…from Collectors:
It’s not often that Collectors offers a real price bargain — they’re not a discount outlet, by definition — but this most certainly is.
Of all the .22 pistols ever made, the Trailside is the one I’ve lusted after the most. I’ve fired a couple, and each one left me speechless with its match trigger and astounding accuracy. Add Swiss-watch mechanical action and you have, I think, quite possibly the best .22 pistol you can get. And yes, I offered to buy each one from its owner, and both just laughed merrily as they pried their guns from my envious fingers and put them away.
And here’s the point: yeah, $650 is a lot for a .22 — but have you seen the price of .22 pistols recently? Others, of considerably less quality, are selling for about the same nowadays, which makes this a steal at the price.
Aaaargh. Want.
Looks a lot like S&W Model 41, which itself is a fine target pistol. The Smiths are currently at $1,000+, new or used, so the Sig should be a bargain at that price, given the praise you give it.
Valine,
You’re right about the S&W model 41. I’d like one very much but the price is high for me right now. The missus says to thin the stable and use the funds to get one but thinning the stable feels so wrong.
JQ
I will now have to see if my local gun shop can get one. Six hundred is a bit pricey for a 22 but I am a sucker for .22 LR pistols.
SIG stopped making the Trailside in, I think, the late 1990s.
when I started getting into firearms a $20 would get me a brick of 22s, some sodas and an afternoon of fun with a Lee Enfield No 1 mk III* converted into a 22lr. Once the targets got boring, the empty soda cants or bottles would be shot up then picked up and thrown away. Now, $20 won’t get a brick of 22s.
The only bad time with a 22 is when you run out of ammo in your bag.
JQ
I have heard of this, but never experienced it for myself.
I’m pretty sure I bought my Hammerli new in 2001, but it could have been NOS. I liked it, but didn’t love it. Ended up trading it for a Ruger MK IV Target a few years later, then traded that for another version of the MK IV (Hunter), which I still have. It’ll knock a trash panda off the back deck. I would guess that the Hammerli was better than I give it credit for, but I could never settle into the grip comfortably.
Yeah, some people prefer the “Luger” rake of the Ruger pistols over the “1911” style — as Ruger acknowledges, with its 22/45 variants.