More on Sig's limited edition M17 Commemorative pistol (VIDEOS)

Sig Sauer is making just 5,000 commemorative editions of the U.S. Army’s M17 official service pistol, winner of the landmark Modular Handgun System contract. Phil Strader, Sig’s pistol product manager, shows off one of the limited-production handguns, serial numbered 1 to 5,000.

The gun ships in the same basic vanilla cardboard packaging used in the military’s contract and comes with two extended 21-round magazines and one flush-fit 17-round magazine. They come standard with a SIGLITE front night sight and removable Night Sight rear plate while the pistol uses a coyote-tan PVD coated stainless steel slide with coyote-tan colored controls.

Once the warranty is registered with Sig, the owner gets a commemorative challenge coin and certificate that matches their pistol’s serial number.

Although it ships in plan cardboard, just as Uncle get it, Sig also sells an optional cherry-wood M17 Collector’s Case for $199 that includes laser placement cuts for the pistol, coin, and certificate. (Photo: Sig)

In the below video from SHOT Show back in January, Sig’s Rich Morovitz showed Guns.com the Army’s M17 sidearm and points out some of the differences between the military’s variant and the standard Sig Sauer P320. Besides the manual safety– an Army requirement– Morovitz also goes into a little detail on the removable top plate for a Leupold DeltaPoint Pro sight, which is a big move for a MIL-STD handgun meant for the common Soldier in the field.

Retail on the commemorative is $1,122, and the gun is shipping to dealers this month. As for the military, the first batches of the M17/18 were issued to troops of the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division last November as part of a 190,000-pistol initial buy.