SIG Sauer P226 X-Five Signature Prototype

In 2019, SIG Sauer's Mastershop in Eckernförde, Germany, launched something new. The Custom Individual program let buyers configure a P226 almost any way they liked. For the first time, the shop also engraved personal motifs in set areas of the slide. SIG needed a gun to show that off in the catalog, and this is one of those guns.

It's a P226 X-Five, the long-slide competition pistol SIG built for IPSC and precision shooters. The factory box calls it the X-Five Signature. The slide carries a flowing Ben Hanson signature in the spot the 2019 Mastershop catalog marks as its dedicated engraving area. Turn to the Custom Individual page of the included catalog, and you'll find it, with the same signature in the same place on the same configuration.

The X-Five doesn't need much introduction. It's single-action only, chambered in 9mm, with a 5-inch barrel and a heavy stainless frame that soaks up recoil. The slide features sharp, stepped cuts and flat machined faces. Up top, there's a fully adjustable target rear sight paired with a blade front. The controls are blackened for contrast, and the checkered walnut grips carry the SIG logo. The front strap is finely checkered, and the extended silver magazine base pads give it the classic X-Series look.

The pistol looks clean in the photos, and the factory warning tag is still attached at the trigger guard.

What really sets this one apart is the paperwork. It comes with the labeled factory box, a signed Mastershop certificate, the factory test target shot at 25 meters, the X-Series manual, and the 2019 catalog that pictures it. That much documentation is rare for any prototype, and rarer still for one tied to the launch of a program.

Mastershop pieces are already hard to find. A catalog prototype from the start of the Custom Individual line is about as close to a one-off as SIG collecting gets.