Sig Sauer : Worth the price?

[DefunctTheory]

If you don't mind 3 finger grips (I personally hate them with a flaming passion equal to any star), there's a lot of better options for conceal carry. Revolvers are also a great option - Due to how they're shaped and some of the more clever harnesses you can get, they're very concealable.

Short gripped 1911s are also pretty good concealed carries, due to how narrow they are. There's also some pretty good full grip 1911's that are designed for conceal carry. Single stack magazines lend themselves to narrow pistols. 1911s are still pretty heavy though - They don't have much polymer in them and they have some 'redundant' parts that add weight.

All good advice. I'll have to add a little bitter to your praise of Taurus firearms, though. We've had two pretty much fall apart, one doing the 'Imma explode in yo hands!' routine. I've handled some crap guns in my time, and in recent years, Taurus was the absolutely most disappointing. Then again, S&W went through some rough times themselves, so it might just be a temporary thing.

If you absolutely insist on wanting to scare people away just by the looks of your shiny gun, make it a S&W 8-3/8" barrel, but that's not exactly conceal-carry friendly. Great stopping power, though.

I've always heard such good things about Taurus, and never heard of catastrophic failure. But it happens, and I don't have enough experience with Taurus to flat out state they never fail (Which I doubt would be true one way or another).

Its weird - just about everyone who's into guns has an experience with a brand completely failing, and its almost never the same brand. For me, its Beretta. When I was in the Army, one of my units got a shipment of 15 brand new M9 pistols. 3 suffered from cracked frames or slides before they even had 2000 rounds fired through them.

I mean, 20% failure? What the hell? It's not exactly a large sample size, but it does not inspire confidence.

Also, if your going to go for the 8 inch S&W, you might as well go all in and get the 14 inch.

Spoiler

If it was longer it would be a rifle!

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'm going to chime in and say if you are buying from a well-know manufacturer, make sure you are buying something they actually built.

 

[antidonkey]

If you're looking for quality with a more reasonable price that you want to conceal, I'd suggest the Springfield 3.5 compact XDM 9mm. My buddy has a midsize version and it's a hell of a good gun. I like it quite a bit more than my Taurus PT92 AFS 9mm. For concealed carry, I have a S&W bodyguard .38 5 shot snubnose revolver. It's lightweight and very easy to hide. You can stick it in your pocket if you have loose fitting pants. However, it's double action only but does have a laser site. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's a 3 finger grip. They do make a .380 version that might be worth investigating, too.

 

[Wayneguard]

For a defensive tool, a sig is overpriced.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I'd honestly throw in with a springfield XD or Glock, bulletproof reliability, huge aftermarket, and you can pick them up for 500bucks all day long. Plus they are super easy to maintain since it breaks down into 4 pieces literally in 2 seconds for cleaning.
For most glocks barels are interchangable my .357sig can be swapped w 9mm or .40 though they don't alwaays go both ways a 9mm idt safely goes to .357sig. So its nice 80 bucks and i have a 9mm .357sig, and can put in my buddies .40 if i want to.

That said they are ugly, and not everyone likes the triggers. I personally like them cause the trigger pull is so light but some don't like the "switch" feeling they can have.

 

[LetalisK]

Unless you intend to carry the weapon, I'd say the 9mm is the winner hands down.

Even if they intend to carry, I'd still go 9mm. The difference of incapacitation rate of a 9mm vs a 45 is really not that big and it's reduced to nothing when carrying 9mm defensive ammunition. Personally, I also believe the 9mm is easier to fire in quick succession accurately and at a longer distance. Though, if I knew I was going to defend against someone deep into some narcotics, I would take .45 just to be on the safe side. Either way, they're both specialized situations so that may not have that much of an impact on the decision. Specifically for concealed carry, I've always been a fan of sub-compact 9mms over any others as I feel they tend to have the better balance between weight and recoil without sacrificing much. Though I also don't have a frame that allows me to conceal much besides a sub-compact. XD