SIG P226 X-5 Scandic Eng - Designed by Vivian Mueller - Mastershop

Start with the slide, and you understand the whole gun. The flats carry deep Scandic scrollwork, hand-cut into a fine background field, with bold Nordic knotwork motifs flooded in gold against the matte silver finish. The X-Five mark sits inside the pattern rather than fighting it, and the SIG Sauer roll mark reads clean along the bottom edge. This was designed by Mueller Murgenthal, the Swiss house that has long done the finest engraving, and the cut here is genuine hand engraving, not laser etch.

Underneath the dress is one of the best steel pistols SIG ever built. The P226 X-Five is the full competition platform. All-steel construction, a long match barrel set into a heavy slide, a single-action trigger, and an accessory rail molded into the dust cover. The barrel flat is marked "Swiss Finish, 9mm Para," and the frame carries the "Made in Germany" address, with the Swiss cross worked into the top engraving.

The gold theme carries through the controls. Hammer, trigger, slide stop, takedown lever, magazine release, and grip screws all wear a polished gold finish that contrasts with the silver. The grips are figured birch burl, light honey colored with dark flecks running through the grain. No two panels of burl come out the same, and these have real depth.

It comes cased and complete. You get the factory test target signed off at 25 meters, both X-Series manuals, the SIG cleaning tube, and a spare 17-round magazine with a steel base pad. For a collector who wants a working competition SIG that also reads as a piece of metalwork, this one covers both ends without apology.