Sig Sauer p238

I'm considering a purchase of a Sig Sauer p238 for my wife. She looked at one in the local gun shop and held about 3-5 different .380's. This one fit her hand the best, but I have little to no knowledge of this gun. Any mechanical/dependability issues with this gun? She has not shot the gun, but the gentleman at the store mentioned that the recoil is a little less on this gun than some others, so that would be a good thing. The trigger pull seemed quite good compared to the other guns we looked at. Any opinions on this gun would be helpful.

We have the Sig P238, and we both love it! My husband had the Kel-tec P3AT, and I had the Bersa Thunder CC, and the Sig blows them out of the water as far as comfort and accuracy.

The Sig is smooth shooting, fits sweetly in my hand and has given us absolutely zero issues so far. I highly recommend it!

To .380 or Not to .380, that is the question

I own a Karh P380 and like it. It's recoil is light and I thought it would be the ideal training gun to wean my daughter off of our Walther P22 (22LR) pistol.

The two best .380acp firearms I have heard as far as trigger, comfort, etc are the Sig P238 and the Karh P380. There are advantages to both and you can argue both ways on whether you like a DAO (Kahr) or the cocked & locked with thumb safety (Sig). Since many like the 1911 platform (me included) the Sig is a great gun that is basically a mini 1911 (functionally, don't know about physically). Some would argue that the thumb safety is something they don't want to have to remember to use during a life or death incident but training with whatever gun you purchase should lessen that argument.

Again, I bought the kahr mainly for my daughter to learn on and in the future she may carry it. I won't. I believe the .380 cartridge is underwhelming (although I don't want to volunteer to stand in front of one). If that caliber/cartridge is all your wife can handle or shoot accurately then it is best for her. If she can handle 9mm, 40S&W, .357magnum, or .45acp go for it.

There are many good compact 9mm guns out there now with many new ones. Sig just released the P938 which is a very similar gun to their P238 but chambered in 9mm. http://www.sigsauer.com/CatalogProductDetails/p938-blackwood.aspx

Kahr also makes several 9mm pistols PM9 is a great gun. Keltec, Ruger, Berretta, Smith & Wesson all have jumped on the bandwagon and have a small 9mm gun. The S&W M&P Shield looks interesting too. http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=286041230

So there are many other choices in .380 and 9mm. The 9mm guns would be my direction to look at but the Sig is a quality gun and if "she" likes it then it is something she will train with and feel comfortable carrying.

I want to thank you for your responses. I would agree that the 9mm could be an overall better choice. I had not looked at the p938 for her, and I am not all that familiar with all the pistol manufacturers, so I want to make sure that whatever is purchased is a good reliable investment for her. She has shot my Ruger SR40 and it seemed to be a little more gun than she would be comfortable with, so I was looking at alternatives. I've just recently renewed my interest in firearms that had been on the back burner for a few years, thus my lack of knowledge. I just bought the SR40 and have shot about 300-400 rounds through it. It's been flawless, so far. I agree with the assessment of .380's, but I also haven't found anyone willing to get in front of one. If it was ever needed for self-defense, I'm quite sure it would be at close range and would do the job. If I purchase one she likes, she will enjoy shooting it more, which is important. Thanks again for the input!

Nothing wrong with the Sig238 as i have shot it a few times now. Be aware that it comes with different trigger set up and styles such as E2..... The different sub-models can make it a different gun to shoot. good luck.

I've had two students with the Sig P238. Both guns had problems with frequent failures to go fully into battery when loading the first round. It would happen whether loading by pulling back the slide or just using the slide release. Sometimes it would load automatically when slapping the magazine home. But no matter how they loaded, they frequently didn't go into battery. If you happened to notice it, you could slap the back of the slide to correct it, but many times the gun would go "click" and the hammer dropping would finish closing the slide, so it took a while to notice exactly what was happening the first couple of times with the first gun.

However, they never had a failure to fire when shooting, only if the first round didn't go fully into the battery. Once, it was out far enough to give a dead trigger. But most of the time, it was close enough to drop the hammer but not fire.

That said, they are extremely accurate! I was very impressed.

I never had such problems with my old Colt Mustang.

Unless she's extremely recoil sensitive, or maybe just can't stomach a DAO trigger, and assuming she wants a gun in that size range, she'd probably be better off with a 9mm subcompact Kahr. Same size almost, same price range. Much more power.

I have done much research on the P238. It is a beautiful firearm that looks extremely comfortable and gets great reviews.

I will warn you about one issue that has plagued a few people and that is a burr developing on the right hand bottom of the feed ramp that eventually starts interfering with rounds feeding in. From people that have had problems this burr apparently develops due to the floating barrel lightly striking the magazine. The reports are the barrel feed ramps were trimmed/polished under warranty from Sig and corrected the problem.
This would not be a deal breaker for me because the issue and fix is known and easily dealt with.
I just couldn't get over the SAO. I've just never carried cocked and locked and can't figure to start now.