SIG Sauer P226 X-Five Open Skeleton Black

Start at the muzzle and work back, because that's where this P226 makes its case. The X-Five Open Skeleton wears a barrel-mounted compensator cut with rows of porting and venting that drop muzzle rise to almost nothing. It's a German Mastershop build, hand-fitted in Eckernförde, and the kind of pistol SIG put together for shooters who run a race gun hard and want it staying flat shot to shot.

The frame carries an adjustable single-action-only trigger with a flat shoe, tuned for a short, clean break. Up top the X-Mount bridge bolts directly to the frame, so the optic rides independent of the reciprocating slide. That's the whole point of an open-class bridge. The slide cycles underneath without dragging the red dot along with it. The mount here holds an Aimpoint Micro H-1 with a 4 MOA dot and an intensity dial running through its detents. Acquisition is quick, and the dot sits low over the bore.

The G10 grips deserve a slow look. They're cut with a reptilian scale texture and an aggressive checkered panel that locks the hand in place, finished in layered grey and black. The slide shows the familiar X-Five wide serrations with the X-FIVE marking milled into the flat. Finish across the gun is a worn grey nitron with honest handling marks on the high edges, which is exactly what you expect from a competition pistol that has seen range time.

It feeds from an extended magazine with a thick polymer base pad, and a second magazine comes along in the package. Worth noting: the whole rig ships in its padded Swiss Arms zippered case. For a shooter chasing open division, or a collector who wants a genuine Mastershop X-Five in full open trim, this one arrives ready to run.