Changing Grips On A Sig P-226 (PITA!!)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
11,768
Location
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
I have a Sig P-226 SCT that came with rubber grips from the factory. The picture below is when I first bought it. I decided to pick up a nice set of Sig wood grips that were on sale from CDNN. These are the grips. Note they are of Sig Sauer manufacture.

https://www.cdnnsports.com/sig-sauer-p226-hardwood-grips-silver-medallion.html?___SID=U

They looked good, and were a good deal, so I bought them. Now the problem. The stock grip screws that came on the gun with the rubber grips are too short for the wood grips. What you have to do is purchase grip screws for the Sig P-239. They are longer, and will fit the wood silver medallion grips on a Sig P-226. This type of thing becomes a total PITA. Here is a good diagram of all the different grip screws Sig employs on all their different models. Note all the different head thicknesses and lengths.



This is good to have for anyone who is planning to do any grip swapping on Sig handguns. You will run into the same thing I did. Just so you don't think I'm picking on Sig, I ran into the same nonsense on my Browning Buckmark Camper UFX. I changed out the black and grey rubber grips for a nice set of Browning Cocobolo grips. And those screws had too big of a head to work in the Browning wood grips, forcing me to buy additional grip screws that would properly fit the Browning Cocobolo grips. Remember, I'm talking about Sig grips on a Sig handgun, and Browning grips on a Browning handgun. Not any aftermarket grips. If these grips are manufactured by Hogue or someone else for Sig and Browning, they are made to their factory specifications. Or at least should be.

I cannot understand why these manufacturers can't get their act together, and make sure all of their grips are counterbored the same diameter. And to the same depth from the back of the grip. So one grip screw would work in all the grips they produce for that gun. We've had interchangeable parts on mass produced goods since the Industrial Revolution for God's sake.

I will say when I changed out the grips on my Beretta 92-FS from plastic to wood, (again the wood grips were of Beretta manufacture), the same screws did work. Although I had to ditch the star washers that came with the plastic grips. No big deal. At least I didn't have to purchase new screws. These are the P-239 grip screws I had to buy, so I could make my wood Sig grips work on my P-226 Sig handgun.

http://store.sigsauer.com/p239-grip-screws-5-blued.html

$24.00+ including shipping and tax for 5 screws. Add that to the $50.00 for the grips, (including shipping), and I'm up to $75.00 for this whole deal. Still not bad because Sig charges north of $110.00 for most all of their wood P-226 grips on their website. I just wish I didn't have to research all of this nonsense to make it happen correctly. You shouldn't have to. Sig Sauer should at least provide a page on their website that contains the information I've listed here.

Anyway, I thought I would point this out for anyone thinking about doing the same. Sig handguns are very popular.

 
I'll give you $200 for that piece of junk....
grin.gif
 




All is well. (Except for the lousy phone pic). It was an overall PITA, but in the end it turned out well. I'm happy with the gun. The wood grips are more hand filling as well. As far as the pre applied lock coating, what I did was this. I first oiled the threads in the frame of the gun, as well as the screws. Be sure to get some on the red coating. It will help soften it.

I then placed the grip into place, and dropped a screw into the hole. I have a good set of Brownell's gunsmithing screwdrivers. Be sure you have the correct screw to fit the slot. A little trick I do is use a small piece of paper towel between the bit and the screw slot. This prevents any marring of the bluing on the screw itself. Then slowly turn in the screw 1 or 2 turns. I then pause and back out the screw a half turn or so. Then go in another turn, then back out a half turn again. I keep doing this SLOWLY until I feel the screw make contact with the grip.

You can keep checking your progress by seeing if the grip is loose. I kept going no more than a half turn at a time until I made contact, and then STOPPED. This is necessary because you cannot feel when you have tightened the screw sufficiently. There is resistance all the way because of the locking agent. If you try to go straight in and, "gorilla it", you will strip the thread. By backing the screw in and out several times, you "work in" the locking agent into the threads slowly, and give it repeated chances to "flow" in and around the threads. The constant in and out of the screw will help soften the compound. This, along with the oil helps. (I just used light motor oil). But I'm sure any oil, or even light grease will work fine. The oil will also prevent any chance of galling the fine threads.

When you finally seat the screw on the grip, the locking agent will hold it tight enough. If you want to get around all of this, buy the Sig grip screws from Hogue instead of Sig. I don't think they apply that garbage to the grip screws they sell. Midway sells Hogue grip screws for Sig handguns. I didn't discover this until I had already ordered them from Sig. Live and learn.
 
Sounds like Sig continues to long held Teutonic tradition of over-complicating things that don't need to be over-complicated.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top