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Table of contents
Unique Customization
Good morning, friends, and welcome to a long-overdue review that covers customizing the P365 pistol. The P365 family of weapons has been a hot item since its release four years ago. We have seen a lot of variants such as the P365 SAS, P365X, and most recently, the P365 Fire Control Unit. The Fire Control Unit, or FCU, is a Sig unique way of making a gun infinitely customizable. Like its bigger brother the P320, the heart of the P365 is a “chassis” that encompasses the trigger group. This is also the only serialized part of the weapon, as in, it is the firearm. All the other stuff, grip module, slide, barrel, is by design an add-on. Which is a very unique way of doing things, and makes any P365 you own customizable in ways other guns can only dream of.
Enhancements
Like a lot of you, I have a very early P365, and I carry it every week. Like a lot of you, I also bought a P365XL when it came out, because I liked the P365 so much. If you have either of these complete guns, can you make some minor changes to enhance them? Yes. Yes you can. For our purposes today, we are going to look at mostly Sig factory parts that offer just a little bit of added oomph.
Sights
Let’s look first at the P365XL. The XL is, as the name implies, a slightly larger version of the P365. The barrel and slide are about 3/4ths of an inch longer, and the grip is longer too. The grip feels exactly like the original P365 with the 12 round mag/mag sleeve inserted but takes flat-based magazines. When I bought mine, and many of you are in this boat, the P365XL was only available with a pre-installed Romeo Zero red dot optic. Which was cool, but what if I decided I don’t want to carry a red dot anymore? A lot of us are in this boat. I fully endorse all new pistols being red dot ready. But I still prefer to use iron sights in the street. What to do?
Fortunately, Sig finally released a cover plate with rear sight. Like other Sig models, the attachment screws come from the bottom, very securely holding the rear sight in place. The plate fit perfectly, as we would expect. And with 5 minutes of work, we now have a P365, iron sights, with a slightly longer sight radius than the original. An excellent addition, and really the only thing I wanted to change on my P365XL.
Magazines
Now on to our P365 original! The options here were huge. First and foremost, I for one wanted to change the grip module. The XL kinda ruined me on that. I would have never complained about the original P365 with grip sleeves for its 12 round magazine if I hadn’t held an XL. The profiles are the same; XL and original with 12 rounders inserted. So why change? Two minor points, but valid points. First, it is a tiny bit easier to reload a slick magazine into the XL grip than it is to seat a fresh one with a magazine sleeve. And second, the slick magazine of the XL prints just a little less than the grip sleeve version.
Grip Modules
This is a super easy fix. For $60, you can buy a Sig Factory XL grip module, and swap them out in under 5 minutes. But it does present one problem. None of your old magazines will fit the new XL grip module, without one other part. Sig magazines plates. You must buy these and swap them out with the grip sleeve on your old 12 round magazines, so order at the same time. And your 10 rounders won’t fit anymore at all. A small price to pay, but a heads up.
Upgraded Striker
The next change I made to my P365 wasn’t a Sig factory part, and may have not even been necessary. But my life is worth $99.99, so I went ahead and did it. There was a problem with early gen P365 strikers, we all remember that. It didn’t affect every gun, and mine is still running the one that came out of the factory thousands of rounds later. But knowing a problem existed, it still bothered me. Not to mention, changing out the striker every few years is a good idea anyway.
Fortunately, an old name in strikers stepped into the P365 arena. Lightning Strike Products is a name familiar to any competitor. They make strikers, and that is pretty much it. They are a big name in Glock aftermarket, and to my knowledge the P365 striker is the first Sig part they have ever made. I trust them inherently after using their product in all my Glock’s over the years, and this is what they do best. The striker swap was simple, and for once I didn’t have to play find the spring after it rockets across the garage. Fit and function were flawless, and I highly recommend this one.
Compensator
Last was a “you don’t have to, but I wanted to” part. I have been curious about Griffin Armament P365 barrels for some time. They are threaded and come with a Micro Carry Compensator. I’m a big fan of compensators on pistols, it can make a huge difference. But I also have yet to see one that wasn’t the obnoxious size that works. On that note, I will say Griffin delivered. Shooting the Carry Comp model side by side with my non-compensated XL, there is a difference. Not a huge difference, but a difference. This is a mod I don’t regret buying in the least.
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You are apparently on the Sig payroll.
I bought a 365XL after they started shipping with rear sight on the optic ready slide. That 365XL with a thumb safety carries very nicely in an appendix holster under a t-shirt and gives me 12+1. I added a Wilson Combat grip module that makes it truly a joy to shoot and carries without any more propensity to print. I bought the 17 round magazine when Sig came out with it but found getting that 17th round nearly impossible. So, it is 12+1 for concealability and a 16 round reload.
Now, I confess to being rather partial to the 1911 pattern and still carry one most of the time but the Sig 365XL is a very close second to the exclusion of all others.
What, no flat trigger? Thought those were mandatory nowadays.