So About That Sig Manual Thing…

I’m not perfect. I try to be, but I’m not. No one is.

And sometimes, I really screw up.

It looks like I might have recently on the report about Sig Sauer’s P320 Operators Manual posted earlier this week.

In that, I noted that the P320 Operator’s Manual directed people to carry with an empty chamber. Considering the history of the guns just going off in people’s holsters, it looked like an admission.

And now I feel kind of ridiculous.

Did you know that with a VIP Platinum membership, you can DM writers in the Townhall family? You sure can, and I bring this up because one of you hit me up with this little tidbit.

This image from the Sig Sauer P320 manual is going around. So I started checking other manuals. So I checked the M&P Shield manual – doesn’t have it. Springfield Hellcat Pro does. Glock says to not carry outside a suitable holster if there is one in the chamber. pic.twitter.com/9XNYOzBkdv

— California Curmudgeon (@NorCalifPatriot) April 23, 2025

The author of this tweet reached out and also pointed out that CZ has something similar.

I don’t know where my Glock manual is, and I never had one for my CZ-75B since I bought it used, so I just blew it on this one.

Now, does this mean you should never carry with a round in the chamber? No.

This is likely lawyer-proofing. That way, no one can use the whole “it just went off” argument to justify suing them, since they can say that the manual tells them not to carry with a round in the chamber. Their defense can be that they didn’t use it as instructed, even if they know no one carries with an empty chamber, if they know anything.

It doesn’t matter.

Sig’s language is no such admission, and I should have done a better job of checking that out. I’m not going to make any excuses because this is just basic stuff, and I blew it.

Completely.

I apologize to Sig Sauer for this complete and total screw up on my part. It’s not easy to say that, but it’s the right thing to do. 

It would have been better if I’d done my job better, and then I wouldn’t have had to offer up an apology in the first place.

Now, I still don’t think that’s sound advice and that there’s something wrong with suggesting it, even if I think I understand why companies put that in there. I’m concerned someone who doesn’t know better will read the manual, listen to the directions, then carry with an empty chamber, but that’s not unique to the Sig P320 in any way. It’s an artifact of a litigious society and probably nothing else.

Are there still concerns with the Sig P320? Yeah, there are based on what I’ve seen. 

But that line in the manual might have been included because of those concerns, but it also might not have. Since this seems to be semi-standard across the industry, I’m inclined to think it’s not at this point.

Again, I’m sorry. I have no excuse and won’t try to fake one.

You all deserve better from me.