When it comes to “signature” handguns, there are only a few experts shooters could trust right off the bat.
Chris Costa’s custom M&P? A 1911 or Glock 19 from Larry Vickers?
Admit it, you’d have confidence in whatever those guys came up with right out of the box.
Well, add another one to that list (real or imagined) from New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer.
About a year ago Sig Sauer came out with a few variations of its stock P320 lineup — each with some unique features that either appealed to certain military units who needed specific capabilities or built off the expertise of Sig-aligned shooters — to take advantage of the modularity and growing popularity of the platform.
One of those was the partial brainchild of former Delta Force operator Kyle Lamb. Lamb has become a deepening influence on the shooting industry with his practical instruction, product innovation and really approachable and friendly demeanor, and that’s part of the reason why Sig teamed with him on the company’s new P320 X-VTAC handgun.
[In case you were living under a rock, VTAC stands for “Viking Tactics,” Lamb’s shooting and accessory brand.]
We’ll start right up top with the shooting impressions of this handgun.
[Please note: We understand everybody’s got an opinion on guns, and we’re never going to settle any arguments here. All we can say is we’ve shot A LOT of handguns over the years in many situations — competitive, instruction and just bopping around at the range — and while we’re not qualified to go deep into the construction and technical details of any weapon, we’d like to think we have a pretty good “everyman” approach to what works and what doesn’t.]
We’re already big fans of the P320 — it’s got a great grip angle and low-ish bore axis that makes up for poor front sight focus with simple point-and-shoot alignment. But the X-VTAC takes things to a whole new level with a 4.7-inch barrel topped with an FDE-shaded slide with specially-designed serrations and laser cuts to lighten the load.
We took this through an IDPA local match as well as a few trips to the static range and honestly enjoyed shooting it. It’s got a great balance for a full-sized “combat” handgun and stays on target well during followup shots. The trigger is badass — it’s Sig’s enhanced flat-faced trigger that breaks at the 90 degree mark, kinda like an Apex trigger. We are such huge fans of that trigger, particularly for competition environments, though it may have great applications to an “operational” use.
We had no problem shooting it in a competitive, fast-paced situation with a variety of ammunition — no failures in any way — and ran both the stock 17-round mags and Sig’s high-capacity, 21-rounders (though those 21-rounders pounded our palms during reloads on the clock).
On the outside, this thing is totally tricked out, with VTAC-branded day/night sights that have both fiber optic and tritium tubes that take care of most lighting situations, an enhanced beaver tail for a solid grip and a slightly flared magwell to help with faster loading.
Gotta be honest, for some reason these sights were making us shoot a little low — more trigger time and we’ll probably have it worked out, but it was weird and we thought it was important to mention. There could be a lot more to that, but ROs and fellow competitors noticed the consistently low shooting too.
We will say, however, that once that bad boy was dialed in, the SO running the stages was like, “dude, you’re owning that thing.”
Case closed. We loved the Sig X-VTAC and had no problem believing that Kyle Lamb played a key role in designing it. We’ve had a blast with his previous VTAC AR that used to be part of Smith & Wesson’s lineup and had similar expectations from the Sig pistol.
In fact, Sig’s director of pistol products Phil Strader is a top-tier competitor and former president of USPSA himself, so that expertise combined with Lamb’s years of chasing bad guys all around the world? We’ll take it any day of the week.
Christian Lowe is senior editor for digital operations and is a competitive pistol and rifle shooter.
