The Sig Sauer P322
By MARJ LAW
Remember when Indiana Jones is faced by a bad guy wielding swords? The bad guy brandishes his swords in the air, trying to intimidate Indiana. Instead, Indiana calmly pulls out a gun and shoots the bad guy dead.
When it comes to a gun fight, bring a gun.
Heck, if Mr. Bad comes at me, I’ll use a branch, a rock or anything I can find to defend myself.
A lot of people wanting to be able to defend themselves have trouble with hand strength.
“I can only shoot a .22,” they will say apologetically. And Mr. Young Guy, strong and big-boned may well say: “You only have a .22? A .22 is just a pea-shooter. You can’t defend yourself with just a .22.”
Well, if a .22 is what you have and is what you can handle, then that’s the way it is. You might as well find a .22 that is comfortable in your hand, compact, versatile, inexpensive and holds… 20 rounds. Yes! The Sig Sauer P322 holds a whopping 20 rounds.
The P322 is only 7” long, 1.4” wide, and 5.5” high. The barrel is 4” long and this whole little semi-automatic weighs only 17.1 ounces.
And features. The 322 has some neat features. Take, for example, two triggers. If you don’t want a flat trigger, a curved trigger is included in the box.
Plan on adding a reflex sight? The 322 has a panel with two screws you can take out to mount your reflex sight.
A suppressor? Are you going to take out a woodchuck colony and don’t want them to hear what you’re up to? The 322 comes with an adaptor for a suppressor.
Think you might like help loading? The 322 comes with a sleeve that goes over the magazine to help you load. That’s if you need help. The magazine comes with a button to push the magazine spring downwards making loading easy.
Wouldn’t you like to dryfire your new handgun? Everyone knows you don’t dryfire a .22.
Except for the 322. Put the included chamber safety flag in the chamber and practice away. Is that cool or what?
So, don’t apologize for your new Sig P322. Enjoy. The 322 is a great training handgun, with an easy trigger and very low recoil. It’s good for small varmints and rodents. A .22’s ammunition is the least expensive ammunition. It’s fun for target shooting. And with 20 rounds in its magazine? As ammoman.com says: “I’ve yet to hear a gunfight survivor say ‘Boy, did I ever have too much ammo with me!’” And, The Truth About Guns says: “in the end, what SIG has come up with is probably the most complete .22LR semi-automatic pistol on the market.”
This time, Joe is the one at the range trying out the Sig P322.
I ask him about recoil. This is the question most people ask me first. On a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the easiest and 5 the most difficult, Joe gives the P322 a .5. Now, that’s really low and off our 1-5 scale. There’s not much recoil at all so your sights can stay on target.
Trigger pull? Joe gives trigger pull a 2. It’s a light trigger.
Grip? Joe gives it a 2. He has large hands. I hold the gun and give grip a 1. It’s great for small hands, yet not too small for large ones.
Reliability? I want a gun that shoots right the first time every time. After Joe notices that the magazine is sensitive to each round being perfectly aligned, he has no issues with it at all.
First, he shoots from a bucket of 36-grain copper plated hollow point Federal ammunition. All goes well.
Then, he shoots CCI Mini Mag hollow points. They are 36-grain copper plated as well. No problems.
Last, he shoots Federal Premium Punch flat nose 29-grain rounds. Again, no problems.
.22 rounds are notorious for dirtying up a gun. I wonder how difficult it is to take this gun apart to clean it.
Again, this is a user-friendly gun. I dumped the magazine, flipped the take-down lever, and lifted the upper off the lower. Might have helped to read the manual, but it just seemed easy so I tried it and it worked right away.
Yes, the innards were dirty, but with a good solvent and grease, it didn’t take long to clean up. Be sure to avoid using too much grease on the slides. If you overdo it, caked-up grease becomes a magnet for even more shooting residue.
The Sig Sauer P322 has a lot of great features and it holds more rounds in a small space than any other .22 I’ve seen.
As gundigest.com notes: “A .22 Long Rifle handgun would not be my first choice when it comes to an every day carry, personal protection handgun… your best bet when shooting a handgun to save your life is that it will cause enough pain to make the attacker stop attacking.”
Yes, a .22 isn’t a high-caliber centerfire handgun, but it’s a great gun to learn the sport of shooting with its easy trigger pull and low recoil. And don’t forget the two 20-round magazines that come in its box.
And even though the P322 is not a high-caliber gun, if you are in the position to have to save your life, it sure beats a branch or a rock.
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.