Gun Digest Book of Sig-Sauer: a complete look at sig-sauer pistols

Rating:
Summary: Buy it: A fun and informative read!
Review: (I'm writing this after a quick first read-through of the book, so please forgive any error I may unintentionally inject.)

I'm a pretty solid "gun nut," with an excellent and diverse gun book library. I always feel ambivalent about these books that purport to give an overview of a gun company and its product line. While I'm interested in learning stuff that I don't already know (bring on the minutiae!), many of these books (those of one particular coffee table author come to mind) turn out to contain little more than a few beautiful photos with a ton of incredibly dull rah-rah copy: recitations of annual production numbers for various models are a highlight. However, Ayoob's GUN DIGEST BOOK OF SIG-SAUER is a good example of what can be done RIGHT with this type of book.

Ayoob, love him or hate him, is a major gunwriter for a reason. He can write (unlike some) and he's smart. One may disagree with some of his theories (I do, personally) and one may question whether he is right or has experience on a given legal or tactical issue, but the man knows how to write interesting articles about guns.

That's what he does here. The GUN DIGEST BOOK OF SIG-SAUER has a chapter for each model of Sig-Sauer's pistols, from the P-220 through the GSR 1911 (nothing on the new 250s, alas). Ayoob covers each model in detail (you'd think this would get boring with the overall similarity of the Sig-Sauer pistols, but it doesn't) offering insights as to each model's pluses and minuses, as well as intelligent commentary on the sociological niche each model fills. There are chapters on the Sig-Sauer in training, in competition, and on the various custom options available. There are chapters on SIG handguns like the P-210 and on the SIG-H?mmerli target series. There's a chapter on tactics featuring a bunch of goofy photos showing folks performing drawstroke techniques taught by Ayoob's LFI. It's an amazingly thorough book (the NH-based Ayoob's physical proximity to SIGARMS might have helped here): well-written and informative.

The book serves up hundreds of well-done photos to illuminate the text. They're not always placed right next to the text they're illminating, but that's okay. (They're not always of Ayoob, and that's great, too.) Ayoob provides photos of interesting points (e.g., comparisons between the stamped steel slide of a 220 and the milled steel slide of a 220 ST, old grip styles, comparisons of the short and long trigger styles) that fulfill the reason to have a book like this one. I know that Gun Digest books are usually full of good photos, but this one is better than most.

Because of the photos and the nicely delineated text, this is a book that one can read for a couple of hours or just pick up for a couple of minutes (I foresee a lot of copies camped out in the bathrooms of their new owners) to read an article or check out some different photos. Ayoob's writing on each topic is insightful and well-reasoned, and I learned a fair amount in my first run-through.

If you're a "gun nut" (or if you're shopping for one), I don't think you'll be disappointed with this book. Given my aforementioned ambivalence about these "overview" books, I thought long an hard before I bought this one. Now that I've read through it, however, I'm planning to buy another copy for a friend! (By the way, Amazon is offering a great price on the GUN DIGEST BOOK OF SIG-SAUER, which runs $28 at the retail outlets where I've seen it.) Ayoob did a great job with this one!