Alright it was a good day in my world. I picked up a new Sig P290 subcompact 9mm today at my usual dealer, Johnson’s Sporting Goods in Adrian MI. My man in there Smitty took great care of me as usual.
We were discussing how nice an extended grip/magazine would be when behold he found a factory SIG one on the magazine rack. So they already thought of that. 🙂 The thing works like my XD one’s do by extending the grip and giving you a higher mag capacity. In this case it takes the mag from 6 to 8 rounds and gives the shooter plenty to hold onto.
First impressions: The Sig P290 is a good looking gun, looks like a Sig as it has their usual style to it, slide shape and so on. I got a stainless slide and the black polymer frame. It came equipped with full-size night sites. 🙂 Also a factory installed laser with ambi-on/off buttons. Easy to use and a good bright dot. Like I said it comes with a flush fit 6 round mag but I also bought the 8 round extended grip mag with it. You also get a Kydex holster in the case. It’s paddle holster that retains on friction and I jumped up and down and ran around a tad with no signs of the gun falling out, so that’s good. The pistol doesn’t weigh much and is balanced well. Its a nice compact little gun, it’s in the size range of the Ruger LC9 but a tad thicker. Not so much so that it’s bulky, it’s not, it is easily carried or concealed.
The night sites were dead out of the box. I called my dealer and they said no problem they would install a new set for free if Sig sent them. I called Sig and spoke with Jason who was quick to help and within 4 minutes I was off the phone with new sights headed my way. No problems whatsoever. Kudo’s to Sig customer service and my guy’s at Johnson’s.
The range-I headed right out to my local range with the Sig and 200 rounds. 100 rounds of dirty, filthy shooting, crappy, under or over charged Israeli surplus 9mm, 50 rounds of 147 grain Winchester SXT’s and 50 rounds of American Eagle 115 grain ball. All ammo was fired except for my usual 2-3 duds in the Israeli stuff. There was 1 malfunction a FTF and I promise you it was that lousy surplus ammo. It is by no means a black mark on the guns performance. That stuff just sucks. It jams up everything I shoot it in regularly. For what 4000 rounds of it cost me though it’s worth putting up with it. Plus it gives me a chance to train with a real jam. Something you probably won’t ever have with good ammo. So she was a little champ out there. Shoots absolutely point of aim. I do find it is much easier to shoot well with the extended mag. The flush fitting one while very concealable doesn’t give me but 2 fingers on the grip. I have very large hands. Either way though, the little girl is a champ and I really like it. The best thing was FINALLY a micro pistol with FULLSIZE sights!
The cons-It’s a nice little gun but it does cost too much. It just does. $750 wrapped up in a single stack 9mm pistol, c’mon guys this ought to be $450 tops. I know I got night sights and a laser, well it’s NOT that much cheaper to get it without those things, I checked. I would have gotten them anyways I just was curious. I checked gunbroker and nope, I was right it just costs too much. Now nobody made me buy it I know. At the same time this price tag is going to send a lot of people scurrying away. I often wonder if companies would make more $$ if they sold volume on an item like this, allow more people to afford it at $450 It’s getting a bit rich for a lot of folks at $700’ish.
One last thing, if you have trouble with the mag release being tripped in the factory holster then do this mod in the pic above, it will cease. It’s easy.
Summary- Well so far so good. An excellent shooting, attractive looking, quality gun an no complaints thus far other than the dead sights (which is covered) and the price tag, which is my fault for paying it. If your in the market for a tiny 9mm I really like this one.
Thanks for reading.
By: Cary Kieffer
Cary Kieffer
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If you can live without the laser you can pick it up for $499.00 at Academy with the night sites. Great little gun. I have put about 600rounds through mine with no issues. Even able to hit center mass of target at 25yrds with no problems.
I have my P290 for about one month and have fired 250 rounds. I have had three no hits. I called sig and they requested that I send it back (at their expense) for the gunsmith to look at it. I am a retired LEO and have been shooting revolvers for 40+ years. I also have a Sig229 that I love and have NEVER had any issues. I really like the P290. I hope it isn’t my LOVE of the 229 influencing me. In 40 years I have never needed to fire the gun outside of the range. I just would not want the one time to be the no go time. The P290 is easily concealed and is OK to fire. I love the laser and the night sights. I will say the breakdown is a bear but if the gun shoots when the trigger is pulled I can deal with difficulty in the cleaning phase. Overall I like the gun and will recommend it once I get it back from Sig. I am told that they are a class act so Expect that the problem will be resolved.
They are a class act over there at Sig! My front night site went dead again. A 2 minute phone call to Andy at customer service and with a smile a new one is on the way free. I kinda half expected to have to buy this one but correctly so he said it shouldnt die that fast. Sorry and a new one will be there inside of a week. I also am posting a new pick of the factory holster. I have had the factory holster flex and hit the mag release button a whole bunch of times. I recessed it with my dremel tool and now the holster can flex all it wants and your mag will be secure. This was happening mainly getting in and out of cars. When you bend over or twist your body to much the holster twists with you and was tripping the release. This is an easy mod to the holster I highly suggest people do. It only takes a minute.
10-10-11 A note I wanted to add to my own review…it seems that my usual dealer didnt have their normal good prices this time…I’m starting to find the exact same model as this one for 589$ on gunbroker…with a reasonable ffl doing the transfer for ya you can get it to your door for roughly 635$…..:( ugh…oops on my part. I paid too much for this one. Not usually the case with them but I guess I’ll have to look more closely next time before plunking down the cash. If this weapon interests you check out gunbroker.com. Definetly cheaper than I paid.