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Sig P228 Frame Rail Galling - is this normal?

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Shot about 100 of my standard factory loads through my Sig P228 the other day. While going through my standard, post-range session cleaning, I was surprised, as I've always run my gun wet with high quality grease on the rails, to see the following wear/gouging on the left side frame rail and slide. The other rail doesn't have any wear on it. I think this is an example of galling and was wondering if this was normal on Sigs or not. Should I be worried or just keep shooting the hell out of it?

 

Here are some photos:

 

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Wear on Slide

 

i-j2D3B37-L.jpg

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I had similar wear on my new at the time Sig 226. Sig would likely claim that wear is normal as they did with mine. Sorry missed the part where you already run it wet. I am surprised you have seen further issues with the lube. If it has gotten worse you should contact Sig. They mentioned to me that it usually tapers off and should not become worse but if it did I should follow up with them.

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Mine has something like that too I believe. Looks like normal wear to me. If it gets a lot worse maybe I'd

be concerned. My guess is that's the worse its gonna get.

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SIGs have stainless milled slides and alloy frames. The principal exceptions are the older discontinued German's with the folded carbon steel slides and the all stainless. So, two dissimilar metals are rubbing together with the slide being the harder of the two materials.

 

The alloy frames are hard anodized which creates a very hard and durable finish provided there are no burrs or flaws on the slide rails and the peice is properly lubed meaning wet with lots of grease. The hard annodizing is initially black but will change color to a shiny a yellow/shiny silver and then dull silver after many, many rounds. Dull silver means the anodizing has been compromised or close to compromised. Gradual wear of the anodizing is common and expected and most of this occurs in the first couple of hundred rounds. If there are no flaws in the slides SIGs are good for many thousands of rounds.

 

Wearing of the anodizing in a spot or two along the frame is uaually not a problem. The machining of the slide and frame surfaces while very precise is not perfect, meaning, the two surfaces are not perfectly flat and need to mate. But this is usually over in the first couple of 100 rounds. I have never seen a SIG without frame wear of some sort. And new unfired SIGs may have some initail wear marks from test firing.

 

It is important to check the slide of every new SIG or any similar pistol for defects or burrs which can be carefully be removed when found.

 

The older German made SIGs with the rolled carbon steel slides had fewer issues of this type which is one reason these are very desireable. The slides on these is also a tad lighter in weight. Also, slide to frame wear is not an issue on the all stainless SIGs.

 

The SIG FORUM has volumes of information on this topic.

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@silverking - thanks for the great reply. Being a P228, this has the folded carbon slide. I was surprised to feel a bit of a high spot on the frame rail where I see the wear. So I'll just let it wear in with time. I brought this used and was surprised on how perfect the rails were - no markings at all. Previous owner must've had < 100 rounds through her.

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Yep, I dropped the original photo hosting provider. Adding the pics in the original post showing the rail wear that I was concerned with. The wear has not gotten any worse over the past 7 yrs and I've experienced no issues. The P228 is still going strong after all this time ;)

IMG_0747.JPG

IMG_0746.JPG

IMG_0748.JPG

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