Sig Sauer P365X

The other day I traded off a few guns and came home with a Sig Sauer P365X. The gun comes with two 12 round magazines. I had enough store credit that I also got another 12 rounder and a 17 round extended magazine.

The P365X is part of Sig's family of compact and micro-sized 9mm semiauto pistols intended for conceal carry. The original P365 is exceptionally small, while the P365X is just slightly larger with a longer grip, and has a slide already milled to accept RMS-c footprint dot sights.

Overall the P365X is a tiny gun, especially when you consider its capacity. It's 6" long, 1.1" thick, and 4.8" tall. The barrel is 3.1" long. The slide is fitted with Sig's own night sights and is cut for an optic, as mentioned above.

Top-to-bottom, P365X, S&W Model 640-1 .357 Magnum, S&W M&P Shield 9:

The P365 family is very modular because the actual "gun" for legal purposes is the fire control unit (FCU), which includes the major mechanical components. You buy different grip modules and mix and match barrels and slides to create the configuration you desire.

For several years I've owned a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9, which is in the micro-9 class, but never really warmed up to it. (In contrast, I like the mid-size M&P 9 2.0 and full-size M&P 9 1.0 A LOT.)

Before shooting any new gun I always field strip it, remove any factory oil, and lubricate it per the owner's manual. I do this as a quality control check and to familiarize myself with the gun in case I need to resolve any issues at the range.

Field stripping is very simple and doesn't require any tools. First clear the gun to ensure it's unloaded. Then lock the slide to the rear. Next rotate the takedown lever on the left side of the frame downwards. Release the slide (which is under spring pressure) and pull it off the front of the frame.

Then pull off the recoil spring assembly and pull the barrel out of the slide.

Reassembly is in reverse order.

To remove the FCU, first clear the gun, then field strip it as normal. Then drive out the pin at the rear of the frame, from right to left. Next, tilt rear of the FCU up and pull the unit out of the grip module.

To drive out the pin you need a 3/32" punch. A Glock disassembly tool works well.

Strangely, Sig doesn't include a printed version of the owner's manual with the gun, which comes in a nice lockable plastic box with an extra mag, chamber flag, and a cable lock. There is a basic safety pamphlet included, which has a QR code on it to scan which takes you to the Sig website where you can download the manual.

In this litigious age I am amazed Sig's lawyers approved shipping a gun without a full owner's manual. You can call Sig to have them mail you a hard copy of the manual, which I intend to do so it can stay with the gun. Seriously, Sig Sauer, what are you thinking?

Yesterday I took the P365X to the range and put a mix of S&B 124 grain FMJ and Wolf Polyformance 115 grain FMJ for a total of 105 rounds through it. It had 3 or 4 failures to fully go into battery, which were resolved with a gentle tap on the back end of the slide.

Today, I did a quick field strip, clean, and relube, then took it back to the range and this time it ran flawlessly through 152 rounds of Wolf and 14 Speer Gold Dots that I had in my range bag. Today it ran flawlessly.

The P365X weighs just 17.8 oz. (500 grams) unloaded. As expected, recoil was pretty snappy. Compared with the M&P Shield, the grip is a little rounder in cross section and more comfortable for me.

The Sig's trigger reminds me of a double action revolver trigger but lighter and  with a shorter stroke. But, unlike a DA revolver trigger I can't stage it.

Shooting such a small pistol well with its short sight radius and level of recoil demands good form. If you don't have the fundamentals down pat you won't shoot well. It is not forgiving. Yesterday, I was definitely not in the zone. Today I really concentrated on my form more and shot better.

Something that will help accuracy especially under stress is a dot sight. I plan to get a Holosun green dot for it soon.

Because of the recoil I find that extended shooting sessions with this class of gun are taxing and my shooting degrades after awhile. Today I took a few breaks during the session to sweep up my spent brass and give my hand some rest.

The P365X fits a DeSantis outside the waistband holster I have for my Shield 9. It also fits a DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster but is a bit too big for my pants pockets. It would probably work OK in a large coat or vest pocket.

Overall, I am seriously impressed with the Sig P365X. It packs an amazing amount of firepower into a tiny gun that with practice is very shootable.

A Vest for Concealed Carry

I just got one of these vests in gray for $27 on Amazon Prime, for use as a cover garment. It looks more REI rather than tacticool. Actually, it looks more Walmart-ish than REI.

It is lightweight and uninsulated, which is what I wanted. I already have fleece insulated vests for colder weather. The shell is nylon with a polyester mesh liner for ventilation. It has four pockets: two handwarmer pockets, a chest pocket, and one inside pocket. The zippers and stitching seem pretty good. Unlike the pics on Amazon the zipper pull is American-style, i.e. with the pull on the right side. There is a hanging loop on the back.

The vest should roll up compactly so it can be stuffed in a bag when traveling. It'll be handy for when you need a few extra pockets but not something that's borderline LBE.

I tried it with a few different guns in OWB holsters. On me it’s long enough to cover a 3” S&W K-Frame if I don’t raise my arm over my head. A 2.75" Ruger Speed Six concealed a little better. A 2” barrel gives more wiggle room. A S&W M&P9 Shield concealed well. A 4" K-Frame stuck out the bottom. The guns remained covered if I bent over.

I also tried it on over one of my bulkier hoodies and it fit ok with no binding in the arm holes. So, it could work also as a windbreaker over a sweatshirt or sweater, depending on the thickness.

Hill People Gear Kit Bag Loadout

A couple years ago I bought a Hill People Gear Original Kit Bag. This is the gear that lives in it 24x7. I use the bag on day hikes and overnighters. I have found the Kit Bag to be the most comfortable way to carry a pistol while hiking when carrying a pack. It also provides a very convenient and comfortable means of carrying a basic survival kit, and an easily accessible but secure way to carry my car keys and phone when off-pavement.

I augment the contents as dictated by the particular trip. E.g., add a Cliff bar or two.

Rear compartment:

• Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9 with 8 round magazine
• One spare 8 round magazine, held in place with a Maxpedition Universal Holster

(The gun and spare magazine are loaded with Federal XM9001 9mm 115 grain JHP. In PA, I'm not worried about wild animals larger than dogs. The gun is there for defense against people. I've also carried a Beretta M9 and a CZ P-09 but switched to the Shield to reduce weight.)

Middle compartment:

• Princeton Tec Remix LED headlamp
• Adventure Medical Kits SOL Heatsheet survival blanket
• USGI olive drab triangular bandage, with edges hemmed to prevent fraying
• Safety pin on one of the sewn-in loops
• Woodsknife Reindeer Puukko knife in homemade LH sheath
• GI type match safe with strike-anywhere matches, and some sandpaper taped to the outside
• Three Esbit hexamine fuel tablets (Great fire starters.)
• BIC lighter in Exotac fireSLEEVE
• 0.5L Platypus water bag (Empty. Stole this idea from the Hill brothers.)
• Potable Aqua iodine-based water purification tablets

Outside compartment:

• Three AAA batteries in a small Ziploc bag
• Map of where I'm hiking
• Fox 40 micro whistle*
• REI zipper pull compass*
• Nitecore T0 flashlight* (This may get replaced with a single-AA Cree light, which has a button switch rather than a twist switch.)
• REI zipper pull thermometer*
• About ten feet of 550 cord

Items marked with an asterisk are dummy corded to light aluminum caribiners with bank line. I replaced the Slick Clips that came with the KB with the 'biners because they are easier for me to open and close.

Once I get to the trail, I'll stow my car keys and iPhone 6 in the outside compartment. Depending on the trip I may also bring a larger compass and a Garmin GPSMAP 62 GPS unit, but not necessarily in the KB.

Also, I removed the Grimlocks from the outside of the KB, since I don't use them.

Hanukkah, Jihad, and Gun Control

Tonight Hanukkah begins, in which we celebrate not just the miracle of the one night's worth of oil lasting for eight, but also the triumph of the Maccabees over their pagan Seleucid Greek oppressors.

Today, Jews in the West face a threat far more dangerous than the ancient Greeks, namely Muslim Jihad. After the events of the past few weeks -- the terrorist attacks in Paris, France and San Bernardino, California, only those Jews with their heads in the sand can feel safe from this threat.

The United States has historically been the safest place for Jews but with the Obama administration, this safety is being compromised every day. In his quest to "fundamentally transform" the US,  he is not merely failing to protect our borders, he is actively importing radical Muslims from the Middle East. As we saw with Paris and San Bernardino, it's not just fighting age males (who make up the bulk of the refugees) that we need to worry about. Indeed, many of their women are just as committed to Jihad as their men. These people are steeped in a culture in which they are taught from early childhood to hate Jews. They don't lose that by crossing a national border.

Jihad presents an existential threat to the West. Its adherents demand submission (which is indeed the meaning of "Islam") and do not differentiate between military and civilian targets. There is no compromise with a foe who believes that we must submit or die.

Although the US is not the only Western country which allows its citizens to be armed, it has the most robust gun culture. Jewish Americans should learn to embrace it. In doing so, they will find that many of its members are also staunch supporters of Israel.

I would remind you that "turn the other cheek" is not a Jewish concept. Western Jews must cast off their shtetl mentality and be willing to defend themselves with force, for Jihad may visit at any time, without warning. American Jews must get training, arm themselves, and get a license to carry so they can be armed at all times.

Jewish Americans also need to stop supporting politicians who actively work to make us more vulnerable. Even before the blood dried in California, Obama called for more gun control. His water carriers in the media, notably the New York Times, echoed this call, including for actual confiscation of those weapons most suited to home defense. Presidential candidate Martin O'Malley called for gun control via executive fiat, including confiscation. Hillary Clinton doubled down on her calls for gun control. So did Bernie Sanders (someone who I am ashamed to note comes from a Jewish background).

Thankfully, the American people have as a whole soundly rejected the idea that gun control = crime control. This past Black Friday broke all previous records for gun purchases, based on the number of background checks performed. It is past time that Jewish Americans get more in tune with their countrymen and arm themselves for defense, since it's been repeatedly demonstrated that the state cannot do it for them.

Jihad presents the greatest threat to the survival of the Jewish People since Nazi Germany. If we are serious when we say, "Never Again!," we'll need more than words to secure our survival. Jews must be armed and willing to fight for our freedom and our lives.


For my 2004 and 2010 Hanukkah posts, click here and here, respectively.

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States

Edit: Welcome Twitter users! Please poke around the blog. If you came here because of this post, you'll probably find something else of interest.

Back in 2004, I posted Percentage of Adults With Carry Permits in "Shall Issue" States. It's been probably the most popular post on this blog, and several times I've been asked if there's an update. Well, now there is.

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States is a new scholarly paper by John R.Lott, John E. Whitley, and Rebekah C. Riley. Here's the summary:

Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report:

• The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits.
• 5.2% of the total adult population has a permit.
• Five states now have more than 10% of their adult population withconcealed handgun permits.
• In ten states, a permit is no longer required to carry in all or virtually all of the state. This is a major reason why legal carrying handguns is growing so much faster than the number of permits.
• Since 2007, permits for women has increased by 270% and for men by 156%.
• Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites.
• Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.2 (preliminary estimates) per 100,000. This represents a 25% drop in the murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 178%. Overall violent crime also fell by 25 percent over that period of time.
• Regression estimates show that even after accounting for the per capita number of police and people admitted to prison and demographics, the adult population with permits is significantly associated with a drop in murder and violent crime rates.
• Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors or felonies at one- sixth the rate that police officers are convicted.

Well, that sure doesn't fit the president's or Bloomberg's narratives, does it? Especially the points about women and minorities.

Digging into the data, the state with the largest numbers of permits is Florida with about 1.4 million, followed by Pennsylvania with about 1.1M. C'mon PA folks, we're slacking.

If you look at percentages, the top five states are

• Alabama 12.64%
• South Dakota 12.3%
• Indiana 11.62%
• Pennsylvania 10.64%
• Tennessee 10.21%

From my post of 11 years ago, the top five states in 2004 were :

• 7.45% South Dakota 
• 6.79% Indiana 
• 6.76% Pennsylvania 
• 5.23% Connecticut 
• 5.12% Washington

If the Democrats are upset by this I have two things to say:

1. Good.
2. You have only yourselves to blame. You've been simultaneously beating the drum for more gun control, fanning the flames of racial tension, and tearing down our country's institutions. Don't be surprised when people decided they need to take affirmative steps to preserve their own security.