Last week I received an updated BXR3 Sig P365, manufacture date of March 25th.
The pistol was field stripped, cleaned, and generously lubed with Slip 2000 EWL prior to the first range trip, at 340 rounds, at 640 rounds, and again at 770 rounds.
875 rounds Federal American Eagle 124gr
50 rounds Federal HST 124gr
50 rounds Federal HST 147gr
20 rounds Speer Lawman 124gr
20 rounds Federal HST 124gr +P
7 rounds Speer Gold Dot 124gr +P
The gun has functioned perfectly so far. No stoppages, no malfunctions, no premature lockbacks, no failures to lock back, etc. At least 150 of these rounds were fired one handed. At least once I got the pistol hot. My former-food-service calibrated fingertips estimate the exterior of the slide at the forward serrations hit approximately 160 degrees (too painful to hold), I was not willing to grab the barrel to guestimate how hot it was. My trigger finger when indexed and my offside thumb (forward grip) were uncomfortably warm firing the gun at that time (this was during the final 100 rounds or so on the gun)
The gun is small, as we know. This is the extended 10 round magazine (fits all three fingers) over the top of a Shield 9mm with the 8 round magazine
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Same comparison, extended 10 round P365 vs 8 round Shield
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Grip texture is great. I don't know why anybody would put a Talon grip on this gun. The granular talon grips tear me apart when worn IWB (and most other people as well), while the rubber talon grips provide less grip than the P365 has from the factory.
Sights are good-very good. The color is in the ballpark of the yellow Trijicon HD (my favorite), but more green, not quite as bright and eye catching, and smaller. The rear notch is also relatively smaller, and appears square vs U, but for factory stock night sights they are the best I've had so far and I would not spend any money changing them.
The trigger is great. Some say it's too light for a small defensive carry gun...I can see that...but I think it's great. Light, smooth, short take-up, no discernible over travel, very short reset. The break/wall could be a little more firm, a little bit heavier right at the break point, if I were to be picky.
Recoil is as tame as I could have hoped given the size and caliber (cartridge) of the pistol. While I won't carry +P in it, doing so would be totally reasonable. I have shot as many as 340 rounds in one session (under two hours) and am comfortable saying I could easily shoot this thing all day with standard pressure ammo, comfortably.
I did a meaningful back to back the other day, Shield vs P365. I used the extended 10 round mag on the P365 and the flush 7 round on the Shield (shield is still larger), and loaded both guns to 8 rounds with standard pressure 124gr (AE and Lawman). The Shield benefits from a full Apex trigger and duty/carry kit as well as a Talon grip (rubber texture).
Times and hits were basically dead even. NRA B8 target from low ready.
10 yards
Shield 7.81s
P365 7.63s
5 yards
Shield 2.97s
P365: 3.01s
I consider the hits dead even, didn't score them. The Shield rear sight is bumped slightly to the right to compensate for me, the P365 has not been scootched. Do that and it would be a dead heat every way possible. Except that the P365 is smaller and has room for 3 more rounds than what I used for that test.
![Image]()
Concerns
The striker is a MIM part and there are reports of the tip of the firing pin/striker breaking off. All of the primers look like the photo below. It seems the barrel is camming down and the slide is coming back before the striker retracts, and the striker is thus being drug laterally across the primers. Some of the drag marks get very close to the rim of the case.
![Image]()
![Image]()
Barrel wear and peening. This is mostly a concern because many pistols do NOT exhibit this, but it is also not uncommon. I get significant visible wear and peening that has progressed with the round count
![Image]()
For me, I am not ready to carry this pistol, but I'm close. If it wasn't for the primer strikes and knowing others have broken the tip off, I would stamp it as carry approved. So, need more time to get more feedback from others on how all of their primer strikes look (do all pistols look like this, or only some?) and see how commonplace broken firing pin/striker tips are, and see what Sig says about it. Hell, maybe somebody will make a dead nuts reliable aftermarket striker that is pure steel and not MIM? I don't know, I'm just not comfortable with this aspect.
That said, there is major potential here. It's hard to argue with 1,022 rounds of thus-far flawless function.
Oh, and about that Shield. It has a mere 430 rounds downrange, with about 120 JHP...and during that back to back comparison (I tried to do it a second time with each to verify results), I had a failure to feed with Federal HST 124+P using my #1 primary carry magazine. In my currently owned pistols, since I started tracking everything a few years ago, I have fired over 2,000 rounds of JHP and this failure represents literally the only JHP failure I have had with any of my currently owned handguns (ones that weren't up to that challenge were sold or traded).
![Image]()
So, if I was to pick up one of my small single stack pistols for highly discrete carry right now...it would be the P365 and not the Shield. I guess that's the bottom line.
But I'd really much rather have a Glock or H&K, so I almost always do what I need to conceal one of them (I do not own a G43)
The pistol was field stripped, cleaned, and generously lubed with Slip 2000 EWL prior to the first range trip, at 340 rounds, at 640 rounds, and again at 770 rounds.
875 rounds Federal American Eagle 124gr
50 rounds Federal HST 124gr
50 rounds Federal HST 147gr
20 rounds Speer Lawman 124gr
20 rounds Federal HST 124gr +P
7 rounds Speer Gold Dot 124gr +P
The gun has functioned perfectly so far. No stoppages, no malfunctions, no premature lockbacks, no failures to lock back, etc. At least 150 of these rounds were fired one handed. At least once I got the pistol hot. My former-food-service calibrated fingertips estimate the exterior of the slide at the forward serrations hit approximately 160 degrees (too painful to hold), I was not willing to grab the barrel to guestimate how hot it was. My trigger finger when indexed and my offside thumb (forward grip) were uncomfortably warm firing the gun at that time (this was during the final 100 rounds or so on the gun)
The gun is small, as we know. This is the extended 10 round magazine (fits all three fingers) over the top of a Shield 9mm with the 8 round magazine
Same comparison, extended 10 round P365 vs 8 round Shield
Grip texture is great. I don't know why anybody would put a Talon grip on this gun. The granular talon grips tear me apart when worn IWB (and most other people as well), while the rubber talon grips provide less grip than the P365 has from the factory.
Sights are good-very good. The color is in the ballpark of the yellow Trijicon HD (my favorite), but more green, not quite as bright and eye catching, and smaller. The rear notch is also relatively smaller, and appears square vs U, but for factory stock night sights they are the best I've had so far and I would not spend any money changing them.
The trigger is great. Some say it's too light for a small defensive carry gun...I can see that...but I think it's great. Light, smooth, short take-up, no discernible over travel, very short reset. The break/wall could be a little more firm, a little bit heavier right at the break point, if I were to be picky.
Recoil is as tame as I could have hoped given the size and caliber (cartridge) of the pistol. While I won't carry +P in it, doing so would be totally reasonable. I have shot as many as 340 rounds in one session (under two hours) and am comfortable saying I could easily shoot this thing all day with standard pressure ammo, comfortably.
I did a meaningful back to back the other day, Shield vs P365. I used the extended 10 round mag on the P365 and the flush 7 round on the Shield (shield is still larger), and loaded both guns to 8 rounds with standard pressure 124gr (AE and Lawman). The Shield benefits from a full Apex trigger and duty/carry kit as well as a Talon grip (rubber texture).
Times and hits were basically dead even. NRA B8 target from low ready.
10 yards
Shield 7.81s
P365 7.63s
5 yards
Shield 2.97s
P365: 3.01s
I consider the hits dead even, didn't score them. The Shield rear sight is bumped slightly to the right to compensate for me, the P365 has not been scootched. Do that and it would be a dead heat every way possible. Except that the P365 is smaller and has room for 3 more rounds than what I used for that test.
Concerns
The striker is a MIM part and there are reports of the tip of the firing pin/striker breaking off. All of the primers look like the photo below. It seems the barrel is camming down and the slide is coming back before the striker retracts, and the striker is thus being drug laterally across the primers. Some of the drag marks get very close to the rim of the case.
Barrel wear and peening. This is mostly a concern because many pistols do NOT exhibit this, but it is also not uncommon. I get significant visible wear and peening that has progressed with the round count
For me, I am not ready to carry this pistol, but I'm close. If it wasn't for the primer strikes and knowing others have broken the tip off, I would stamp it as carry approved. So, need more time to get more feedback from others on how all of their primer strikes look (do all pistols look like this, or only some?) and see how commonplace broken firing pin/striker tips are, and see what Sig says about it. Hell, maybe somebody will make a dead nuts reliable aftermarket striker that is pure steel and not MIM? I don't know, I'm just not comfortable with this aspect.
That said, there is major potential here. It's hard to argue with 1,022 rounds of thus-far flawless function.
Oh, and about that Shield. It has a mere 430 rounds downrange, with about 120 JHP...and during that back to back comparison (I tried to do it a second time with each to verify results), I had a failure to feed with Federal HST 124+P using my #1 primary carry magazine. In my currently owned pistols, since I started tracking everything a few years ago, I have fired over 2,000 rounds of JHP and this failure represents literally the only JHP failure I have had with any of my currently owned handguns (ones that weren't up to that challenge were sold or traded).
So, if I was to pick up one of my small single stack pistols for highly discrete carry right now...it would be the P365 and not the Shield. I guess that's the bottom line.
But I'd really much rather have a Glock or H&K, so I almost always do what I need to conceal one of them (I do not own a G43)
