Occasionally I get a gun put in my hand and I just love it from the get go, this was one of those guns, but the question really is, does size matter?
Hello and welcome to AAR on Air, it’s the turn of the Sig Sauer P365. If it is possible to have a gun that would be classed as cute, then this would be the one. Let’s take a walk round shall we, we wouldn’t need to go far to get around this one. It is only 145 mm or 5.75 inches long, and weighs in at 363 grams or 0.8 lbs. Blimey, the barrel is only 3.25 inches.
This is the 12 round 4.5mm bb replica of the original 9mm that was first designed in 2017 and first saw production in 2018 and is still being made. This one is 12g co2 powered and semi automatic with blowback too. All for about £139 U.K. retail. It is all black with a metal top slide and polymer bottom and grip, there is even a rail for lasers and the like underneath the barrel infront of the trigger. This has fixed open sights front and rear, with the fronts incorporating the green dot as per the 9mm original complete with rear dots to aid sighting. The grip is very grippy and of course a little short as is the style of this little self defence item. This grip holds the drop out 12 round magazine incorporating the 12g co2 cylinder and is released by pressing the triangular release button in the left hand side of the grip. There is an ambidextrous safety at the back that is easily operated with your thumb.
Believe it or not this is even Field strippable using the catch on the left side.
It is blowback and the original was classed as short blowback, this replica even locks open after last shot!
There are no Nasty bright labels all over it to spoil the look, but does carry the Sig Sauer branding discretely on both sides of the grip with P365 embossed on the top slide.
Apart from the shortness of the grip, you forget just how small this is when you use it.
Loading is a very easy method, drop in the co2, twist tight using the supplied 6 mm hex key, as always tighten to pierce but don’t over tighten, it will reduce its lifespan if you do.
To load the BBs of your choice, pull back on the spring, lock it at the bottom, then pull down on the small lever near the top to allow you to drop in the BBs from the top, once loaded with 12, release this top catch, then release the bottom spring, slot back into the grip and your good to go. Let the fun begin.
Power then, well, they claim upto 295 FPS, so out with the chrono to put that to the test. Standard steel BBs first. These saw a maximum of 287 fps which with 5.37 grain bbs is 0.98 ft-lb or 1.33 joules. Let’s try the ultra light plastic 4.5mm BB.
They saw 413 FPS which is well above the claimed figures, and finally I tried the dust devils, to see if it was happy with them, and yes, it was and even spat them out at over 300 FPS.
Let’s get the old barn door out to see if we can hit it. Well with the barn door comment, you could probably tell I wasn’t expecting an awful lot from this little darling, but I was pleasantly surprised, it isn’t a target gun by any stretch of the imagination, but it is perfectly capable for some fun plinking, and will certainly be up-to that task.
This is fun, and of course that’s what it’s meant to be, as I’ve said, not a competition target gun, or a go out and hunt with tool.
So does size matter? Well in this case It makes you smile when you see it and when you use it. The build quality is great, it comes with BBs to get you started and I think it’s really good value for all this in such a small compact package. I must say I don’t “want” one of these... I “Need one!” As my daughter used to say. Be careful if you see one of these in the shops, you will want to buy it.
I’m off to play with this again.
see the YouTube review here: https://youtu.be/9Aevfiwl3JM