Sig P365XL Review

The Sig P365XL, let’s check it out.

 

Guys, there’s no question that Sig really changed the face of concealed carry with the P365, with a super small little pistol carrying 10 rounds in the magazine, about the size of your Glock 43, which carries six rounds, and actually smaller than your Smith and Wesson shield. This is a game changer, guys.

This magazine design really made things completely different. This carries the same thing as my Glock G26, and yet considerably smaller, and definitely manageable at the range. Now, obviously there were a few problems that Sig had with the original P365, and they fixed it.

In fact, this pistol was one of the original early models, and I’ve put over 1,500 rounds through it without one malfunction. But of course, Sig didn’t stop with just their P365, they upped the game with the XL. This is a 12-round standard magazine, slides a little longer, flat trigger.

I mean, there’s some features to this handgun that really make it worth looking at. I want to thank Nate over at Gun Pro Deals for sending the P365XL for this test and evaluation, and sending the original P365. Now, obviously one of the big things with concealed carry is making a firearm that’s manageable to shoot, and yet can carry a lot of rounds, and there’s a balance between that.

And I think that’s one of the things that Sig really was going for with their magazine. That’s really the big plus for these pistols. I mean, you’ve got a really small magazine.

We’re going to make sure the guns are unloaded. Now, you get two 12-round magazines with the P365XL. You get two of the 10-round magazines with the original.

This is a little bit of an extension, but you can get a flush fit. They both are 10 rounds, but there are other options out there. In fact, there’s all the way up to a 15-round magazine that came out with the P365XL and will fit the P365.

So that gets the same magazine capacity as your Glock 19. Now, one of the big things is the difference in size. Really, there’s not a lot of difference.

One of the big things, of course, you’re going to get a little more in the grip, and you’ve got two extra rounds. If you put the 12-round base plate, it’s pretty much flush fit with this one. The XL has a little more pronounced beaver tail than the standard P365.

It comes out just a little bit. When we put these together, beaver tail end to end, you can see it’s about an inch or maybe just a touch under. But actually, the barrel length on the XL is 3.7 inches, and on the standard is 3.1 inches.

So it’s just about six-tenths of an inch. Overall length of the XL, 6.6 inches, with the standard 5.8 inches. And the width is right around one inch.

Both have the X-ray three night sights, a nice bright dot at the front, and then two lighter or smaller dots at the rear. And you can see the rear sight on the XL is a little bit longer than on the standard P365. They’re both stainless steel slides with a nitron finish.

And we have the polymer, which is a glass reinforced nylon. A very ergonomic pistol. And that’s one of the things about the XL is it does feel your hand.

And also, it does flare just a touch here at the bottom. So it gives you more of a full-size feel to the handgun. And so that’s really a big plus.

And it is somewhat slightly beveled. So it’s going to allow for your magazines to go in a little bit straight. Another big thing with these two pistols is the XL, you can see with the trigger, has more of a flat face trigger, which is more of a 90 degree angle.

And then with the standard, it’s got that regular trigger, the curved trigger, which is more of a fulcrum that brings it around. With the XL, it’s definitely being flat. It’s a 90 degree break.

So the trigger is actually a little crisper than it is on the flat face. And I think that’ll work its way out the more we shoot it. Of course, you have your slide stop.

You have your takedown lever. You have a proprietary rail right here for SIG lights and lasers, which I’m not really a big fan of. I like to be able to put whatever I want to on there, but that’s the way SIG designed it.

Front and rear cocking serrations. The texturing is very aggressive. And of course, you have your SIG Sauer here.

But again, guys, it just has a really nice feel, especially with this beaver tail coming up. And when you’re at the range, it really makes a difference when shooting. Now it’s not hugely noticeable, but it’s definitely more snap, a little more muzzle rise with the standard than it is with the long slide.

So it gives you a little more shooting ability, longer sight radius, a little bit better balance. The magazine release is right here, and it is switchable to the other side, but there’s no other features on this side. I mean, this is a concealed carry piece and they want to make it as thin as possible, even though the Glock 43X and 48 have ambidextrous features.

But another big thing with the XL is this little top plate cover. This can be removed and you can put one of the SIG Romeo sights directly on this. And so that is a huge plus.

And both of these are plus P rated. So you can shoot any of your self-defense ammo in either one of these. Now, one of the things that is different between the two, we’re going to look at it when we break it down, but some of the internals, especially the guide rod has been beefed up with the XL, just makes it a little more efficient.

Of course, there have been a lot of people that have had problems with their standard or the original early on. And I think some of that was drag on the primers. There were a couple of different features or different parts in the P365 originally that were a little bit under spec.

And because of that, they fixed it. And then supposedly, the problems have been taken care of. Now, I have not had one malfunction with the standard P365.

And I know Hickok hasn’t either. I mean, we’ve both shot a lot of rounds through this handgun or their handguns with no malfunctions. But I know Tim at Military Arms had a lot of problems with the first three that he had.

And they have made some changes with these. But overall, with all the shooting I’ve done with this, I’ve got a lot of confidence now in the P365. Now, of course, one of the big contenders with the P365 is the Glock 43X.

And we’re going to make sure it’s unloaded. It has a 10 round magazine and the gun is empty. While this does now come with a silver pit finish to it, they do make it now in the black, which a lot of people were really complaining about the silver, even though personally, I’ve really grown to like this color.

And then with the front and rear cocking serrations. And then of course, they came out with the G48, which is a little bit of a longer slide, but really the frames are the exact same. So these are actually interchangeable, even interchangeable with their standard G43.

And we’ve done a number of tests with those. But one of the big things about the G43X is it’s 10 rounds, just like the standard P365. But if you put these back to back, the big difference is right here.

You’re getting the same amount of rounds with the P365 as you are the 43X. And this is with an extension. With the flat base, it’s actually even smaller.

Here with the XL, we’re getting 12 rounds. And to be honest with you guys, it actually extends a little bit past, even with 12 rounds. And so that is really a big game changer.

Now there is one thing that’s coming out that’s going to even the playing field. Shield Arms is coming out with a 15 round flush fit magazine to go into your G43X and G48. Once that comes out, you’re going to have 15 plus one.

And so then with the extra base plate to make this 15, it’s actually going to be pretty close. And so that’s just really something to look for if you’re really loving the Glock, which personally guys, I am a huge Glock fan. I mean, I love Glocks, but the P365 has really brought me around, especially carrying 10 plus one in this size firearm.

It has a much better magazine capacity than the standard G43. Now guys, for 10 years, I carried the Glock G26, 10 rounds. But here you can see that it’s definitely a lot thicker and you’re getting two extra rounds in this small little extension.

And then at the front, a very slight difference. And another thing is guys, the thickness of the grip. I mean, it’s considerably less thick on the XL.

Now let’s look at the trigger action of the XL. It’s a flat face trigger. So it just a little play to that 90 degrees, a little stacking.

It is somewhat mushy. Then with reset, right there. The standard P365 with the curve trigger, we have some take up, a little stacking, and then a little more crisp break.

But again, guys, I think that just has to do with a number of different rounds that we put through this pistol. Reset right there. Bring out the Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells.

Four pounds, 10.6 ounces, four pounds, 13.2 ounces. I want to thank Fiocchi for sponsoring the ammo. All made right here in the USA.

Also a big thanks to Little Loaders. These things are lifesavers, thumb savers. And also Gun Mag Warehouse supplied a bunch of magazines for the original P365 and we’re going to be shooting it side by side.

And we’ll probably throw in some Hornady critical defense as well, just to do some testing. Now at the range with the P365 XL, we wanted to compare it directly to the P365 original. A couple of things that we definitely noticed up front was the muzzle rise.

With the XL, to me, it just is a flatter shooting handgun. Even though there’s a little more metal at the top, the balance just seems to be a little better. And I think some of that too has to do with a little bit of an extension on the grip.

Now, if you put your plus two rounds or your 12 round magazine in the original P365, you’ve got about the same length, but just straight out of the box, this gives you just a little more leverage, a little more balance than the original P365. The one thing about the 365 is that it is a small little compact bulldog to me. And with the XL, it gives you just a little extra.

But we also wanted to compare it with one of the big competitors, which is the G43X and the G48. The G48 having the long slide. One thing about though, the G48 is it still retains 10 rounds in the magazine, yet it extends past where the P365 does.

It’s just a larger pistol. Now I’m a big Glock fan. I’ve been carrying Glocks for years, but one of the things about the SIG for me has changed is that magazine capacity with a shorter grip.

And so I like to carry smaller pistols appendix. And for me, having that little bit of shorter grip and more rounds is very appealing. Definitely to me, one of the best concealed carry options on the market is the XL or just the original P365.

It just really fits that sweet spot in all the areas. Before it was going to the six or seven rounds and still having a pistol that was actually this size or larger. And I’ve always been leery of having that single stack, six, seven rounds with the 10 rounds and plus one, I just really feel more confident carrying the P365.

But then going to the better balance of the P365XL. I mean, this really gives us a lot of options. Now let’s disassemble the firearm.

We’re going to drop the magazine. Go ahead and check to make sure the gun is unloaded. Bring back our slide, bring our takedown lever around, drop our slide and pull it right off.

You don’t have to pull the trigger. Bring out our recoil spring and guide rod. It is captive.

And then we have our barrel. Here with the standard P365, same thing. Go ahead and bring it back, drop it, release it, pull it off.

Now, one thing you’re going to notice is that we have a two-step guide rod with two springs. Then of course we have our barrel and we have our slide. They’ve really beefed up the recoil spring on the XL more than on the standard P365.

And this is more like the Glock 26 recoil spring system. And these are steel, but this gives you a little more power. It slows the recoil down just a touch and allows for a little more efficiency when firing this pistol.

I’m going to go ahead and we’re going to reassemble, making sure we get the right parts in the gun. One thing you can do is to fire this. You can change the slides out.

It just snaps back into place. And guys, as far as the advantages of the XL over the original, we have your flat trigger. We have a plate here that is removable.

You can put your RMR on here. A little bit more balance, less muzzle flip. It is a little longer in the grip, which for concealed carry, I like a little bit of a shorter grip.

The P365 is still very shootable, yet it’s just a little more snappy. I think some of the improvements that they’ve made with the XL to make it just even more reliable is definitely a plus. And then of course it has just a touch, really about three quarters of an inch of a longer slide, even though the barrel is only really six tenths of an inch difference.

If you put the 12 round extension in here, you’ve got the same length as you do in the 12 rounder. Now for me, I like to carry a smaller pistol. And to be honest with you, as far as my standard concealed carry, I would be more out to carry the P365 standard than the XL.

But that has everything to do with your body size, with your experience, how you like to carry. And that’s one of the things about concealed carry, because it’s something you do every day. It becomes part of your routine, part of your lifestyle.

To have a gun that’s a little more shootable, a little more balanced, flat trigger, and you want that RMR option, the XL is definitely a great choice. But one of the things about the G43X, which I love this handgun, I love the way it feels in my hand. And you can see I’ve got the Talon grips on here.

This is just a little bit long. And for me, when I carry appendix, this does tend to print. And I really don’t like that.

And really, I went back to the G43 carrying it. But once I got back out the P365, I feel a lot more confident with 10 plus one than six plus one. And then if you start adding base plates, it just gets bigger.

And I really appreciate Nate at Gun Pro Deals for sending the original P365 for me. He was able to get this. And then with the XL, he also sent it.

And I really appreciate them being able to bring different firearms, because it really helps to bring to you guys all kinds of different guns. The one thing also to consider is the price. The original P365 is running about 550.

That does have the night sights. It is SIG quality. When it comes to the P365 XL, we’re looking at about 638.

One of the big reasons is you’re getting the RMR cut, you’re getting the flat trigger, and it’s just a little bit of a beefier handgun. So that is going to be a little bit of a difference. In fact, quite a bit of a difference.

But one thing to consider is that on your Glock G43X, they’re running just around the $450 range. And so you’re getting a little bit of a larger gun, but about $100 difference. Now with the night sights, that definitely ups the ante a little bit.

And then of course, with the 10 round magazine in a much smaller package. And so just wanted to kind of give you a comparison about where the prices are running. And that again is those prices are from Gun Pro Deals.

And guys, again, I want to thank Nate over at Gun Pro Deals for sending the SIG P365 XL. It’s just nice to have those options to be able to get any kind of handgun that I want to bring to you guys. And two, to kind of keep me just another layer away from the industry.

I mean, I’m going to be objective no matter what, but this just helps you guys to know that I’m being objective.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don