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sig p365 SAS review

Alien Gear Holsters' Sig Sauer P365 SAS Review

Do the sights make for a more simplified sighting system...or is it just a gimmick? Let's talk about that in our Sig P365 SAS review!

The gun has some virtues, which we will go over, and it is still a Sig P365. As we said in our Sig P365 review, and as so many people have found out, it's an excellent pistol and every bit the gamechanger that it's said to be.

So the question is whether the Sig P365 SAS adds or subtracts from the base pistol, whether the sighting system makes the P365 SAS worth buying instead of the standard model. And the answer?

That depends a lot on you. Our opinion was...well, a bit of a mixed bag. Let's go over that in a bit more detail.

SIG P365 SAS: An Even More Streamlined Sig

Sig p365 sas

There aren't any major differences in terms of specifications, because everything is basically the same as the standard P365. It uses the same magazines, the same barrel, pretty much the same everything except for the sights and the control buttons. 

The different sights make the SAS 0.2 inches shorter and .06 inches narrower. Whoopee. Such a big difference, isn't it? It's a tiny bit shorter and a teensy, tiny bit narrower, and certainly not enough to write home about in any case.

The real difference, of course, is the sights. The SAS uses Meprolight FT Bullseye sights, which are fairly novel as far as things go.

The way FT Bullseye sights work is there's a tritium ring in the rear of the sight and a tritium dot at the front, with a clear fiber optic aperture in the middle. Daylight illumination comes from the fiber optic, and the tritium illuminates the sight at night.

When you look through the sight, align the front dot with the rear ring...sort of like a bullseye, hence the name. Since the images are aligned with the barrel, you have to get the gun aligned on target to get them to line up, almost like using a red dot.

SAS Stands For Sig Anti Snag

The SAS stands for "Sig Anti Snag," with the idea being that the lower-profile sights along with other improvements will make the Sig P365 easier to draw without snagging on anything. Granted, it's hardly that the Sig P365 had obnoxious controls or sights the size of an M16A1s, but apparently it was a desired improvement.

To reduce the chance of snags, the Meprolight FT Bullseye sight is set into a trench in the top of the slide. The sight is available for other pistols, but installation is normally to drift it into the rear sight dovetail. Sig Sauer cuts a trench into the top of the slide, with a rear notch to get a sight picture.

The front sight dovetail is merely left off; the end of the slide is smooth.

The takedown lever is changed to a flathead bolt with an offset notch in the bolt head. A screwdriver, cartridge or other tool has to be used to rotate the bolt to take the pistol down. The slide stop/slide release lever is also recessed almost entirely into the frame, barely protruding enough to be used. 

The good news is that there are plenty of Sig P365 SAS holsters to choose from, and the SAS should fit most standard P365 holsters in any case.

The result is the sides of the pistol are almost entirely smooth, with little to snag on clothing or otherwise. Is it an improvement, though?

Sig P365 SAS Review

P365 SAS

Some might accuse the Sig P365 SAS to be more flash than sizzle, more style than substance...and they'd have a point. Some might say it's an interesting experiment in how minimalist you can make a gun and still have it be usable...and they have one too.

Our conclusion?

Several of us took the P365 SAS to the range to shoot it and run the gun a bit to get a flavor for it, as we do with most of our reviews.

We think the SAS has a place, but we didn't see how it was so much better (in certain regards) that it really justified opting for it over the standard P365. You, of course, get to decide for yourself whether it does or not.

Here's what we mean by that.

The sights take some getting used to. We found they are quick to align at close range, but aren't terrifically useful past about 10 yards or so without a lot of practice. The sights also obscure the target, since they're so close to the top of the slide.

If carried in a holster, we didn't really find that the lack of a front sight or the recessed controls created a huge advantage in terms of not snagging on clothing compared to the standard gun. It might from a pocket holster but might not otherwise.

If you're used to using the slide release (we said slide release, that's what it is, get over it internet) the Sig P365 SAS is going to be an adjustment. What we all took from it was it was best to just slingshot the slide rather than trying to find the button.

The key takeaway is the P365 SAS is a slicked-up pistol for shooting up close and personal. Some shooters could probably get more out of it, but it would be a lot harder to do compared to shooting a standard P365 or a P365XL.

However, is it so much better at anything compared to the standard P365? You'll have to decide that for yourself.

Have a P365 SAS already? Have you gotten hands-on with one? Let us know what you think in the comments.

About The Author

Writer sam hoober