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Hi all,
Some time ago I was looking for a reasonably priced P6 barrel. They are hard to find, but P226 barrels are much easier to obtain - I bought mine for about $100 including shipping.
Converting one to fit p6 turned out to be an easy project, if you have a mill (small one like mini-mill will do just fine). So I thought I share details if someone here wants to do the same
You will need:
1) Good caliper
2) Mill and tooling
3) an hour or so of your time
First pic, here are how 3 barrels look like: an original p226, another one modified to fit p6, and an original P6 (the last one was rendered useless - bore is plugged and bottom of the barrel is milled out, so it was only good to take reference measurements)
![]()
P6 barrels copies hood dimentions from P228, however lower lug and feed ramp configuration is identical to p226 - this is why P226 barrel is the best donor for this project.
Here is list of all the modifications you need to make:
![]()
First, trim the top/front of the barrel hood, to make it fit to p6 slide opening. The opening length is about 1.195"; hood size on factory barrel reads about 1.191" - you may want to go up to 1.194" for a tighter fit.
Theoretically, that might be all needed to function - however there will be a couple of problems: the guide rod will be sticking out of the slide a bit, and the slide won't go all the way forward as on original barrel - the back of it will be hanging a bit off the frame.
To fix that, two more modifications will be required - you need to deepen the recess that pushes against back of the guide rod for about 0.072" - that will put guide rod in proper position relative to the slide, and second, trim the front of the lug backward about the same distance - you will however most likely trim it holding that lug surface horizontally (the muzzle will be pointing top-right or top-left under angle); so you need to trim less to achieve same results - about 0.050".
These two dimensions are not very critical - if you are off few thousands, it will only affect where guide rod and slide will stop - should not affect functioning or accuracy of the gun
Here is how result will look like
![]()
Note the radius in the guide rod recess (right barrel on the picture). It is important to have it - this is a high stress area, and if you simply run square end mill trimming it without having that radius, the stress may shear the lug off after some shooting.
To create such a radius, either use small ball end mill to trim the recess back, or trim by the side of a small diameter end mill holding the lug pointing horizontally (I used 3/32" carbide end mill for that cut). Advance by very little and you may use "drilling" mill movement to minimize side force to the end mill (those tiny ones break very easily)
Once this is done, you will have to decide what to do with extra 0.6" of the barrel hanging off the slide.
I decided to thread it for now.. can always cut it off later if I don't like it
I made 1/2x28TPI threads - although 13.5mmx1LH would be a proper choice for Sig, my lathe can't do metric threads
![]()
Finished product:
![]()
I run a box of ammo through it - zero malfunctions, as one would expect from a Sig.
So, a perfectly functioning threaded P6 barrel, for $100 (plus a bit of my time) - not a bad deal these days
Some time ago I was looking for a reasonably priced P6 barrel. They are hard to find, but P226 barrels are much easier to obtain - I bought mine for about $100 including shipping.
Converting one to fit p6 turned out to be an easy project, if you have a mill (small one like mini-mill will do just fine). So I thought I share details if someone here wants to do the same
You will need:
1) Good caliper
2) Mill and tooling
3) an hour or so of your time
First pic, here are how 3 barrels look like: an original p226, another one modified to fit p6, and an original P6 (the last one was rendered useless - bore is plugged and bottom of the barrel is milled out, so it was only good to take reference measurements)
P6 barrels copies hood dimentions from P228, however lower lug and feed ramp configuration is identical to p226 - this is why P226 barrel is the best donor for this project.
Here is list of all the modifications you need to make:
First, trim the top/front of the barrel hood, to make it fit to p6 slide opening. The opening length is about 1.195"; hood size on factory barrel reads about 1.191" - you may want to go up to 1.194" for a tighter fit.
Theoretically, that might be all needed to function - however there will be a couple of problems: the guide rod will be sticking out of the slide a bit, and the slide won't go all the way forward as on original barrel - the back of it will be hanging a bit off the frame.
To fix that, two more modifications will be required - you need to deepen the recess that pushes against back of the guide rod for about 0.072" - that will put guide rod in proper position relative to the slide, and second, trim the front of the lug backward about the same distance - you will however most likely trim it holding that lug surface horizontally (the muzzle will be pointing top-right or top-left under angle); so you need to trim less to achieve same results - about 0.050".
These two dimensions are not very critical - if you are off few thousands, it will only affect where guide rod and slide will stop - should not affect functioning or accuracy of the gun
Here is how result will look like
Note the radius in the guide rod recess (right barrel on the picture). It is important to have it - this is a high stress area, and if you simply run square end mill trimming it without having that radius, the stress may shear the lug off after some shooting.
To create such a radius, either use small ball end mill to trim the recess back, or trim by the side of a small diameter end mill holding the lug pointing horizontally (I used 3/32" carbide end mill for that cut). Advance by very little and you may use "drilling" mill movement to minimize side force to the end mill (those tiny ones break very easily)
Once this is done, you will have to decide what to do with extra 0.6" of the barrel hanging off the slide.
I decided to thread it for now.. can always cut it off later if I don't like it
I made 1/2x28TPI threads - although 13.5mmx1LH would be a proper choice for Sig, my lathe can't do metric threads
Finished product:
I run a box of ammo through it - zero malfunctions, as one would expect from a Sig.
So, a perfectly functioning threaded P6 barrel, for $100 (plus a bit of my time) - not a bad deal these days
