38 Testing for FBI protocols (right) with 9mm V-Crown JHPs. Ballistic gelatin (below) is made on-site in a temperaturecontrolled room.
couldn’t shoot on-site in Kentucky,” he says. “Here, we have six ranges on-site, and we can shoot indoors, in controlled circumstances. It saves us a lot of valuable time.” The plant also has a climate-controlled room where specs can be checked. For example, during my visit, a technician was checking the runout of selected casings. Here, again, you will see a blending of the old and the new. The stout gauge stands were from the 1940s, but they were equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, all of it tied into computers and iPads. Another room is devoted to making ballistic gelatin. The hot-water tank where the gelatin is dissolved and the refrigerators where the blocks are stored are precisely controlled for temperature. In this way, Sig engineers know they will have a consistent and unvarying medium into which to shoot. Testing for FBI protocols is across the hall, limiting the distance the gelatin must
Current Offerings Currently, Sig Sauer ammunition is available in the following configurations. Pistol: V-Crown (JHP): .380 Auto, .38 Spl., 9mm, .357 Sig, .357 Mag., .38 Super +P, .40 S&W, 10mm, .44 Rem. Mag., .44 S&W Spl., .45 Auto, and .45 Colt. SIG FMJ: .380 Auto, .38 Spl., 9mm, .357 Sig, .357 Mag., .38 Super +P, .40 S&W, 10mm, and .45 Auto. Rifle: Match Grade Open Tip Match (OTM): .223 Rem., .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag., 300BLK Subsonic, 300BLK Supersonic, and 6.5 Creedmoor. Hunting: Sig HT: .223 Rem., .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag., and 300BLK Supersonic.
travel. Doing so also saves a great deal of time, further enhancing the efficiency of the facility. This attention to detail extends to the components sourced from other manufacturers. “We work with various powder and primer manufacturers and test 50 to 75 different loads of every powder and primer for overall performance before selecting the combination that meets our goals for each particular round,” says Powers. “Similar care is taken when selecting the best brass from various sources, and we are moving toward making our rifle brass in-house.”
PRECISION AND CONSISTENCY Powers likes to say, “We consider ourselves to be an engineering company. Right now, the plant employs 72 full-time workers, 10 of whom are engineers.” He’s proud of that ratio. “We spend more on R&D than any other company,” he says. Here’s just one example of that philosophy in action. Sig engineers are obsessed with ignition consistency, as they believe, rightly, consistent ignition helps produce consistent accuracy. So, they designed and built a proprietary machine that could precisely fashion the flash hole that would help deliver that consistency. These telling details also help explain the overall design of the plant. The engineering team can get to the line quickly and easily, and the testing areas are just off the main floor. Powers believes the layout of the factory lets his team be “more nimble,” which helps lower the cost of the final product. But to Powers, the most important aspect of the new plant just might be quality. “Here, we can control quality right from the beginning.” And that’s a great place to be.