SIG Sauer P226 X-Five Scandic Skeleton

Start with the slide and you understand the rest of this pistol. SIG's Mastershop cut a row of deep oval lightening ports down each side of the stainless slide, then ran straight serrations across the rest and capped the muzzle with a slotted compensator-style nose. The result is the Scandic Skeleton, a long-slide X-Five built around the idea that you can remove mass without removing strength. Every cut you see is doing structural work.

The X-Five line came out of SIG's Eckernförde Mastershop in Germany, the same shop responsible for the firm's competition and target guns. This one is chambered in 9mm Para and wears the correct X-FIVE engraving on the slide flat, with SIG SAUER markings up front and the Made in Germany stamp along the frame rail. The single-action trigger breaks the way a target gun should, short and clean.

The gold treatment is what people notice first. The safety lever, takedown lever, slide catch, hammer, and the curved competition trigger all wear a bright gold finish that plays hard against the matte stainless. It's a lot, and it's meant to be.

Then there's the wood. The grips are figured birch in a warm honey tone, the kind of Nordic curl that gives the Scandic its name. Each panel shows its own grain, secured with gold-tone hardware against the flared, palm-filling target frame. An extended beavertail and a generous magwell round out the ergonomics.

This one comes as it left Eckernförde, complete in the box with manuals, the spare magazine, and factory tools. For a collector who wants a German target pistol that doubles as a display piece, the Scandic Skeleton makes its case in stainless, gold, and birch.