I've had a P220 for over 10 years and put thousands of rounds through it without a single problem.  Late last year, I finally find an original NICKEL P220.  I knew they were out there but they are pretty hard to find, and I've been looking for a few years.

Anyway, the gun looked practically brand new, but was old enough that the night sites died, so I replaced them.  I've probably put a few hundred rounds through it since I bought it, and it functioned like a Sig should, until today.

I should have known something was wrong when I had a failure to feed and jam.  I cleared the jam, fired the gun, then it didn't extract the spent casing.  By this time I figured something was wrong and resolved to check it out.

Dropped the mag and cleared the gun.  Locked the slide back so I could take it apart, but the take down lever was incredibly stiff.  I finally got it pointing downward and pulled off the slide with no problem.  There doesn't appear to be any problem, except now the take down lever won't budge, and I hesitate to force it.

Soaking it in WD40 didn't do any good.  It looks like I'll have to call Sig and send it back to the factory to figure out, who knows what that'll cost me. (The gun was manufactured in 1991 and I bought it used, so I can't imagine it would be under warranty.)

Here are a few items that may or may not be relevant to the situation, in case anyone else has seen this problem before:

1.  I was shooting both American Eagle 230gr FMJ and Cor-Bon 165 +P HP loads.  I wanted to compare the recoil between the two rounds.  I shot one mag of AE, then one of Cor-Bons, then a mag with alternating rounds.

2.  I was trying out this new recoil dampening spring thing I found at Numrich here .  I wasn't really looking for that, but I had to buy some grip washers and didn't want to pay $6.95 shipping on a $4 part.  It looked interesting so I picked it up.

The slide functions fine but the take down lever just won't move.  I just hope Sig can fix it because I know they don't make nickel guns anymore, and I really don't care for the stainless models.

Any ideas?

Take the upper apart and see if the extractor claw is still in place...it is a weak point on this gun, and it is not unusual to see them break off if an owner has dropped the slide onto a round which has been droppen into the chamber of a locked-open gun several times. (The extractor is not really "weak", but it IS very hard and thus a bit brittle. It will work just fine if rounds are chambered correctly from the magazine, but I have seen at least 6-8 broken over the years)

My WAG is that the claw may have broken off and fallen down into the area of the take down lever, thus jamming it. But that's just a guess. If so, the ammo you were shooting at the time had nothing to do with it...it would have happened with whatever you were using.

I will have to get one of my 220's out and take a better look at the lever to spot any other possibilities.

Good Luck

I don’t have much experience with 220’s, but, FWIW (in addition to the above recommendations – it really does sound like something has fallen into the mechanism):

Take a flashlight and carefully look all around the takedown lever on the inside – you might be able to see the problem.

Does the slide stop move up and down easily?  And does it spring down like it supposed too?  While extremely unlikely, I’m wondering if you’ve got a problem with your slide catch lever spring.

Other things to try:

Push hard on the right side of the disassembly lever (where it shows on the right, outside of the frame) while trying to rotate it in both directions.  If things start to come apart when you try this, that’s OK, that’s how SIG’s are detail stripped anyway.

Another thing that might be worth trying is to push hard forward on the locking insert and, while doing this, try to rotate the disassembly lever – again in both directions.  (The locking insert is the big square piece of steel in the center of the frame directly above the trigger – the disassembly lever passes through it.)

Also try the above while pushing backwards on the locking insert.  Also try this pulling up on it.

If this doesn’t do any good, try all of the above while holding the SIG at different angles (such as upside down).

Don’t push hard enough to break anything, of course!  That’s all I can think of.  I’ve never seen this problem before, so admittedly I’m just wildly guessing.  

Good luck!

Quoted: You "fixed" something low tech that wasnt broken with something "high-tech" and now your gun isnt working.... Whatever that bastardized recoil spring guide thingy is has probably come apart inside your gun.

That would be my guess...

Quoted: You "fixed" something low tech that wasnt broken with something "high-tech" and now your gun isnt working.... Whatever that bastardized recoil spring guide thingy is has probably come apart inside your gun.

If I could find a magic lamp with a genie it in, my first wish would be to remove the urge to tinker with things that already work.  This strange illogical urge that I have has seemed to cause me trouble since I was a kid.

I looked at the recoil spring doodad, and it seems intact.  There also doesn't seem to be anything blocking the inside of the lever, and I compared it to my other P220 and they looked the same.

But, with the above posts in mind, I'll go through the entire gun again, under brighter light and see if I can figure it out.  Otherwise it'll have to go back to Sig.  If it was the aftermarket part's fault, I wish I had tried it in my blue P220 instead of the nickel.  I don't think I could replace the nickel one anytime soon.

Gotta quit tinkerin'
Gotta quit tinkerin'
Gotta quit tinkerin'
Gotta quit tinkerin'
Gotta quit tinkerin'
Gotta quit tinkerin'...

I got ticked off that my gun is screwed up, so I resolved to figure out what happened.  Lucky for me I have a blue P220 as well, so I took it apart and compared it side by side with the nickel P220.  I looked for stuff stuck inside, missing parts, things in the wrong place, etc.

They looked exactly the same.  So, taking the advice of an earlier post, I rotated the take down lever counter clockwise until it pointed straight up.  It wasn't easy and I had to use a little bit of force.  Then I pushed on the round end opposite the lever side and it pushed through the frame.  I wiggled and twisted it and it eventually came out.

I couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I did the same thing to the blued lever.  Both looked pretty much the same.  After some fiddling, I decided to put the blue lever in the nickel gun.  It goes back together with little effort and works perfectly, just like a Sig should.

Thinking I had somehow solved the problem, I stick the nickel take down lever back it. It won't budge.  So I yank it out and look at it very closely.  It appeared to have been bent in the middle, which seemed odd since the steel is probably 1/8" (or more) thick.  When I compared it to the blue lever, it was obviously curved slightly.

I figure this was my problem and resolved to simply buy another take down lever.  But since I can't seem to stop fiddling with things, I decided to see if I could make it work.  After several whacks with a light hammer, the lever seems to work ok now, but is still a little stiffer than normal to work.

I still don't know how enough stress was put on this part to make it bend.  I sent an email to Numrich asking to return that EFK Fire Dragon buffer spring, and I asked if they will replace my damaged parts for free.  I will post an update when I get a response.

Right now, I figure the problem solved as long as I replace the take down lever, and I'm going to replace the little funny looking spring that attaches near it too.

I'm just glad I don't have to send it back to Sig now.

Everyone - learn from my mistakes.  Don't screw with things that work!!

I think most of us have a box hidden away somewhere with junk that sounded great at the time, but just didn’t work!!  

Anyway, glad you got things fixed.

Keep in mind your bent (and re-bent) disassembly lever might cause some irregular wear in the frame/locking insert hole it sits in if you use it a lot.  I suggest you don’t use it much, keep it well oiled, and replace it soon.

I just got a reply email from Numrich Gun Parts.  They will take back and refund the fire dragon spring buffer, and they will replace my damaged parts free of charge!

'Tis a happy day!

Got my replacement parts today.  They sent me a new take down lever and the funky looking spring that holds it in place.  Put it in, works great!

This was my first order from Numrich and certainly won't be my last.

Try the same recoil spring in my gun . damn I could not get it to work proper . I just put the old spring back in, no problems. I returned back to the guy that was selling them at the gun show he traded me for a mercury filled buffer great trade indeed