Six Star said:
Good to know....does it affect accuracy/reliability much on your "high mileage" range SIG's?
The way to check how much wear on a P220-series pistol with the sheet steel slide is to drop the mag., #### the hammer and waggle the rear of the slide. It happens for two reasons imx, the first is that the frame is made of aluminum alloy, and the metal wears over time, and also on the guns with the sheet steel slides, the slide is made by pressing a piece of sheet steel over a mandrel. Over time it has a slight tendency to try and spread out, because the slide on semi-autos flexes a bit like a banana when the gun is fired, so the slide flexes outward.
Also the finish on the rails on the slide simply wears off, which also leaves it with a bit of give.
It does affect accuracy, I noticed that it did on a P228 I had that had a high round count. Although it's hard to say how much because obviously the barrel has a fair bit of wear on it too by that point. How much it affects accuracy depends on the wear on the gun and just how loose it is.
I dare say it may be possible to peen the slide tighter onto the frame, but I've never bothered, because by the time you reach that round count you may as well buy a new gun, it's only a few hundred bucks spread out over many thousands of rounds.
It doesn't affect reliability. The frame goes before the slide gets that loose.
You say that the gun you saw in the store was two-tone. Nickel is quite hard, and that causes more wear on the frame rails than the usual parkerised finish. So it may be that the gun in question hasn't had that many rounds through it although the slide is loose.
