The Gun Digest Book of Sig-Sauer. Massad Ayoob
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is the DAK, which stands for “double-action, Kellerman.” Explains Joe Kiesel, Technical Director at SIGARMS, “Harold Kellerman is in charge of engineering on all the Classic pistols at Sauer, and he was the one who supervised development of the new design. As the slide comes forward, the hammer comes to rest in a slightly pre-cocked position. The trigger pull is a very comfortable 6.6 to 7 pounds. If the shooter should fail to return the trigger all the way forward under extreme stress, he will still be able to fire, although the pull will now be about 8.5 pounds. In dry fire, or if he has a bad primer, the hammer will go all the way forward. The shooter will have a second-strike capability as in our TDA and DAO guns, but the pull will be heavier, again about 8.5 pounds.”
The DAK version of the SIG fires the same ammo, fits the same holster as a TDA or DAO variation of the same model.
DAK is a new type of “self-decocking” mechanism and cannot be retrofitted into earlier SIGs.
This has proven to be a much more “shooter-friendly” trigger than SIG’s traditional DAO, and I predict that before long it will replace the latter. The new trigger cannot be fitted into older guns, and we’re already seeing departments trading up to it. The New Hampshire Department of Fish & Game many years ago replaced their .357 Combat Magnum revolvers with SIG P229 DAO .40s, and reportedly will be replacing them with P229s in the DAK configuration and chambered for .357 SIG. Numerous other departments are looking at them. Says Kiesel, “The Rhode Island State Police have just accepted delivery of their first shipment of P226 .357 SIGs, with the ‘rail gun’ (flashlight mounting) frame and DAK triggers.”
Dana Owen with a prototype P229 DAK. The new gun is drawing enthusiastic interest from law enforcement.
The author tested this DAK prototype P229 .40 when it was so new that a P228 left grip panel had to be fitted to allow for its new mechanism.
This is the P229 DAK. Note the rounded hammer spur and absence of decocking lever behind trigger guard.
The DAO is visibly distinguishable from the TDA only in that it has an empty space on the frame where the traditional gun would have a decocking lever. The DAK gun also comes sans decock lever, and in addition can be identified by a smaller, more rounded hammer configuration. When the hammer is all the way forward, as in dry fire, it disappears within the silhouette of the pistol.
Noted gun expert Walt Rauch, not usually a fan of conventional DAO semiautomatics, has had good things to say about the DAK. So, I expect, will Chuck Karwan, the gun-wise author of the third edition of the “Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery”; Chuck hated the conventional SIG DAO trigger mechanism. Tactical firearms expert John Farnam absolutely raves about the DAK, and considers it a most valuable option. On all SIG-Sauers, no matter what the trigger mechanism, the takedown lever and slide release lever are all in the same place, except for the .380s, which do not have slide lock levers.
The SIG remains extremely popular with the police establishment. I’ve worked on the range with SIG-carrying cops from Australia, Belgium, Canada (where RCMP SWAT was the first to get them), Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, and of course Switzerland, as well as the USA. When one department adopts these guns and has tremendous success with them, you see the brand spread in the region. Around the Dallas area, you see more SIGs on cops’ hips than anything else. The SIG-Sauer is the predominant sidearm I see cops wearing when in Virginia. Indeed, whole regions are dominated by SIGs. Four of the six New England states issue them to their state police. Rhode Island, as noted, has adopted the P226 .357; Vermont and Connecticut issue the P229 .40; and troopers in Massachusetts wear the .40 S&W caliber P226. The other two states carry .45s of different brands – the S&W 4566 in New Hampshire, the HK USP in Maine – but at least one of those states is strongly examining the SIG P220 .45 for adoption at this writing.
SIG-Sauers deliver two ingredients of Jeff Cooper’s defensive handgun recipe: Accuracy…
… and Power. Speed is up to you.
The first-generation SIG P226 was, for some time, the nation’s most popular police service pistol.
Continuing SIG-Sauer evolution. The breechblock is fitted into the stamped slide of this early P226…
… and milled from a solid block of stainless steel which was then blackened in this later version of same pistol.
SIG-Sauers have commonality of operating controls. Behind the trigger guard: magazine release. Above the trigger guard: takedown lever. At top of left grip panel, slide lock lever (not present on P230 and P232 models). Above and behind trigger: decocking lever (TDA models only).
A Very Brief History
This particular book was never conceptualized as a history of SIG, the SIG-Sauer collaboration, or SIGARMS. It’s a user’s guide, not a collector’s reference. Schweizerische Industrie Gesselschaft (meaning, literally, “Swiss Industrial Company”) of Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland built a long and honorable history as one of the world’s most respected arms makers. Their first, classic pistol, in production for more than half a century, is the beautifully crafted and famously accurate P210. Though the SIGs have a Teutonic aura today due to the Sauer influence, there’s also a Gallic thread in its history. A key element of the P210 is a slide that runs inside rather than outside the frame rails, and SIG licensed the patent for this, originally granted to Charles Gabriel Petter of France’s Societe Alsacienne de Construction Mechaniques for the 7.65 mm French service pistol of 1935. The P210 is often called the “SIG-Neuhausen” by American shooters. (Yanks tend to pronounce it “New-howzen,” but those who’ve been there say “Noy-hawzen.”) SIG began arms making in 1860, producing muzzle-loaders, and around 1865 perfected a breech-loading military rifle. It was SIG that manufactured the bolt-action Vetterli rifle, which changed the face of military small arms in 1869; before WWI, SIG was building the Mondragon automatic rifle for international military contracts. The P210, which was born in 1947, was actually SIG’s first handgun.
Left, heavy-duty sheet metal stamping was the method of production for this early P226 slide; the slide on the new production pistol at right is machined from a solid block of steel.