The European market had at least one Sport variant that we didn’t get. The one I’m thinking of had a Sport Stock slide assembly (standard-length bull barrel, rear of slide milled out for LPA sights) and a regular old P226 alloy frame. Not sure what the official name for it was.

It also depends on your definition of X5. A couple of the older “X5 Short” models (from the days before the X-series had the “enhanced” aggressive and angular styling) were more similar to a regular P226 than not, and had this standard-length bull barrel as well.

 

Yes, absolutely about the X5 definition, I edited my original question so that I'm not excluding the X-short models.

I think the X5 Short & Smart came with a regular barrel, but the X-Short and LDC came with bull barrels. Is that correct?

 

Short & Smart comes with bull barrel.

 

umm, the Short & Smart I have seen have come with a black barrel that looked like this in the front, which looks like a standard p226 barrel. Is there a different variant with the same name and moniker?

 

The one I saw recently on another site shows a bull barrel. But you are right. Looking at other pics online of the S&S shows a standard barrel. That’s strange, because there are no variants of the model that I’m aware of.

 

would you mind sharing the picture of the S&S with the bull barrel? The other poster referred to seeing one as well, I'm wondering if it was a special run or a one off.

 

Seller's pics, I'm not going to use it. But, it's on the Green site's Classifieds, and you can see them, if you're member there. But, I can tell you it's a 2013 production gun, imported by SIG Exeter, complete with everything, including the factory labeled outer cardboard box.

 

Yep. That’s the one I was referring to. The main reason why I almost didn’t even notice the bull barrel is because the barrel was blued. If I’m not mistaken, most of the standard-length German bull barrels had no finish (they were left “in the white“), the Sport Stock and LDC being the two most obvious examples.

 

very interesting and unique. I have not seen any other S&S with that barrel profile. the guide rod also looks different. I wonder if it was a special order or if they just mixed and matched parts on a whim

But my understanding is that bull barrels CANNOT fit into regular slides right? So a regular slide would need to be machined to accommodate a bull barrel?

 

would there be any way to tell the slide was machined?

 

very interesting and unique. I have not seen any other S&S with that barrel profile. the guide rod also looks different. I wonder if it was a special order or if they just mixed and matched parts on a whim

But my understanding is that bull barrels CANNOT fit into regular slides right? So a regular slide would need to be machined to accommodate a bull barrel?

would there be any way to tell the slide was machined?

To the best of my knowledge, a standard barrel won’t seat properly in a slide meant for a bull barrel (will be loose). Similarly, a bull barrel can’t seat at all in a standard slide.

Knowing SIG, they likely just mixed and matched parts on a whim (or better put, used what was available). Like 12131, I also can’t recall SIG ever using a different part number or model name to distinguish the two. The guide rod is probably aftermarket. I’m not positive on that either, but every standard-length German P226 I’ve seen just used the regular hollow guide rod. The solid rods seemed to be more of a SIG USA thing.

 

I’ll test it out tomorrow and report back.

 

I’m probably not the best person to say, but I can’t feel any discernible difference in how these fit when switched out.

 

That stainless crowned barrel is most likely a Bar-Sto. It doesn’t look like a Sig factory bull barrel.

 

 

View attachment 679286 View attachment 679287 View attachment 679288

I think I see what’s going on here. The barrel that came with your Short & Smart is indeed an original factory German barrel of standard (13.5mm) thickness, no different from any other Short & Smart. In other words, it’s just a regular old P226 barrel. You should measure its diameter with a caliper to confirm. However, someone re-crowned it.

This gives it that “thick” appearance when viewed from the muzzle, and it’s what made 12131 and me incorrectly conclude that it was a factory bull barrel (a logical conclusion, since the pistol belongs to the Sport/X-Series family).

MNsigfan, recognizing that it’s a perfect fit in the regular P226 slide (that set of pictures not showing the barrel hood and relevant markings), incorrectly concluded that it was a Bar-Sto barrel (also a logical conclusion, since Bar-Sto barrels have a similar style of crown).

 

^^^^ There you go, final answer.

 

 

I think it’s a good theory. Added guide rod and crowned barrel to improve performance. If I recall, @MNsigfan has crowned barrels himself. MNsig do you think?

Regardless, I took this to the range Monday. My first shot at 25 yards was 1/2 inch off bullseye. When that happens I have a tendency to focus on how it feels to shoot, rather than accuracy. Reality set back in when I inadvertently double tapped round 7 and 8. The 20oz trigger is unlike anything else I own. To me it’s the definition of feather. I prefer the size of this over the L1.

 

crowned barrel makes sense, the barrel looked slightly recessed in one of the picture the seller posted, which is consistent with crowning.

do bull barrels offer any perceptible benefit in shooting experience compared to their regular counterpart?

 

The comment I was making about the stainless crowned barrel in the post by @Shack is that it looks like that one specifically was a standard 13.5mm diameter sized Bar-Sto with an 11deg crown, not their thicker 15mm bull barrel version nor Sig’s double crown bull. Side by side they look to both be standard size.

Pic of the Sig factory bull with double crown:

 

The comment I was making about the stainless crowned barrel in the post by @Shack is that it looks like that one specifically was a standard 13.5mm diameter sized Bar-Sto with an 11deg crown, not their thicker 15mm bull barrel version nor Sig’s double crown bull. Side by side they look to both be standard size.

Pic of the Sig factory bull with double crown:

View attachment 679337

Exactly. This is what I was referring to as well (post #18). Because of the angle of Shack’s pictures (post #15), you couldn’t see that the crowned barrel isn’t actually stainless. It’s a blued barrel (with the top of the barrel hood left unfinished like all standard German barrels, and on this one, the crown too because of the modification). The only reason that I already knew this (otherwise I would have thought it was Bar-Sto too) is because I had seen other pictures of this Short & Smart on the Green site, where Shack bought it.

But because those Green site pictures were (of course) only of that Short & Smart on its own, the barrel crown made it look like a factory bull barrel of that time period, such as the one on a Sport Stock, which did not have the LDC’s double crown.

The difference between 13.5mm (standard barrel) and 15mm (bull barrel) is very difficult to see from a picture without having a side-by-side reference, so the shape of the crown fooled both me and 12131 on the Green site. Shack’s pictures in Post #15 here showed the muzzle side-by-side with a regular P226, making it clear that it was 13.5mm barrel, which fooled you into thinking it was Bar-Sto, because the angle of the pictures didn’t show the markings on the crowned barrel nor that it’s actually blued.

 

@Shack , can you post the crown of the barrel in post #17 and both barrels side by side with the stamped side facing the camera? That crowned one looks bare stainless on the hood in the side by side pics with the slide and barrel swaps, and it looks like the Sig barrel in post #17 has the standard round crown.

Someone could have used a Manson Reamer on a Sig factory barrel, but I’m unaware of any Sig full stainless, uncoated P226 barrels that weren’t double crowned.

 

Here‘s a good picture (click to enlarge) of a P226 Sport Stock with a factory 15mm bull barrel (without a double crown). Also, to the best of my knowledge, none of the uncoated German barrels are actually stainless. They are all carbon steel.