When I first started carrying concealed, I was carrying a single-stack, striker-fired gun, but thanks to some inspiration from the late Bob Owens (RIP) and a chance encounter with a SIG P239 Gen2 SAS in a Houston gun store on my birthday, I ended up going DA/SA for my carry guns and haven’t looked back.

I like SIGs and shoot them well — especially the otherwise totally impractical P239 — so depending on my wardrobe I’m either carrying the aforementioned P239 or a 9mm P229 SAS. Why the SAS (smooth as silk) versions of both of these guns, you ask?

Well, it’s because I use trigger guard holsters from Cook’s and carry AIWB, and the SAS treatment makes that whole arrangment easier on one of the more, er, sensitive regions of my body.

The problem with the trigger guard holsters in the Texas heat, though, is that you sweat all over the gun. SIG’s Nitron treatment is pretty good, but internals are what I really worry about. So at some point last year I sent both guns off to Robar Guns for NP3 internals and Roguard on the outside.

(Actually, that’s not true. While I’m bragging, I might as well clarify that I sent both off to Grayguns first for various upgrades and action work, and Grayguns sent them to Robar for the finish.)

The results, shown here, are a stunning version of the classic SIG “Nightmare” look, but in the P series.

I’m coming up on a year of carry with these guns, and I’m still super pleased with how the finish is holding up.

As you can see from the pix, one of the guns is done in the satin finish, and another in the matte. I actually think the satin finish may be a little more durable, since it seems to deflect wear a bit better than the matte. But I like the look of the matte better. Either one is solid, though.

For mags, I’m using the Mec-Gar 15-round flush fit mags in the P229 (my SAS takes the older, wider mags) and Mec-Gar 18-round coated extended mags.

For ammo, I’m mostly carrying Barnes TAC-XPD, but I have a bunch of Remington Golden Saber that I picked up before I discovered the Barnes, so sometimes I carry that. All of it shoots and cycles really well in these guns.

As for how they shoot… Well, how would you imagine they shoot after Bruce Gray has done his thing with them (the 229 has the P-SAIT trigger, and both have SIG X-Ray sights, and there are a few silly things in there like the fat guide rod and so on) and Robar has slicked up the internals with NP3? They’re amazing, and my wife, who doesn’t even do guns, wants the P239 but she can’t have it.

Anyway, part of the fun of having a great pair of guns is showing them off, and since I have a TFB login I can inflict that on all of you. What makes this even better is that the TFB staff is such a bunch of Glock fanboys, so I’m really classing up the page with this post. Enjoy!