I’ve been kicking around a small handful of guns for concealed carry over the last couple of years. Everything from a Mossberg MC2c and a Walther PDP to a Shield Plus have made it onto my belt. But the gun I continually turn back to, the one I’ve carried the most often without question over the past year, is the SIG Sauer P365X

There are certainly things that would be nice to improve, but for me, it’s a nearly perfect concealed carry gun, which is saying something. It’s not every day you find one of those. So, let’s dive in and find out why I like carrying this little gun from SIG.
 

Table of Contents

Personal Gun History
Familiarization & Carry
Holster Upgrade
Specs & Comparisons 
Range Time 
Pros & Cons 
Final Thoughts

A Little Personal History With the Firearm


By the time I got this gun out of the Guns.com Vault for testing, I had already tested an original P365 and carried that around a bit, so I enjoyed the platform. The original pistol had been out for years, but once I started carrying the Walther PDP, I also started shooting red dots. While I hated shooting dots at first, the more I did it, the more I got used to it and improved. Once I convinced myself that I was better with a dot, which didn’t take much, I realized that the old P365 had to go.
 

Sig P365 with Galco Cloud
The OG P365 was a great carry gun, but once I convinced myself I was a better shot with an MRD on top, it had to go. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


The biggest reason for choosing the original P365 was its ability to conceal easily, paired with an impressive 10+1 or 12+1 round count and tested reliability. The two factors that matter most to me are reliability and concealability, and the P365 just flat-out wins in both departments. I still remember getting the first one in for review and being amazed at how light it was. Even loaded, I could carry it around the house in jogging pants. 
 

Related: Original SIG P365 Review


Nonetheless, when the P365X came out, I was eager to try it for the red-dot capability – mine came with the Romeo Zero attached. But it also offered a full-length grip and shorter barrel when compared to the P365XL. I prefer to carry appendix, so keeping the shorter barrel length was important for me.
 

Sig P365X with Mantis
Mantis confirmed what was suspected on paper, the Romeo Zero was getting me on target faster and more accurately. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


At this point, I had only a few hundred rounds through the original P365, but I had no hesitations carrying the newly arrived P365X right away because I know the reliability of SIG. I have worked with previous trainers and good friends alike, many of whom have carried the P365 for years without a hiccup. SIG is just one of those brands you expect to go bang every time you pull the trigger, and you’ll need to abuse the gun to make it fail. 

 

Getting to Know (and Carry) the P365

One of the reasons I love getting guns for testing out of the Certified Used Gun Vault is because they often come with extra goodies. Such was the case with this particular P365X. This one came with the Romeo Zero optic already attached, which is a common upgrade and sold as a package by SIG, and a Blade-Tech holster. While Blade-Tech is known for being a budget-friendly, entry-level holster, I didn’t turn up my nose at it. After all, a free holster is a chance to carry the gun, and it gave me the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

However, I was worried that even though I would like the addition of the red dot and the larger grip, I would also notice it when carrying. Those fears quickly dissipated when I first carried the gun. The Romeo Zero MRD on top is one of the smallest and lightest pistol optics on the market, so not much to notice there. I always carried the original P365 with the extended magazine, so the grip length was nearly identical. While the MRD does add a small bit of height, I found it negligible. The pros of carrying the red dot far outweighed the bit of height it added. 
 

Related: SIG Sauer P365 vs P365X for Concealed Carry


What I found carrying the P365X was that it was extremely comfortable and lightweight. It was the same thing I found when I first started carrying the P365, and it seemingly disappears at times. As a lark, I put the Blade-Tech holster on a tightly drawn string of some sweatpants. To my surprise, I could carry it around my house with no problem. I would never go out in public carrying like this, but I was pretty floored that the gun was light enough to do it.
 

Upgrading the Holster


Eventually, after I decided to purchase the gun, I switched up the holster and upgraded to a Vedder holster. Vedder touts itself as “America’s Most Comfortable and Concealable Kydex Holster,” which is a bold statement and probably pretty hard to measure. Nonetheless, it’s been a huge upgrade when compared to the Blade-Tech and worth every penny. 
 

P365X with Vedder Holster
A good holster can make all the difference. The claw on this Vedder holster really helped minimize printing while making the gun more comfortable to carry. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


For starters, the Blade-Tech always pushed the grip of the gun outward. This resulted in some minimal printing if I was wearing a plain-colored tighter-fitting shirt. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I had to be more cognizant of what I was wearing. That changed when I got the Vedder, and I believe most of that is thanks to the claw I ordered with the holster. This helps push the grip of the gun back into the body, thus making printing far less likely. To me, it also made the gun more comfortable to carry, some of which may just be Vedder’s design. Ultimately, the new holster made the gun much more comfortable, not to mention stylish, to carry around.
 

Sig P365X with holsters
One of these things is not like the other. While the Blade-Tech got me started, it paid to upgrade for something a bit more comfortable. Enter my new Vedder holster (left). (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


To me, this gun is the nearly perfect carry gun precisely because of its size, so let’s get into the specs and how it compares to a few others. 
 

Specs and Comparisons

 

Of course, at this point, SIG has come out with a new P365 upgrade, aptly dubbed the P365-XMacro, which some will certainly say is the better carry gun. Heck, we had two editors both agree to as much in their review of the P365-XMacro just last week. But I’m here to tell you I’m going to stay on this hill and give my thoughts on why the P365X might still be worthy even over the newer Macro version. 

My main argument lies right in the specs. The P365-XMacro is still over half an inch longer and almost half an inch taller. While that may not seem like a lot, it makes a difference when carrying appendix. I’ve carried the Mossberg MC2c a bit over the summer, and it’s considerably longer, which can make for some uncomfortable situations while carrying AIWB, namely driving. 
 

Sig P365X vs P365 XMacro
While the new XMacro is the talk of the town right now, you can see how much longer and taller it is than the P365X. I still think the P365X holds tremendous value for those looking to carry AIWB. (Photo: Ben Philippi/Guns.com)


If you’re someone who plans on carrying AIWB and does a lot of driving, that extra length of the gun can start to make your carry experience unpleasant – let’s just leave it at that. Meanwhile, I carry the same way with the P365X and can drive for hours without noticing it much. Some of that is chalked up to the upgraded Vedder holster, but much of it is because it’s a shorter gun. This also means the P365X has less chance of printing as well.

My next argument for why the P365X might still be a contender is the range time I’ve had with the gun. I’m sure when I finally shoot the Macro that I’ll love it, but I personally don’t think the P365X is so snappy that it needed a compensator to tame the recoil. From the videos I’ve seen, the Macro shoots incredibly flat, which is great, but I’ve always found the P365X to be very controllable – more on the range in a minute. Here are the full specs for the P365X.

Specs:

Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 12+1
Overall Length: 6 inches
Barrel Length: 3.1 inches
Overall Width: 1.1 inches
Height: 4.8 inches (5.73 inches with Romeo Zero optic)
Weight: 17.8 ounces
 

Range Time


Shooting the P365X isn’t going to blow your socks off. Then again, it’s not meant to either. The gun is aimed at the concealed carry market, and you don’t need a competition trigger to make an impact there. The P365X does have SIG’s flat trigger, and it’s an incrementally better change from the original, but it’s not the greatest pistol trigger you’ll ever shoot.

That said, it's more than serviceable for concealed carry. There is a little travel at the beginning of the trigger pull and then some minimal effort to get through the wall and break the trigger. It’s not the cleanest or easiest break, but it’s not bad for a concealed carry gun. I’ve felt much worse. With our Lyman trigger gauge, we found it to average 4.76 pounds across 10 pulls. I do like that the reset is short, tactile, and very audible. It makes getting on target and staying there for follow-up shots very easy.
 

Sig P365X at the range
Its a little snappy but totally controllable. When it comes to concealed carry guns, it gets the job done just fine. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


The Romeo Zero red dot that came on top is the first red dot from SIG Sauer that I’ve ever shot. The window is quite small on it, which took some adjustment since the last red dot I shot a lot of rounds with was the U.S. Optics DRS 2.0. That dot has a much bigger viewing window. After enough dry-fire time, however, it became easy enough to pick it up, much like any other red dot. 

I feel like the smaller window may have actually helped me when training and shooting with my other guns now. Because most of my dry-fire and live-fire training is done with the P365X, I found that it’s now easier to pick up the dot on my Walther when I do shoot it. Perhaps that is a bit of my subconscious playing tricks, but it’s something I noticed nonetheless. 
 

Sig P365 vs P365X at the range
Wide groupings are more a fault of the author than the gun, but it's clear that the MRD has helped. Shot at 25 feet using Federal Premium. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


Overall, my accuracy and reliability with the gun is good enough for me to be very confident in carrying it. I’ve put nearly 1,000 rounds through this gun since I started carrying it, everything from cheap re-manufactured loads all the way up to self-defense ammo from SIG and Federal, and it has consistently chewed and spit it all out. 

It should be noted, too, that I’m not an overly clean freak when it comes to my guns. This one came to me used. I don’t know how many rounds ran through it before, and I’ve only cleaned the gun once in the time I’ve been using it. All that is to say the gun has kept trucking with minimal upkeep. 
 

Pros and Cons


Of course, no gun is 100-percent perfect, and the P365X is no exception. The biggest stone I would throw at this gun is probably how the optic mounts to the gun. The rear sight is actually incorporated into the Romeo Zero optic. While not a huge deal, I wish this wasn’t the case. 

After having shot the S&W M&P 2.0 with the co-witness sights, I realized how nice it was to have that co-witness ability. I’m hoping co-witness sights will be a future part of the Romeo Zero and the SIG products that support it.  
 

Sig P365X trigger and Romeo Zero
A few stones that people could throw are that the trigger isn't the best you'll ever pull, the viewing window is a bit small, and the sights don't co-witness. All in all, these seem like pretty minor stones being tossed when compared to all the positives the gun has going for it. (Photo: Seth Rodgers/Guns.com)


I still think the myriad of pros far outweigh the few cons there are.

Pros:
•    Lightweight and ultra concealable
•    Romeo Zero direct mounts to the pistol
•    Accurate and reliable
•    Lots of third-party support for different accessories
•    Great ergonomics make for comfortable shooting 
•    Large capacity in small footprint

Cons:
•    Can’t co-witness sights with red dot
•    Gun can be snappy to shoot for some
•    Small viewing window on Romeo Zero
 

Final Thoughts


Despite recent advances from SIG, I still think that the P365X is one of the better concealed carry pistols on the market. But that could really be said of the entire P365 lineup. These guns have gained a tremendous following. SIG sold more than a million of the original model for a good reason. They’re simply some of the best pistols available on the market today, and the numbers don’t lie. 

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