A zillion years ago (it was actually while slick willy was prez), I was all hot to buy a Para Ordnance P16.45, which was a double stack 1911. At the time there was a magazine ban in effect and PO had tooled up to make only magazines until the ban went into effect so they could supply their guns with two 16 round magazines.
Money in hand I went to a gun store that had them and handled one. I had also done a lot of reading on another gun I was curious about (a Sig P220) which was also present. The guy handed me the gun and after handling it I started pointing it at stuff. HOLY CRAP. It pointed so naturally with sights just falling into place every time I lifted it. Combined with stunning reliability and accuracy that can't be matched by even high dollar 1911s.
I've had that exact P220 in my possession ever since, and is quite possibly the only single physical thing I've had the whole time. It has somewhere around 5k rounds through it. It has never jammed ever.
My first trip was to an indoor shooting range. I started by shooting a Ruger P90 I owned (what a complete POS that gun was. I nicknamed it the jam-0-matic.). Then I switched to the P220 and shot two complete magazines. There were some whistles from guys in the next lane when I reeled the target back. One big jagged hole.
I've carried that gun until the finish wore off. On more than one occasion it has gone more than a year without being cleaned or shot. On range day I pull it out and shoot it without even blowing off the pocket fuzz and it always runs perfectly.
When ever people buy guns the first thing they do is bling them out. With handguns it's grips, followed by sights, and then people do ambidextrous stuff, extended this and that. As a red blooded American I instantly bought Houge grips. Tried them and realized those Germans and Austrians are some very, very specific types of designers (some might say a little jacked up). The grips came off and I've run that gun 100% bone stock since then. I even like the rear sight with the single vertical bar instead of two dots.
Mine is one of the "sheet metal" guns, where the slide is a VERY heavily abused piece of thick sheet metal with the firing pin block held in place with a roll pin. Funny how much people loved to trash on the sheet metal slide when the went to fully machined. You really have to look at it closely and understand manufacturing processes to even fathom it started as flat metal. History shows those old guns are as good as any.
I hate the double action. The whole DA/ thing makes no sense. I pull the pistol and thumb the hammer back just like it was a Colt Peacemaker. To me the only use for the double action is if I get jumped and am in a physical struggle in which case we're talking contact distance and I'm just going to get my finger on the trigger and start pumping. Other than that, I'm straight up . I know they make the gun in a SAO version, with a thumb safety and I were in the market for one now that is the one I would get.
A number of years later I picked up a Sig P225 which is a 9mm single stack that seems like an 80% scale P220. One of my favorite stories with that thing was a trip to the range with my dad and my youngest kid (who was like 13 at the time). I had a brand new Remington 700 that I needed to break in, so I handed the P225 and two 50 rd boxes of ammo to the kid and pointed him at a steel target set up they had. Punk was back in five minutes asking if I had any more 9mm.
I've got both guns stripped right now so I can have the slides refinished in Cerakote and night sights put on. They'll be a matched pair when done.
