Police Products with Lindsey J. Bertomen

Product Review: SIG SAUER P239 in .357 SIG

I tested the SIG SAUER P239 in .357 SIG. I short-listed this gun about 500 rounds into the test. Here’s why: the SIG SAUER P239 (henceforth called the P239) is a single-stack, semi-auto pistol with classic SIG SAUER features, including a hard coated anodized aluminum frame and a stainless steel slide. It comes in the DAK, SRT, or DA/SA trigger. My model was a DA/SA trigger version in .357 SIG. It came with the Nitron-coated slide in a black hard coat and bright, “contrasty” SIGLITE night sights.

I have a personal bias toward the SIG SAUER P239. Of the dozens of handguns I shoot for testing, there are only five in the group to which the SIG SAUER P239 now belongs — my personal top five choices.

Before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure, I have a personal bias toward the SIG SAUER P239. Of the dozens of handguns I shoot for testing, there are only five in the group to which the SIG SAUER P239 now belongs — my personal top five choices. That is, if I ever found myself in a target rich environment that required me to fight my way to a battle rifle, I would prefer to have one of these five (or all five) handguns in my possession.

My personal bias toward this product is well-founded. This gun has performed without a hitch. It has been torture tested, which included rapid firing 300 rounds in an attempt to induce failure. After that, it went three weeks without cleaning, except for a dry patch down the barrel after some very unusual weather on the range. One range session started out as a dry, windy day. I set the gun down on the table on the range. It rained, then the wind picked up. 30 minutes later, the gun was covered with fine sand. I ran a dry patch down the barrel, and then shot another 100 rounds.

More full disclosure: I’ve had this P239 a little longer than SIG SAUER would want me to have it. This gave me the opportunity to run thousands — not hundreds — of rounds through the gun. I holstered it and re-holstered it (no discernable sign of holster wear), dry fired it several days in a row, and swapped magazines in front of the TV for days. I carried it IWB, belt scabbard, in my pocket and in a waistpack.

Now, I must include a disclaimer. Nowhere in this article is there a recommendation or an endorsement to treat your handgun like I treated this one. I recommend regular cleaning. I tested this handgun at distances that should be considered outside of the design parameters of a handgun and the duty use of a handgun. My purpose was to show the reader the capabilities of the P239, not to encourage extreme use.

SIG SAUER is one of those companies that has a long-standing reputation for reliability, coupled with an ear to the ground for product improvement. The P239 is a smaller and slimmer version of the P229, reputably one of the most coveted combat handguns in the industry. Several of my coworkers had P229 duty handguns that were around 20 years old. They were as reliable as brand-new guns.

SIG SAUER uses quality components like hardened roll pins and full-length slide rails. The barrel and chamber of the P239 (and the P229) are markedly reinforced compared to most guns one would carry off duty.

The P239 overall length is 6.6” and its width is 1.2” which is small and thin enough for discreet carry. The single stack magazine holds seven .357 SIG rounds. I found the second magazine was slim enough for a back pocket or IWB magazine holder.

SIG SAUER offers three trigger choices for three distinct shooting styles. The DA/SA trigger has a traditional feel where the double action pull is fairly stack free (the tension doesn’t seem to increase as one pulls the trigger further). There is a decocking lever, which gives the shooter a positive tactile feel when the hammer goes to its reset position. The hammer rests without contacting the firing mechanism, which also has firing pin safety that prevents forward motion (firing) without a pull on the trigger. There are four separate safety features on the P239: Decocking lever, firing pin safety, safety intercept notch and trigger bar disconnector. Occasionally, I carry my P239 in the reinforced pocket of my jeans with confidence. At 29.5 oz, this is a reasonable carry for officers with extra large pockets.

The SRT trigger, which stands for Short Reset Trigger, is a version of the DA/SA trigger that has a much shorter reset than the DA mode. This was designed for competitive shooters, not for LE officers.

The DAK trigger is a smooth double action trigger that gives the user the same pull all the time, without the decocking lever. I’m not sure how SIG SAUER did it but it is a worthwhile option for this model.

The P239 comes in 9mm, .40 and .357 SIG. I was fortunate to have had friends who own P239’s in the other calibers. I got to shoot them all. I would choose the .357 SIG every time, especially after several ballistic gelatin tests.

The .357 SIG cartridge was designed to mimic the .357 magnum in an auto pistol. It is a bottleneck cartridge, which means the bullet has a narrower diameter than the base of the cartridge. In this case, the bullet diameter approximates a 9 mm bullet and the base of the cartridge approximates a 40 caliber cartridge.

Think about this: one factor in the reliability of a handgun is the ability to smoothly feed off the magazine and completely insert into the chamber. Imagine a 40 caliber handgun. The 40 caliber bullet goes into a .40 caliber chamber. Now imagine a 9 mm sized bullet being eased into the opening the size of a 40 caliber chamber. This particular design is inherently reliable.

There are some factors one must consider with shouldered cartridges, but that goes beyond the scope of this article. Succinctly, do not continuously chamber and re-chamber a .357 SIG cartridge. Rather, practice often to keep a rotation of fresh cartridges.

The .357 magnum had a reputation of excellent performance in ballistic gelatin tests, especially after barrier. That is, one fires through tempered glass into ballistic gelatin to test one aspect of bullet performance. There are several factors including the weight retention of the recovered bullet, the amount of expansion and what it actually does inside the gelatin. I compared the .357 SIG bullets to .357 magnum bullets after barrier.

The .357 SIG cartridges generally duplicated or exceeded the 357 magnum performance, except in heavier bullet weights. It appears that the nominal bullet weight for the 357 SIG was about 124 grains, simply because the 124 grain combinations were more accurate and tore up the gelatin. Compared to a 9 mm… well, there really wasn’t a comparison. I don’t think I ever went below about a 20 percent advantage in penetration over the 9mm. The 357 SIG gave after-barrier performance, which could only be described as remarkable.

One thing that must be addressed with the .357 SIG: bullet manufacturers should not load this cartridge with standard 9 mm bullets. The higher velocities tended to cause jacket shedding. First, the P239 should only be used with bonded Bullets. Second, the superior velocity generally requires thicker jackets.

SIG SAUER has a reputation for design ergonomics in their handguns. The P239 will fit a variety of shooters comfortably, especially the grip angle, which tends to absorb the recoil of this cartridge. The inherent design advantages of the 357 SIG cartridge are perfect for this handgun. I was shooting a superior cartridge that felt like a light 9 mm. All of this was in a handgun package small enough for off-duty carry.

If the P239 package sounds attractive so far, I have to talk about the final reason why I would carry this gun into a gun battle: it is accurate. Using duty rounds, I was consistently hitting 4’ steel plates at 50 yards. I completed a modified qualification with this gun using a B27 target at almost 100 yards. Oh yes, it is accurate.

The handgun is the short distance firearm. The rifle is the long distance small arm. The carbine bridges the gap between the handgun and the rifle. However, if I was really in dire need, the P239 is on my short list.

Feel for a subject's movement during pat downs

Submitted by:  Doug Wyllie

In many past Street Survival Seminars, attendees had been shown a surveillance video from a prison in which inmates used combs and toothbrushes to practice disarming techniques. The bad guys continue to practice tactical movements today. A PoliceOne Member just sent us an alert that his PD recently received an email from an NRA firearms instructor who observed what he believed to be organized firearm training by gang members that had these individuals practicing the ability to an officer from the standard pat-down position. According to that NRA instructor, the shooter in this drill extends his hands in the standard pat-down position, and then on command, the shooter drops, rolls, and draws — shooting the target from less than five feet away. “With this in mind,” this P1 Member writes, “an officer needs to be ready for anything when dealing with a compliant suspect.” Agreed. While conducting a pat down, you’re not only feeling for objects on the individual, but also feeling for resistive tension and other minute movements the individual may be making that could be pre-attack indicators. Be especially sensitive — given this new information — to a subject who suddenly drops to the ground.

Presenting a weapon during roadside sobriety tests?

By PoliceOne Staff

If you use a pen as your focal element during Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus tests, consider changing your approach. Although admittedly convenient and seemingly small and innocuous, a pen in the wrong hands can inflict some serious damage.

The same holds true for anything else that can be quickly grabbed and used as an improvised weapon during an assault. If you’re holding something that could be used to stab or slash you (think of a pen to the eye or neck) right in front of a suspect’s face, you could be inviting trouble if he’s motivated to attack you.

Instead, consider using the index finger of your weak hand. It can’t be taken away from you and the weak hand approach keeps your strong hand clear and ready should things spin bad.

Train for terrain, condition for conditions

If your running regime consists only of running on flat surfaces in decent temperatures, remember this: foot pursuits happen in all kinds of weather on all kinds of surfaces.

Consider adding variance to your workout strategy to facilitate better performance in challenging settings. Try running a diversified “cross-country” type course that requires the kinds of physical movements you might be forced to perform in a foot pursuit — things like jumping over ground obstacles, scaling a chain link fence, jumping over a wall, quickly pushing through tight squeezes between buildings or fighting your way through brush, etc. Imagine the kinds of settings you might encounter in your area and tailor your running trail to meet the demands they may present. Also try to add weather challenges to your workout. Make an effort to run in the rain, snow, and heat depending on your local climate.

Running in a controlled-temperature atmosphere on a flat, comfortable surface is fine and necessary for a variety of reasons, but adding surface and weather variances to your workout will help you more realistically train for the kinds of challenges you could very easily encounter in the field.

Leave a car-length space in front of your squad

Officer Michelle Hertling — whose incident with a dog was described in detail in Chuck Remsberg’s book, Blood Lessons — recently saved her own life while off duty with a simple tip given to her by her Field Training Officer several years ago. Stopped due to road construction late at night, a drunk driver struck her from behind at an estimated 70 mph. She had left a car length distance between her vehicle and the one stopped in front of her.

North Carolina State University Police Officer Larry Jones tells PoliceOne, “Michelle and I are ‘RAD’ Rape Aggression Defense instructors for women. In the class we teach women to always ‘Check 6’ — to look behind them for additional threats whenever they perceive danger to the front. While she was sitting in the traffic she was checking behind her when she noticed the headlights of the drunk driver approaching. She had left the car length distance between her vehicle and the one in front of her so she turned the steering wheel to the left to attempt to get out of the way. Before she could do that, the car hit her from behind knocking her unconscious. Fortunately, her vehicle was shoved to the left off the road missing the vehicle in front of her. She said that her trunk ended up about 4 inches behind her back. Had she pulled her vehicle up close to the bumper to the one in front of her it is almost certain that she would have been killed.”

Jones adds that it’s been his experience that some of the officers he encounters tend to “set themselves up to fail” by not giving themselves this kind of options to bail out of trouble when it happens. Jones advises that officer should always “have a ‘Plan B’ wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.”

Define your gang problem in schools (before addressing it)

By Derrick R. Crews
Gang Prevention Officer
Kernersville Police Dept.
Gang activity is a hot topic facing school resource officers. In our rush to combat the problem, we tend to forget one of the basic elements needed to create a solid prevention plan. This necessary element is simply to define your problem. While seemingly insignificant, without clearly defining your problem, you cannot solve it.
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) tells us time and again, “It is wise... to define a problem adequately before adopting a response strategy... especially in the sphere of street gangs.”
Defining gangs and gang activity doesn’t have to be difficult. In addition to state gang associations or school policies that define gangs and gang activity, thirty-seven states have legislation defining the activity. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You may need to customize the definition to fit your needs. Remember, the more specific you make your prevention plan, the better off you are.
Having a definition can help prevention plans in many ways. Here are some examples.

• Staff should have a basic understanding of what a gang is, what gang activity can encompass, and what behavior is unacceptable — this will help unite the overall efforts to stop gang activity
• Enforcing school rules can be applied more fairly and should be consistent across the entire student population.
• Students should be advised what behavior is recognized as gang related — once informed, they are responsible for their actions and the consequences
• When gang related disciplinary actions need to be taken, you can readily justify your response based on the definition of the problem

Clear definitions may not be the magic element to your prevention plan but most successful programs have clearly defined problems. This allows you to build effective strategies to address the issue. If you would like to learn more about this idea, read Street Gangs and Interventions and Crime Analysis for Problem Solvers in 60 Small Steps.

Watch out for window work on suspects' houses

by: Michelangelo Nicolazzo

The new ‘hurricane-proof glass’ used for windows and doors in civilian homes which are in hurricane prone regions can withstand winds upwards of 120 m.p.h.. This is of importance to the SWAT/Entry Team as traditional methods of gaining entry through a window, such as a window-puncturing piston, or a battering ram, or Haligan Tool. The usual tools in the breacher’s arsenal will not be as ‘tactical’ as they once were. There are now specific pyrotechnic devices as well as stronger piston devices which will work. Although this new glass protects life and property it does merit consideration to a SWAT/Tactical Entry Team. The one good thing about this glass is that it does not shatter, which according to NTOA and DOJ databases, causes more injuries than I would have thought