SIG Sauer P226 X-Five Mastershop Prestige Series - Black Steel

Most P226 X-Fives leave the line looking like the precision target pistols they are. This one looks like it was pulled out of a riveted iron hull. The slide and frame wear a hand-applied steampunk treatment, with overlapping plates of weathered grey steel held down by what reads as a field of tiny gold rivets. Each dot was placed by hand. Look closely and you'll see the panels don't repeat. They wrap the slide flats, climb over the frame, and run down the front strap, broken up only by the black contrasting metal underneath.

The gold dress is real work, not just a rivet field. A polished gold beavertail, gold ambidextrous safety, gold takedown lever, gold trigger, gold magazine base pad, and gold grip screws all play against the matte iron tones. It's a loud combination, and it's meant to be. The grips are figured burl wood with deep reddish brown swirl, fitted to the X-Five's straight competition frame.

Under the artwork sits a serious gun. The X-Five is SIG's single action 9mm built around a 5 inch barrel, a precise trigger, and a frame cut for accuracy rather than carry. The slide carries the 9mm Para marking. The competition geometry and the long sight radius are still there, buried beneath the finish.

That's the thing about the Mastershop work. The Eckernförde shop that built these pieces has closed, and the Prestige line went with it. Nothing else comes out of that bench now. Each one was a one-off collaboration between SIG's competition engineers and its in-house artists, and the themed pieces almost never repeat.

It ships in its fitted wood presentation case with satin lining. For a collector chasing the artistic end of SIG's history, this is a piece you'll have a hard time matching anywhere, because the shop that could match it no longer exists.