It’s life a SIG-Sauer Jim, but not as we know it…
(Excuse the dirt in the grips, but for some reason it's pretty hard to clean mud from them)
Alright, let’s get started, a review of one of Cyber Gun’s latest offerings, their CO2 powered replica of the SIG-Sauer P226 X5. This is a review of the standard P226 X5, rather than the fancy ‘open’ version with compensator and red dot sight. Before I get into the details of how this gun works in the field, and looking after it, I think it would be best to give a bit of history on this fairly unique SIG-Sauer styled pistol.
The P226 first appeared in 1984 as a potential replacement for the US M1911 series – which, as I’m sure most of you know, it lost out to the Berretta 92, which eventually became the M9 in US service. For those of you with a passing knowledge in P226s, you may notice the X5 looks slightly different from most other variants of the P226 – this is because the X5 is not a law-enforcement or military issue weapon – it’s a competition pistol, similar to H&K’s Match version of the USP. Cyber Gun’s version of the X5 is based on the basic level ‘Competition’ version of the X5 - differing from traditional SIG pistols, rather than having a double-action trigger and de-cocker, the X5 has a single-action trigger and an ambidextrous safety lever – in this case, the large ‘thumb-rest’ like part behind the slide-release at the top of the pistol grips (other versions of the real-steel X5 have different trigger/safety set-ups). Similarly, the X5 has a longer barrel and slide than a normal P226, being 5inches rather than 4.4 – some of you may find this a tad problematic with certain holsters. Anyway, enough with the history.
This is the box, as supplied
I’ll start with packaging and the instruction manual first. The box advertises a fairly staggering FPS of 410FPS – I’ll hazard a guess here, but either Cyber Gun chrono their pistols with 0.12g rounds, or use some incredibly powerful CO2 in their test guns – because mine certainly wasn’t doing 410FPS. The fact that none of my ‘victims’ in game when I used it (in -2 degree heat) were crying in agony or bleeding profusely after being hit by it suggests that the FPS is ‘normal’ for a pistol. Other than that, the box is fairly normal, brightly coloured with a big photo of the P226X5 on it, the usual safety warnings, and details about the gun. The gun is held in the box inside a polystyrene tray, which holds in it in place pretty snugly. Inside you’ll find your P226 X5, a magazine, a box of ammunition (of dubious quality, I’d avoid it and use quality ammunition), an allen key and spare end-cap for your magazine (which are used to load a CO2 cartridge) However, one detail I have yet to find is exactly who makes the X5, as for those of you who don’t know, Cyber Gun do not make guns, only licence trademarks and re-brand products.
The Instruction manual is useful, but fails to mention several things. Most importantly, it only mentions that the gun has a safety – it doesn’t mention where it is. I found out only by accident, one of the staff at the store assumed it was just a thumb rest. It’s not the worst manual I’ve seen, but by no means the best (if in doubt, head to youtube – I’ve checked, and there are plenty of videos about it).
The box, on opening it. Obviously, this photo was taken after I'd started the custom work on it
Now I’ll move on to the actual pistol. For simplicity, I’ll refer to the pistol as the ‘X5’, rather than P226 X5. Before I start, I’ll admit this – I’m a massive fan of SIG-Sauer pistols. I own both the KJW P226 and P229, and have used the TM P226 on quite a few occasions. And I have to say it; I absolutely love the X5. It looks nice, it’s comfortable to use, and because it uses CO2 rather than green gas (or propane, or similar), it works very well.
A photo comparing the X5 (top) to my venerable P229 (bottom) and my not-so-used P226
The day I tested the X5 was a sunny, but cold day, the temperature not rising above 3 degrees Celsius, the lowest point being around -5. Whilst other gas pistols didn’t fire (or on a few occasions which brought much laughter to everyone on site, several pistols vented all their gas after a single shot, obscuring the owner in a miniature gas cloud). My own trusty KJW SIGs both performed poorly in the cold – whereas the X5 could and did put 2 whole magazines worth of shots (40 rounds in total) out before the CO2 bulb had to be changed. Range wise – I’ll be honest, I’m not sure. As my teammate Dave will confirm, I’m terrible at guessing ranges. I’ll put it this way though, I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the range the X5 could put out, and that was before fiddling with the hop-up.
Externally, the X5 looks nice. Unlike the KJW P226, which has a shiny, glossy finish, the X5 has matt black finish. The trademarks on the pistol (as advertised by Cyber Gun) are nice, on the grips we have SIG-Sauer stamped in place on both sides, whilst on the slide we have ‘SIG SAUER X-FIVE’ ‘GERMANY’ on the left, and on the right, a unique serial number and ‘P226 S’. They aren’t too flashy, and are a nice touch, but I have been warned by another owner that they may rubdown and wear off after a while. That said, as much as I like the look of it, I’ve already started customising mine to look like the P226 Tactical Operations used by the character John Casey in the TV spy-comedy series Chuck, removing areas of the paint and replacing them with a polished metal surface instead. However, despite the finish, I found it does scratch and mark pretty easily - not a problem if you want your X5 looking like it's been used, a tad annoying if you want to keep it pristine and factory fresh.
Onto the actual build, and the X5 is comfortable to hold, with a heavy feel to it. The main difference between it and a P226 are the extended ‘beaver-tail’ grips and the ambidextrous safety, but other than that, it feels pretty much like a normal P226. The build quality is fine – strong and firm, there are some rattles, creaks and wobbles, but these are pretty normal for pistols (the slide, chamber and separate outer barrel) the pistol doesn’t feel like it will fall apart. Overall a very nice, solid build. However, as mentioned earlier, the X5 does have a longer slide and barrel – some users may find this causes a problem with holsters. Personally, as I use a basic Viper drop-leg holster, I have no problems fitting the X5 inside. It doesn't really need saying, but if you have the X5 with compensator or the 'open' model with RDS, obviously you will have trouble fitting it in a holster...
Moving onto the internals, and the X5 is broadly similar to a TM/KJW SIG, the only major differences being that this works on CO2, and has a single-action trigger and safety rather than double-action and a de-cocker. The CO2 produces firm recoil and a satisfying sound as the pistol fires. Disassembly is different in that rather than simply pulling the takedown lever and pulling the slide off like the KJW model, the X5 requires the slide to be locked back and then the lever pulled – which if not careful, can result in the slide being launched to the other side of the room you’re in. I will say it here, the take-down and reassembly of the X5 is the only thing that disappoints me about this pistol – it’s overly complex and a tad annoying compared to the KJW SIGs. It’s all down to the recoil rod – in the KJW pistols, this is firmly held in place by a square peg. On the X5? It’s held in place by the force of the recoil spring. The result is an incredibly lose fit, which gravity can and will effect, causing the rod to shift out of place and stop the slide from re-attaching to the frame of the pistol. I spend far too much time carefully balancing the pistol when I reassemble it – and considering how you have to take the slide off so you can adjust the hop-up; this is something you’ll probably have to do at least once during your ownership of this pistol. Other than that annoyance, I personally can’t fault the quality of the internals of the X5, everything seems fine.
Performance - I've become a fan of CO2 because of this pistol – whilst other pistols were having difficulty firing off more than 5 rounds, the X5 was capable of firing 2 entire magazines of 20 rounds each before the CO2 bulb had to be replaced. I’m not the most accurate airsofter out there, but the pistol is fairly accurate, even at longer ranges.
So there you have it. Externally, it’s an interesting and unique variant of the SIG-Sauer P226 family. Internally, it works flawlessly in the field, but the design is a bit of a faff – it’s by no means a nightmare, but putting it back together can be a bit difficult. It performs well in the field, and overall I enjoy using it, and am glad I purchased it. I’m not going to give you a “X out of X” review, as I don’t see the point - I’ll leave you to weigh up the pros and cons of this pistol – but I really do suggest you consider looking into buying one of these.
A final photo of the X5, well into the new colour-scheme
Cheers for reading, hopefully this was of some use to you.
(Excuse the dirt in the grips, but for some reason it's pretty hard to clean mud from them)
Alright, let’s get started, a review of one of Cyber Gun’s latest offerings, their CO2 powered replica of the SIG-Sauer P226 X5. This is a review of the standard P226 X5, rather than the fancy ‘open’ version with compensator and red dot sight. Before I get into the details of how this gun works in the field, and looking after it, I think it would be best to give a bit of history on this fairly unique SIG-Sauer styled pistol.
The P226 first appeared in 1984 as a potential replacement for the US M1911 series – which, as I’m sure most of you know, it lost out to the Berretta 92, which eventually became the M9 in US service. For those of you with a passing knowledge in P226s, you may notice the X5 looks slightly different from most other variants of the P226 – this is because the X5 is not a law-enforcement or military issue weapon – it’s a competition pistol, similar to H&K’s Match version of the USP. Cyber Gun’s version of the X5 is based on the basic level ‘Competition’ version of the X5 - differing from traditional SIG pistols, rather than having a double-action trigger and de-cocker, the X5 has a single-action trigger and an ambidextrous safety lever – in this case, the large ‘thumb-rest’ like part behind the slide-release at the top of the pistol grips (other versions of the real-steel X5 have different trigger/safety set-ups). Similarly, the X5 has a longer barrel and slide than a normal P226, being 5inches rather than 4.4 – some of you may find this a tad problematic with certain holsters. Anyway, enough with the history.
This is the box, as supplied
I’ll start with packaging and the instruction manual first. The box advertises a fairly staggering FPS of 410FPS – I’ll hazard a guess here, but either Cyber Gun chrono their pistols with 0.12g rounds, or use some incredibly powerful CO2 in their test guns – because mine certainly wasn’t doing 410FPS. The fact that none of my ‘victims’ in game when I used it (in -2 degree heat) were crying in agony or bleeding profusely after being hit by it suggests that the FPS is ‘normal’ for a pistol. Other than that, the box is fairly normal, brightly coloured with a big photo of the P226X5 on it, the usual safety warnings, and details about the gun. The gun is held in the box inside a polystyrene tray, which holds in it in place pretty snugly. Inside you’ll find your P226 X5, a magazine, a box of ammunition (of dubious quality, I’d avoid it and use quality ammunition), an allen key and spare end-cap for your magazine (which are used to load a CO2 cartridge) However, one detail I have yet to find is exactly who makes the X5, as for those of you who don’t know, Cyber Gun do not make guns, only licence trademarks and re-brand products.
The Instruction manual is useful, but fails to mention several things. Most importantly, it only mentions that the gun has a safety – it doesn’t mention where it is. I found out only by accident, one of the staff at the store assumed it was just a thumb rest. It’s not the worst manual I’ve seen, but by no means the best (if in doubt, head to youtube – I’ve checked, and there are plenty of videos about it).
The box, on opening it. Obviously, this photo was taken after I'd started the custom work on it
Now I’ll move on to the actual pistol. For simplicity, I’ll refer to the pistol as the ‘X5’, rather than P226 X5. Before I start, I’ll admit this – I’m a massive fan of SIG-Sauer pistols. I own both the KJW P226 and P229, and have used the TM P226 on quite a few occasions. And I have to say it; I absolutely love the X5. It looks nice, it’s comfortable to use, and because it uses CO2 rather than green gas (or propane, or similar), it works very well.
A photo comparing the X5 (top) to my venerable P229 (bottom) and my not-so-used P226
The day I tested the X5 was a sunny, but cold day, the temperature not rising above 3 degrees Celsius, the lowest point being around -5. Whilst other gas pistols didn’t fire (or on a few occasions which brought much laughter to everyone on site, several pistols vented all their gas after a single shot, obscuring the owner in a miniature gas cloud). My own trusty KJW SIGs both performed poorly in the cold – whereas the X5 could and did put 2 whole magazines worth of shots (40 rounds in total) out before the CO2 bulb had to be changed. Range wise – I’ll be honest, I’m not sure. As my teammate Dave will confirm, I’m terrible at guessing ranges. I’ll put it this way though, I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the range the X5 could put out, and that was before fiddling with the hop-up.
Externally, the X5 looks nice. Unlike the KJW P226, which has a shiny, glossy finish, the X5 has matt black finish. The trademarks on the pistol (as advertised by Cyber Gun) are nice, on the grips we have SIG-Sauer stamped in place on both sides, whilst on the slide we have ‘SIG SAUER X-FIVE’ ‘GERMANY’ on the left, and on the right, a unique serial number and ‘P226 S’. They aren’t too flashy, and are a nice touch, but I have been warned by another owner that they may rubdown and wear off after a while. That said, as much as I like the look of it, I’ve already started customising mine to look like the P226 Tactical Operations used by the character John Casey in the TV spy-comedy series Chuck, removing areas of the paint and replacing them with a polished metal surface instead. However, despite the finish, I found it does scratch and mark pretty easily - not a problem if you want your X5 looking like it's been used, a tad annoying if you want to keep it pristine and factory fresh.
Onto the actual build, and the X5 is comfortable to hold, with a heavy feel to it. The main difference between it and a P226 are the extended ‘beaver-tail’ grips and the ambidextrous safety, but other than that, it feels pretty much like a normal P226. The build quality is fine – strong and firm, there are some rattles, creaks and wobbles, but these are pretty normal for pistols (the slide, chamber and separate outer barrel) the pistol doesn’t feel like it will fall apart. Overall a very nice, solid build. However, as mentioned earlier, the X5 does have a longer slide and barrel – some users may find this causes a problem with holsters. Personally, as I use a basic Viper drop-leg holster, I have no problems fitting the X5 inside. It doesn't really need saying, but if you have the X5 with compensator or the 'open' model with RDS, obviously you will have trouble fitting it in a holster...
Moving onto the internals, and the X5 is broadly similar to a TM/KJW SIG, the only major differences being that this works on CO2, and has a single-action trigger and safety rather than double-action and a de-cocker. The CO2 produces firm recoil and a satisfying sound as the pistol fires. Disassembly is different in that rather than simply pulling the takedown lever and pulling the slide off like the KJW model, the X5 requires the slide to be locked back and then the lever pulled – which if not careful, can result in the slide being launched to the other side of the room you’re in. I will say it here, the take-down and reassembly of the X5 is the only thing that disappoints me about this pistol – it’s overly complex and a tad annoying compared to the KJW SIGs. It’s all down to the recoil rod – in the KJW pistols, this is firmly held in place by a square peg. On the X5? It’s held in place by the force of the recoil spring. The result is an incredibly lose fit, which gravity can and will effect, causing the rod to shift out of place and stop the slide from re-attaching to the frame of the pistol. I spend far too much time carefully balancing the pistol when I reassemble it – and considering how you have to take the slide off so you can adjust the hop-up; this is something you’ll probably have to do at least once during your ownership of this pistol. Other than that annoyance, I personally can’t fault the quality of the internals of the X5, everything seems fine.
Performance - I've become a fan of CO2 because of this pistol – whilst other pistols were having difficulty firing off more than 5 rounds, the X5 was capable of firing 2 entire magazines of 20 rounds each before the CO2 bulb had to be replaced. I’m not the most accurate airsofter out there, but the pistol is fairly accurate, even at longer ranges.
So there you have it. Externally, it’s an interesting and unique variant of the SIG-Sauer P226 family. Internally, it works flawlessly in the field, but the design is a bit of a faff – it’s by no means a nightmare, but putting it back together can be a bit difficult. It performs well in the field, and overall I enjoy using it, and am glad I purchased it. I’m not going to give you a “X out of X” review, as I don’t see the point - I’ll leave you to weigh up the pros and cons of this pistol – but I really do suggest you consider looking into buying one of these.
A final photo of the X5, well into the new colour-scheme
Cheers for reading, hopefully this was of some use to you.
