Federal Air Marshals: Sig Sauer P-250's in .357 Sig.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Ai ... al_Service
The above piece covers a lot of detail about how the FAM's began,
how they evolved, and their current status.

The incident in Miami where the distressed man claiming to have a
bomb was shot DRT by 2 FAM's is in the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberto_Alpizar

Although IIRC the article doesn't mention the Miami FAM's weapons,
I believe they were using Sig P226's loaded with .357 Speer Gold Dots.
One FAM fired 3 shots, the other fired 6 shots, at an unknown distance
from the suspect. 4 shots were found in the suspect's body.

FAM's are said to possess the highest handgun accuracy of any Federal LEO's
but in the above case their hit rate was 4 for 9 (44%).

Consider the scenarios in which they are likely to engage BG's:
crowded airline cabins, filled with innocents (some sitting, some walking the
aisles), low light conditions, and the possibility of multiple hijackers.

Initially their weapons did not have lights, but due to the possibility of BG's
trying to hijack the plane during a movie with the lights down low, a pioneering
FAM developed some kind of light to use in concert with the Sig. It's not mounted
on the gun's rail but held by the FAM while he's holding the gun with 2 hands.

The 1st link above says that the FAM's now use P250's. At the time of the Miami
shooting (December 2005) they were using Sig P226's, IIRC.

SIA

[ScubaSigGuy]

That's interesting. The FAMS I know always carried 229's in SIG .357.

[casingpoint]

The 125 grain 357 SIG has eclipsed every other semi automatic handgun round for efficacy in use against human bipeds. It's that simple.

[The Annoyed Man]

The 125 grain 357 SIG has eclipsed every other semi automatic handgun round for efficacy in use against human bipeds. It's that simple.

But why the switch to P250s if they were already carrying P229s in the same caliber?

BTW, just to add complexity to my ammo purchasing/storing picture, I am considering a .357 SIG barrel for my USP Compact .40. I've been told that I don't even need to swap out the magazines that way. Does anybody have any experience doing something like that?

[Sewer_Ice]

^No experience with the USP, but the same can be done with the XD40's. The .357 sig is essentially a .40 casing with a necked down bullet (.355 caliber if I remember right), so no magazine modification would be necessary.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

ScubaSigGuy:

You would probably have more accurate info that they
were carrying P229's rather than P226's. I poked around
for the pre-P250 choice, but did not find it.

SIA

[cougartex]

Good information, thanks for sharing.