Casting for the Sig P210

[mjackson]

Anyone out there shoot cast in their P210? I know that Sig made a 9mm barrel with a twist rate specifically for lead bullets, but they are as rare as hen's teeth. Any P210 shooters out there?

[BarryinIN]

I'm a few months late seeing this, but nobody else answered and I do have a P210 and do shoot cast from it.

The P210 experts will say it can't be done because the twist is too fast or some such, but I haven't seen a problem.
I don't shoot it a lot, but it's been probably 99% cast when I do.

I goof around testing bullets and loads for my Browning HiPowers, and I usually load in increments of 20 rounds of a given load. I'll load 12 in the HiPower and eight in the 210, just to compare and for the heck of it. I can't remember a single time the P210 didn't turn in a better group.

I have the old Lyman 356472 mould that I think of as a WC/SWC crossbreed. I like shooting it in the 210 because the sharp corners cut nice holes for the groups. It's also sort of a test to see if a gun will feed it. The 210 gobbles them up. The feedramp, as you know, is nearly vertical but the bullet hardly touches it with the way the cartridge leaves the magazine.
It also seems to like the Saeco 383 (another odd looking one) and the Saeco 115. The Saeco 115 is probably real close in profile to the Swiss 124 FMJ from the pictures I've seen.

FWIW, I slugged 7 or 8 of my 9mms a couple of years ago and the P210 was the only one that measured .355" like "everybody says" 9mms should.

And another FWIW: The hammer eats me alive on this gun. Some HiPowers do it, and my Colt 1911 WWI Repro does it, but the P-210 is easily the worst. I could buy a glue-on beavertail from a couple of sources but found I could cut up the bottom of a 2 liter bottle and make one. It's sort of like the reverse of lipstick on a pig, but the cost is zero. it might help you out if you get bit. It has "tabs" that fit under the grip panels to hold it on:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c240/ColtsR4Football/008-9.jpg

[mjackson]

I too have been bitten by the hammer a couple times, but if a pay attention, it is easily avoided. I think you are the sole pioneer of shooting cast bullets through a standard twist P210 barrel. Happy Thanksgiving

[Piedmont]

I got the privelage of shooting one of those 210s once (a magazine full). The tang bit my hand. I don't think it was the hammer that got me. The pistol reminded me of a well set up 1911 Colt, but the tang bite took it off my list of possible purchases.

[BarryinIN]

There are two places selling add-on beavertails for these. One is around $89 or so and the other is almost twice that. If the hammer/tang bite is what kept me from buying one (and not the money) the $89 would be well spent...and in P210 terms, a lot less than one spare magazine. Some P210s have a screw that runs up from the web of the grip into the trigger unit to hold it in place, and some don't have that screw. Those beavertails are made so they can attach by that screw or by an adhesive.

I hacked that piece of 2L bottle up, but since I started a business making Kydex gear, I need to see about making something a little less ugly.

$89 one: http://www.rocosystem.com/competition-gun-accessories/
$150 one: http://mactec-militaryarms.com/si94.html