balance along with the chamfered slide. Overall, it’s a good looking gun and one of the better looking polymer striker fired guns in my opinion.

That said when you put it in your hand, especially if you’re a decent size male, the gun is probably going to seem kind of out of place. 

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Now if you’re a smaller-handed individual, the gun will probably see more aesthetically pleasing in your hand.

But, when I see this gun, I think back to the film Mr. And Mrs. Smith and Angelina Jolie giving Brad Pitt the Smith and Wesson 642 while she took the 1911.

It’s a girl gun or at least that’s what it looks like. 

Shooting the SIG P365

The Sig P365 really does punch above its weight when it comes to the shooting experience.

The gun has much less recoil than you would expect for a gun of its size.

I find it softer shooting in the Glock 43 and pretty much all other options out there. That said it still doesn’t shoot nearly as well as a full-size gun, like a SIG P320 X compact or a Glock 19. 

Now that is for somebody like me, who has medium to large size hands for a male.

If you are a smaller statured man or a female that has smaller hands, then you are much more likely to shoot the SIG P365 better than you would a gun like the Sig P320 X Compact, CZ P-10C, or the FN 509. 

The reason for this is you’re able to get complete control on a gun like the SIG P365 while somebody with larger hands is having to give up a little bit of real estate that would be nice to have to get proper leverage on the firearm.

As I stated earlier, I’ve hit targets at 100 yards with reliable success using the SIG P365.

This is due to the trigger and my good trigger control.

Shooting At Distance

Now I can’t do that under speed and up close I shoot a gun like a Glock 19 much better or Sig P320 X Carry but better because I can get a better grip.

The trigger on the SIG P365 is superb for accurate shots when you can take your time. 

And the sights on the gun aren’t half bad. While they’re not my favorite, they do perform very well.

I think many people would have a hard time justifying spending the money to upgrade them.

Closing Thoughts

There’s a reason the SIG P365 is potentially the best selling micro nine on the market. Would it make it into my daily carry?

No, the SIG P365 is just too small for my taste, and I find larger guns a little bit more comfortable to carry and easier to shoot.

That said, there are some niches where the SIG P365 could fill a role in my carry. 

Usually, those roles are filled by even smaller guns in my case(where I’m willing to compromise caliber), but we’re all unique and your situation may be different.

I think the SIG P365 is a great concealed carry option for the majority of the market.

That said I think most people would be better suited with a gun like the Glock 43X, Hellcat, or the SIG P365 XL.

Let us know what you think about the P365 below.

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