I won a Sig P238

[Down South]

I Won a Sig P238 with the laser sights yesterday. I see a lot of mixed reviews on the little pistol.
Does anybody have any insight on these little pistols. I would not have ever bought one I think since I have a number of carry pieces. I carry a S&W 642 with the CT laser grips most of the time.
I haven't got the gun yet. I'll have to get the gun shipped to my FFL dealer in LA since I won the gun in Texas.

[Wheeler]

I had one briefly that I took in trade. I was very impressed with the quality of construction, trigger, and accuracy given the size of the pistol.
I personally do not care for semi-auto pistols for pocket carry however for something that would be very discreet in a belt or ankle holster I think it will excel.
I don't know anything about the Sig laser, I assume it's the one that attaches to the trigger guard?
Prices on these range from around $400 up to around $700ish. If I wasn't left-handed and would of had to invest money for an ambi-safety, I would have kept it.

[Down South]

Yeah, the laser is what Sig installed, Not a CT and it attaches to the trigger guard somehow. Since I don't have the pistol yet, there is not a lot of details I can give. I don't think the laser is as good as my CT grips. I think the Sig laser has to be turned on with a switch while my CT grips are pressure activated.

[Wheeler]

From the pictures I've seen, it looks like your trigger finger is used to actuate the laser. I don't think it's any better or worse that the CT grips, just a different manual of arms to engage and use the laser.

[MtGun44]

I bought one for the wife, used. It didn't jam, but about every 5th ejected case fell within
6" of the gun on the shooting bench - NOT GOOD! When examined, they were mangled,
clearly got caught in the action and barely popped out, it was right on the edge of jamming
and it seemed like the cases were popping out of the grip of the extractor prematurely. The
extractor is like a 1911, so I checked the tension and it was nearly zero, plus the bottom
edge was sharp 90 deg corner.

I rounded the bottom edge and bent it a touch to increase the tension, polished the feed
ramp and it has worked perfectly ever since. The wife prefers the nice single action trigger
to long DAO triggers like the P3AT, and the grip fits her hand better, plus the added weight
makes it more fun to shoot.

A friend let us shoot his P238 before I bought it, and his experience was that it jammed occasionally
with factory mags, but not ever with Colt Pocketlight .380 mags from Metalform. So, I ordered two
Metalform mags for the Colt, which have a slightly raised front on the mag follower, and have had
zero problems that are associated with the mags. The one factory Sig mag is in the box, we have
not even tried it, and the follower definitely is flatter than the Metalform ones.

In case you don't know the history, this is a duplicate of the Colt Pocket Government Model, or
whatever they called it originally. Then they made aluminum frames and shorter slides ( think
Commander and Ltwt Commander) and such, Pocketlite was alum frame, Mustang was the
short slide version.

There was MUCH less CCW then, 1990s - I forget exactly when, and the consensus was that the
guns were not reliable, Colt had serious problems with consistency, some were fine, some
were not reliable. Eventually Colt dropped it, just in time to miss out on the great CCW
minigun market. Sig decided to copy it and that is the P238. This is why the Colt mags
work in the P238.

If the folks at Colt had any smarts, they would bring the Government Pocketlite Mustang back
out and clean up their act on quality and make some serious bucks. I cannot understand what
Colt is doing these days, they don't seem to have a clue about the market place about half of
the time. They have some REALLY nice 1911s now, about 25 yrs too late, after many other
SMARTER companies have nearly taken away their whole market due to them refusing to build
what people wanted, and marginal or worse quality for a long time. Current guns seem to be
very well made, - about time.

Bill

[Down South]

Thanks Bill. That was a lot of info about the little pistol. I have found out that the Colt mags work well with this pistol.