SIG Sauer P226 X-Six Scandic Skeleton

Look at the slide on this one. SIG's Eckernförde Mastershop took the long-slide X-Six platform and cut it open, running deep skeletonized lightening slots front and back that turn a heavy competition pistol into something that reads more like architecture than firearm. That's the Scandic Skeleton, and it's a long way from a standard P226.

The build starts with a stainless steel frame and slide left in matte and brushed finish, chambered in 9mm Para and marked Made in Germany on the dust cover. The slide carries the X-Six engraving along the flat, with SIG Sauer cut into the nose. Run your eye down the top and you see the work that went into it. Angular flats, stepped cuts, and ports milled clean through the slide to shed weight where a long slide needs it least.

Then there's the gold. The hammer, trigger, slide catch, safety lever, takedown lever, and magazine release all wear a polished gold-tone finish that sits against the brushed stainless like jewelry against steel. These are working controls, fitted and timed the way SIG's Mastershop fits everything.

The grips are figured Scandinavian birch, the curly masur pattern giving each panel its own swirl of grain. They're shaped as target grips with a palm shelf and a thumb rest, secured by gold-tone hex bolts. An adjustable rear sight rides the back of the slide for precise zeroing, and the extended magazine wears a matching alloy basepad.

This is a single-action competition pistol built for the shooter who wants the X-Six performance envelope without disappearing into a sea of black polymer. Few of these Scandic Skeleton guns leave Germany in any given run, and fewer still arrive in this trim. If you collect SIG's Mastershop output or European target pistols, this one holds its ground in any case.