Much ado has been made recently about the US Army’s piss-poor performance in completing the evaluations of handguns in the Modular Handgun System contract. While yes, they should have completed the testing, it is fair to say that the Sig is even 3/4 as good as Glock, their $100,000,000 more worth it.

But, much of that conjecture is simply due to the Glock’s long reputation for performance where the Sig, while on its face reputable, does not quite have the lineage that just takes time and testing. Fortunately, that is where Tim over at Military Arms Channel steps in with some aggravated testing on a P320 Compact.

Basically, Tim takes the handgun through 1,000 rounds consecutively to see how well the weapon does under some duress. Shooting hot Fiocchi loads, the handgun just eats it up, shooting all 1,000 rounds with no malfunctions… or so it seems.

Subjected to extreme heat of 1,000 rounds the polymer just, and only just starts melting and minor deformation. This “damage” was not visible from outside, but upon disassembly looks to be incidental to extreme heat – something these handguns would never get to in any operational capacity that I am aware.

So, my hat’s off to the P320, which continues to show its a solid handgun. Where there is some debate remaining if its the best handgun for the Army for performance, I think this little test shows its at the minimum a good handgun.