SIG Sauer

SIG Sauer GmbH is the subsidiary of manufacturing firm L&O Holding, which also owns Swiss Arms AG. Initially SIG Sauer Inc was established in 1985 with the name Sigarms (until October 2007) to import and distribute SIG firearms into the United States. Since 2000 SIG Sauer Inc has been organizationally separate from manufacturer SIG Sauer GmbH.

History

The origins of the original SIG company lies in the Swiss Wagon Factory created in 1853 by Friedrich Peyer im Hof, Heinrich Moser and Conrad Neher. After winning a competition put on by Switzerland's Federal Ministry of Defense, a contract to produce 30,000 muskets was awarded. They changed their name to Schweizerische Industriegesellschaft (SIG), German for "Swiss Industrial Company" (in French regions of Switzerland was known as Société Industrielle Suisse).

Sauer & Sohn

In the 1970s, SIG began work on designing a handgun that would balance price with quality. Swiss law limits the ability of Swiss companies to manufacture firearms and Swiss companies who wish to do this have to do so by using a foreign partner. In the case of SIG they chose the German firm of Sauer & Sohn. The SIG Sauer line of handguns began in 1975 with the SIG Sauer SIG P220. Prior to World War II, Sauer had been primarily a maker of shotguns and hunting rifles. During the war, they produced a handgun, the Sauer 38H, but afterwards had withdrawn from this market. With SIG as their partner/owner, Sauer returned to the business of manufacturing handguns.

SIG Sauer P226

The SIG Sauer P226 is a full-sized, service-type pistol made by SIG Sauer. It is chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and .22 Long Rifle. It is essentially the same basic design of the SIG Sauer P220, but developed to use higher capacity, staggered-column magazines in place of the single-column magazines of the P220. The P226 itself has spawned further sub-variants; the P228 and P229 are both compact versions of the staggered-column P226 design. The SIG Sauer P226 and its variants are in service with numerous law enforcement and military organizations worldwide.

History

The P226 was designed for entry into the XM9 Service Pistol Trials (see also Joint Service Small Arms Program) that were held by the US Army in 1984 on behalf of the US armed forces to find a replacement for the M1911A1. Only the Beretta 92F and the SIG P226 satisfactorily completed the trials. According to a GAO report, Beretta was awarded the M9 contract for the 92F due to a lower total package price. The P226 cost less per pistol than the 92F, but SIG's package price with magazines and spare parts was higher than Beretta's. The Navy SEALs, however, later chose to adopt the P226.

Sauer

The Sauer (German, Luxembourgish) or Sûre (French) is a river in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. A left tributary of the river Moselle, its total length is 173 kilometres (107 mi).

Rising near Vaux-sur-Sûre in the Ardennes in southeastern Belgium, the Sauer flows eastwards and crosses the border with Luxembourg near Martelange. It forms the border between Belgium and Luxembourg for 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of Martelange. West of Esch-sur-Sûre it flows into an artificial lake, the Upper Sûre Lake created by the Esch-sur-Sûre Dam, which gives its (French) name to the Luxembourgian commune of Lac de la Haute-Sûre. After flowing through Ettelbruck and Diekirch, the Sauer forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany for the last 50 kilometres (31 mi) of its course, passing Echternach before emptying into the Moselle in Wasserbillig. The rivers Wiltz, Alzette, White Ernz, Black Ernz, Our, and Prüm are tributaries.

External links

Media related to Sauer at Wikimedia Commons