The Marine Corps' New Service Pistol, SIG M18

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you've ever looked up a gun because of call of duty that subscribe button guys like and comment comment section is out of control I I don't know what I've done I put my hands of rock but get down in there find out what it's so important if you guys are looking to support the channel the biggest supporter channel right now is Big Daddy eliminate Big Daddy limit is like Costco the gun world ninety-nine cents for the first month after price goes up is it worth it well if you spend money yes if not it's not gonna be worth it gonna be wasting your money we have vertex and lax ammunition for gloves bags and gear and of course for your ammunition needs we have lax ammo ladies gentlemen and my often forgotten but not by me okay thirty ones rifles welcome to the channel today we're gonna be talking about a very interesting topic we're gonna be talking about the Sig and eighteen otherwise known as the 320 this pistol was recently adopted by the US Marine Corps the US Navy in the US Air Force US Coast Guard also adopted it but who cares if the Army previously had adopted the M 17 which is the full-size brother to the M 18 but hard to see from over there but as you can see the M 18 is a fair bit shorter so in this video we're gonna be talking about why they might have done that but specifically we're going to be reviewing this bad boy because it's a future sidearm of a large component of the United States military now before we get into that full disclosure as I always do what is my relationship with the companies that I'm that I that I'm gonna be displaying today have their various products right so starting off with we have sig so sig I receive products I do reviews for them there's no exchange of money everything like that all ammunition is provided for by me and my lovely patreon people out there so pretty standard for review usually ammunition is also provided but in that case I'm just doing that but um that's how it's set up for my reviews no funny business going on there I'm not pay for play type of guy just full disclosure um some of the other products out there sure fire pistol lights were purchased by me although I didn't have a relationship surefire beretta which I'll be showing at some point in the video no relationship with them but I do relationship with Langan tactical and Glock who couldn't give a [ __ ] less about me okay let's get into the video so what is the m18 well the m80 is a short recoil operated nine-millimeter semi-automatic weapon magazine-fed and it's been fairly well proven as the p320 which is what it was before it was adopted by the military as the m18 now we're gonna do what we usually do we're gonna go tip - but we're gonna compare it to both the m9 the 1911 and a variety of other handguns out there because this is gonna be the standard military sidearm for quite a while the military is kind of slow to change sidearms in fact I believe it's been thirty almost thirty years that the m9 has been in service so we can expect this to be in service for likely another thirty years or so so I do have a surefire x300 ultra attached to this pistol love to run pistol lights also want to experiment a little bit so the different holster options out there such as this one from Safariland which is one of their seven series that fits me and eighteen with ax 300 light as well it also fits the M 17 but let's get into it so we're gonna start tip T but like we always do start with a barrel the barrel is a 3.9 inch barrel sig obviously knows what they're doing they've made a lot of really good combat handguns in the past specifically we have the two two six two just name one that's pretty obvious so when it comes to M 18 a lot of people have said that this is an exceptionally accurate handgun I haven't seen that to be the case personally so I've shot a lot of different types of ammunition through it anything from Winchester white box some very nice her spear loadings that are made for duties and in all of those I've seen about higher end of two inches at about 25 yards which is good which is on par with like Glock 17 a little bit worse than like a nice beretta and it's perfectly acceptable I don't find the M 17 or the M 18 to be exceptionally accurate weapons I find them to be combat accurate duty accurate weapons much like the Glock is and that's not putting anything against the m18 but rather is setting expectations for the type of accuracy you can expect out of the M 18 now like I always in most cases the pistol is likely to be more accurate than you are and that is absolutely the case with the m18 I don't know a lot of people that can actually shoot a two-inch group at 25 yards on their own it's a little bit more difficult than you'd think so this is a act this is a handgun that is plenty accurate for the purpose for which it was designed on the m18 s is a PVD coyote same thing that the m17 had now the problem that I've had with the M 18 million 17 with their finishes as I've noticed that they scratch very easily and specifically that they are wearing very quickly and I saw that with the M 17 as well where it's scratched quite easily but I attribute it to the hard use so they put the pistol through however after talking to a couple army armors who have a lot of time on the M 17 and a couple of other end users at the m18 I've come to the clusion that mine isn't a isn't an outlier that the finish on the N 18 M 17 does wear off fairly quickly it's both a combination of the coyote showing the wear more easily than some of the other colors that they could possibly put on there and also it not being as hot feet as hard as some of the other pistols out there like the glock gen fives which also had some finish issue issues and the m9 s out there so with your m 18 717s do realize that they are gonna scratch a little bit easier they're gonna show that where is it that big of a deal I wondered about it specifically I was worried about corrosion resistance being out here in the wet wet Pacific Northwest despite that I haven't seen any rust or anything like that appearing on the slide despite all the wear but it is something to keep an eye on with everything going on now on the bottom of the m18 just like on the bottom of the M 17 we have a Picatinny rail from the mounting of any variety of accessory you see in LARP so in this case I've got the surefire x300 you can mount anything on there moving from the finish we have our front sight so with the sights I can take moments talking about that I know it sounds like I'm really [ __ ] on the m18 right now but these are kind of the majority of my issues that I have at the end anything that's fiscally the site's the front sight is finds trinium comes to you with tritium sights already on it that's a huge upgrade over the centered m9 awesome I have no issues with the front sight my issue comes with the rear sight so there are cool things about the rear sight on the sig m18 specifically the screws for mounting the optic actually come from the bottom and they secure the optic guy loophole the delta point pro as well as the sig optic will fit on this and no problem so that is cool that it's just inherently already ready for that type of optics capability the problem is on the rear sights these screws that come from the underside screw in to the rear sight because of that the rear sights are unnecessarily wide the problem being is that when I bring this weapon up to look at my target I have a pretty large portion of my sight picture that is blocked out by the width of those rear sights so for me it's kind of puzzling that that was a design choice because there are other p20 optic capable pistols out there that have a more traditional screw mounting system that allow for thinner rear sights which in my mind is a better kind of idea so that being said I'm not an engineering sig so there could be some very specific reason why those screws were placed on the underside of the slide as opposed to the top and why we have now this very fat rear sight but despite all that it makes shooting the m18 a little bit more difficult compared to say your beretta m9 I find the Beretta and of course this is a really nice beretta from Langton this is a Beretta lead but despite that the standard m9 sights are very thin and you still have a large sight picture to see what you need - now I understand that that is a moot point as these weapons are eventually going to be equipped with optics but until that point I find that the iron sights are just really lackluster in my opinion so if the front of the slide we have front serrations and rear serrations so any type of manipulation work that you need to do it's perfect it's very well machined it's not too aggressive or you're ripping up in your hands and that type of stuff in wet weather which is typically when I'm ending up using those and when I need that grip so good on them for doing that the slide overall is a pretty attractive look I like the cuts to them it looks better than something like a standard Glock and actually don't have just like a stock Glock around this one is made but is done by Jaeger works but despite that the slide just looks more attractive but I understand that you know looking a track and looking cools and you know everything but I do appreciate the attention to detail that they have done on the slide moving back from there we have our ejection port so the ejection port is both wide flared I have had no issues with the ejection so let it be known that I did have a break-in period on the m18 and that's pretty standard on many pistols out there Glocks will choke for the first couple hundred rounds a lot of the time say I see the same things from em 18s and many other pistols just like all those the m18 went through a break-in period about 100 200 rounds after that it ran flawlessly and you know during its break-in period I had I think maybe three stovepipes and then after that the thing that started running like a champ so after that I've done about another 2k on this and I've had zero issues with it so yeah break-in period for sure but anyhow the wide injection port awesome just what you want to see any modern handgun no issues there what I really do like is that the loaded chamber indicator is a little bit more prominent that when you'd have in a Glock so the loaded chamber indicator on the cig pops up quite a bit enough so that even if a thick glove on you can still feel when you run your hand over the top so that kind of gets rid of the need to do press checks or anything like that because you know you already have a round loaded in the chamber you don't have to [ __ ] with your weapon to make sure it's good to go [Applause] okay moving to the bottom now before we get to all the controls on the m18 everything that's going on here it's important to talk about the modularity of the M 18 and M 17 the trigger pack is fully removable it's meant to be able to pop the frame off no problem put a new frame on that's pretty cool there's actually some really cool frame options out there specifically the X carry from Sig and also the wilson combat and the cool thing is if you don't like the grip on the m18 or the m17 or these 320 guns you can easily swap those out so I think it's like about 250 or so for a new frame but you can get some really good options I love the X carry and I'm about to strap the Wilson Combat I'll let you guys know what I think but everything I've heard from end users out there say that the Wilson Combat Frame is one of the best out there in any case going over the controls I am a huge fan of the controls of the m18 much like I was a VM 17 I think they did some really smart things here and I can understand why it was selected now that we've talked about that let's go over to the takedown so the takedown for me is annoying I prefer the takedown on the Glock where you pull the trigger pull it back to see any bit depress those levers and you can just pull that slide right off it's very fast I can do it like sub-second not that anyways timing but with the m18 you got to eject the mag lock the slide back and you rotate this takedown lever forward and then once you've done that you can release it and you can pull the slide off there's a lot more steps but the big thing that they touted was the ability to not have to pull the trigger in order to disassemble the weapon they've given the fact that the Air Force and Navy don't shoot that much we really don't want them shooting themselves in the face with this weapon having to pull the trigger Marine Corps I trust you guys are good with guns and that's what the only thing you guys are good with to be clear but in case so I understand why they tout it as a feature but for me it's particularly annoying but again safety is king when it comes to the military so we had to take down lever right there what's nice about the takedown lever for me personally is when I'm gripping the weapon my thumb actually rests right on top a couple people have stated that this tears up their thumbs I'd say maybe lift a little bit more a little bit good tougher hands but in case for me my thumb rests right on that takedown lever and it just works fine for me it kind of acts as like a way to help hold the weapon down as well now let's talk about some of the other controls when we go back to the takedown lever we hit hit that nice slide stop slide release again if you argue about it being a slide stop slide release no one really gives a [ __ ] but in any case I really really like the placement of the slide release here and the reason for that is it's very easy and intuitive to hit and specifically it's at such a position that a lot of people when doing a high thumbs forward modern grip on a handgun they tend to depress and that slide release so that when they're firing the weapon won't go slide block when it hits that last round a lot of people have that problem of Glocks it's one of the reasons why the why cog works came out with the extended slide stop where raises it up and out of the way of your high grip Sig approached the issue in a different way they moved it slightly rearward that way your grip doesn't really impede it and as well they added a little raised lip right around it and it's actually quite small and at first I thought it would be not really good being so small but I consider myself to have pretty average hands and when I grip it my thumb can get right to there as soon as I need to so for me doing a reload is just super simple and easy it falls right where I need it to [Applause] and when I don't want to depress that I rest my thumb right on that safety which brings us to the next point which is a safety by the way both the slide stop and the safety or ambidextrous which is good of course for a military type environment but safety the safety isn't obnoxiously large like you'd see on 1911's but it is positioned very well why I like it so much is that when you have your sig holstered and you go to draw it out like on an ALS system and by the way if you're not using a Safariland system you're pretty much wrong but any case when you hit at the Safariland you depress this lever right here which unlocks a weapon as you do that and get your grip it naturally falls on that safety and depresses it so I found that my draw stroke didn't really have to be changed at all compared to like a Glock because my thumb naturally disengages the safety as it is drawn from the holster and I know that seems like a stretch but I really do believe that Sig did their research when they were designing this and placing all of their different controls so I can really appreciate the speed at which you can bring this weapon to bear despite having a manual safety now as far as that having a manual safety everyone's gonna argue about it fact the matter is big army wanted it everybody else followed suit with their handguns so we have a manual safety now NBD we have our magazine release magazine release is perfect I don't find it as nice as like the Glock Gen fives with the ramped magazine releases but despite that it is perfectly serviceable I have no issues with it out of the way when you grip it is reversible which is typical and many modern service pistols good job with that next we come to the texturing so here comes my problem with the grip on the m18 m17 specifically that the texturing to get a good grip on this weapon is pretty low goes about right to where the magazine releases the problem is is that this entire area up here is encompassed by my other hand as I close that area in for a modern grip I wish they would have had some sort of you know texturing or something done there in order to make a for a better grip overall because these have not just smoothness and that's not it's not very conducive to firing quickly or with a modern grip now this can of course would be solved by a variety of different methods you have anywhere from the X carry frame to the wilson combat frame to stippling it if you're able to in your particular unit but it definitely leaves me wanting for more I wish that they had just had more texturing overall I think I feel like it's a pretty easy fix and I feel like it's a definite oversight when it comes to the design of this handgun another quick note should be that if you have really small hands that this has inlets for your trigger finger to get in there so this grip is better if you have a smaller hand but if you're a meat-eater and you're kind of a bigger dude then the X carry and the wilson combat are certainly a better option for you the magazines on the m18 just like the m17 are awesome they're swappable between the two they are either 17 or 21 rounders the 21 rounders having a nice bass pad at the bottom the magazines for the m18 and the m17 are based off of the sig p226 which is in a well proven combat reliable handgun so the magazines are absolutely reliable the problem of the magazine's comes to price the magazines are pricey specifically they come in at around 39 40 dollars for the 17 rounders of them a bit more for the 21 rounders which is really unfortunate they are nice but magazines in my opinion really should not cost that much hopefully as the aftermarket begins to bloom for the m18 as it becomes the standard you know handgun for the military and all that we'll have a lot more options out there what's nice also is that we have this little lip right here the Gen 5 Glock had about the same thing just at the front but the problem the Gen 5 blocks you always catch your magazine on it this one is pretty well done actually haven't caught the magazine on those little lips right there and the reason for it is if the gun gets dirty the maggots jammed up you can still get a better grip in there and get your fingers on that ledge of that magazine and rip that magazine out should you need to given grit or what have you that could seize that magazine up in there alright we've avoided it long enough we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna go side trigger together we're good and put on some unchained melody' then put your finger right over mine listen music let's go to feel that trigger so first off we've got about a two millimeter take up hit our first wall about three four five six pounds it's a pretty short trigger pull overall let's go ahead and let's go that reset sticky not great pretty mushy overall feel let's your pull over time from the reset feels good about six pounds according to my alignment pull gauge anywhere from five point five to six point five is pretty typical that's about what you'd expect from a military trigger the trigger is nice it's weird so in in certain aspects it is better than a Glock trigger which is another striker-fired weapon which is what I'm going to compare it to but despite that that has a pretty terrible reset comparatively so the trigger pull is shorter but about the same poundage as a Glock 17 despite that that reset is not good it's pretty sticky so because of that I still think that the Glock overall is a better trigger but I can say I will say that the trigger pull itself is definitely superior on the m18 there's no doubt about it now is it on the level of like the Walther no not at all water still takes the cake with the best striker fire trigger out there but you know m18 is doing pretty good overall alright now we've talked about that quick note on holsters there are a lot of great holsters out there we have the 7 Series from Safariland we also have another series that fits the weapon without a weapon light you also have optical ready ones from Safari land those of course will have the level 3 retention on them it's usually not that necessary going to remove that and just stick to the ALS system itself but lots of good holster options for duty use out there for these particular handguns nobody talked about all that let's talk about what matters what does it feel like to shoot this and how is it well sig has a reputation for having weapons with Hiab or axis and the 320 is better than other SIG's out there and it is still better than the m9 so if you compare it to like the beretta right here still has a slightly lower bore axis than the beretta barely it's like a smidge now compared to the Glock the Glock still has a lower bore axis overall what really bites the m18 million of 17 in the butt is a fact that the tang for the m18 and the m17 are so low you have to grip the gun so low due to the placement of that tang and that's due to the way the weapon is designed because of that although it doesn't have that low bow bore axis your hand sits fairly low on the weapon because of that you have a little bit more felt recoil compared to a weapon of the same caliber such as a Glock 17 a Walther or a Beretta now despite that due to excellent controls on a good trigger it is fairly pleasurable to shoot and again with that dual spring recoil rod that they have in the m18 it actually dissipates the recoil quite a bit so it does feel good to shoot pretty comparable to a Glock in 19 which is around the same size of the m18 and reliability the weapon went through the MHS evaluation there's no doubt that this is a very reliable pistol made to withstand the harshest of conditions I don't have any doubt about that the question in my mind is how slick and a fair being in the hands of you know millions of different individuals over the course of a couple of years will it fare as well as the Berettas did will it fare as well as the 1911 did and that's something that we're gonna have to see as time goes on I was worried originally about the plastics used in the polymer frame now despite that the polymer frame has held up extremely well so what does it come down to well the MA is a good pistol is it get it like the best out there now absolutely not but there are requirements the military had that put it in the position that it's a knee despite all that I think it's an excellent fireman you know it really matters with this is if you don't train it's not gonna matter if you have this or a Glock or a beretta or what have you so get out there and get training tons of great guys get training from out there you have cog works he'll you strategic not my dad bare solutions esoteric pact mcnamara direct action resource center tons of guys i can't always name all of them but they all rock get out there get that training get good with what you have because that is what matters most okay ladies jim thank you for watching as is usual i've got nothing else for you for real i got nothing else for you take care last thing for you guys with the whole coping business going i don't know a lot of you guys are they just spending a lot of time just inside on your phone and your computer that type stuff take a minute unplug it's important to get away from all this social media from all the screen time because you need time to just connect with people to connect with nature get out there I'll get them on lockdown but try to enjoy life as much as you can and not through electronics just get out there you know if you guys have gotten this far you are my ultra fans I want to thank you guys personally if you guys want to help me out the most patreon is where it's at my patreon supporters help me I've helped me make this channel way better to be frank with you guys and I can't thank you guys enough productions are way better now because I can afford better equipment to all that type of stuff and all that comes right back into making this a better channel thank you guys from the bottom of my heart love you guys take care of yourselves and as is usual I've got nothing else for you

Channel: Garand Thumb

Views: 608,163

Rating: 4.945045 out of 5

Keywords: garand, thumb, garand thumb, marine corps pistol, sig m18, m18, usmc pistol, marine pistol, navy pistol, air force pistol, SIG p320, sig m17, modern warfare, COD pistol, warzone pistol

Id: q6Awg_qy0Io

Length: 26min 8sec (1568 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2020