I tested the SIG SAUER P365 XL Rose 9mm
Female shooters have special demands when it comes to firearms: Women are built differently than men, in general shorter, smaller, lighter in bodyweight and weaker when it comes to muscle strength. Also, proportions of female bodies differ quite a bit from male bodies. Since most weapons are geared towards the male physique especially petite women struggle to find firearms that fit them and let them shoot comfortably.
Recently firearms manufacturers discovered women and their special demands as a new target group (no pun intended!), among them SIG SAUER. In collaboration with Lena Miculek – an American professional competitive shooter, multi world title winner in different shooting disciplines and firearms educator – SIG SAUER created the P365 XL Rose.
Technical specifications
The Rose comes in two different calibers: 9mm and .380 ACP
The Rose is based on SIG SAUER’s P365 XL, their very successful micro-compact pistol. The Rose basically is the P365 XL but with a twist. It comes in two options: the P365 .380 ACP and P365-XL Comp 9mm, which means the handgun is available in two calibers – .380 ACP and 9mm. Caliber .380 ACP is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge that was developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning and has been a popular self-defense cartridge ever since. The .380 ACP is compact and light but has a shorter range and less stopping power than 9mm .380 ACP is a popular self-defense cartridge for shooters who want a lightweight or smaller pistol with manageable recoil. Many women find the recoil of 9mm pistols unpleasant and may struggle to properly control recoil due to less strength in wrists and hands. Therefore, the Rose comes in caliber .380 ACP.
There is also the 9mm version of the Rose, which is a bit larger than the .380 ACP version. To reduce recoil, it is designed with a compensator. Compensators are simple and effective at reducing felt recoil and muzzle rise, which makes it easier to get back on target fast. Both models were selected for their mild recoil. I tested the Rose P365-XL Comp 9mm.
Both versions come with a manual safety to add an extra level of security. I first had to get used to it because I usually shoot pistols without manual safeties (a Glock 48 and a Walther PDP F Series 3.5”). However, I think they are nice to have. The Rose is geared towards an American audience that is – unless Switzerland – allowed to carry in most States, so extra safety makes sense.
The Rose is beautifully designed and aesthetically very pleasing with its rose-gold trigger, safety lever, slide release, takedown lever and striker plate.
The handgun comes in a lockable box with a lot of useful accessories: two magazines (one flush-fit and one extended) a magazine loader (I love magazine loaders, I always struggle to get past five rounds when manually putting them in my mags, so magazine loaders are live saving for me) and five dummy rounds for dry-fire practice. There is a little card signed by Lena Miculek and a QR code that takes you to the Rose webpage where you can find instructional videos by Lena Miculek herself, a free online basic firearms training course.
The gun is aesthetically very pleasing. To appeal more to women, the industry tends to simply “shrink and pink”. Not with the Rose. Although there is a touch of pink added to the firearm and the accessories, the Rose is not tacky at all. The gun features a lasered rose design in the grip stippling and rose-gold anodized trigger, safety lever, slide release, takedown lever and striker plate. Accessories such as the tactical flashlight and the red dot sight are in the same black-rose gold design.
Testing the Rose at the Swiss Shooting Range
The Swiss Shooting Range is a beginner-friendly indoor shooting range very close to downtown Zurich that offers a nice selection for firearms for sale as well as training courses from beginner to advance level.
I was asked by the Swiss Shooting Range who collaborates with SIG SAUER Swiss to test the Rose P365-XL Comp 9mm and share my experiences. The handgun is available for rent at the Swiss Shooting Range if you want to try it out yourself.
The gun is comfortable to hold and easy to manipulate due to slide serrations and the stippled Rose-pattern grip, aggressive enough to keep the pistole anchored in the hand but not abrasive. I was surprised at how small it is! I am used to small pistols; I prefer smaller guns over bigger ones. Therefore, my very first handgun was a Glock 48. I chose it because of its small size. The Rose is smaller than a G48. With the G48 and my Walther PDP F Series 3.5”, I must break my grip to reach the mag release button properly. Not with the Rose: I can easily reach the mag release with my thumb. It is easy to activate but very unlikely to do so accidentally.
The handgun I was testing was brand new. Usually new firearms are a bit stiffer and harder to handle. Every gun needs to be “broken in” first and will loosen up over time with regular use. Racking the slide of the Rose was very easy right from the beginning. I racked the slides from my G48, the Walther PDP F series and the Rose back-to-back for comparison and they all felt the same. The Walther PDP F Series is another handgun tailored specifically to female shooters, featuring a new patented operating system resulting in a 20% reduction in slide rack force. At the beginning, my G48 was kind of hard to rack. I did some work on it to make it easier. The Rose’s slide is as easy to rack as my G48’s (that had some work done) and my PDP’s (that has this special technology). The magazines were rather stiff to load but I am sure they will loosen up over time plus there is a magazine loader included in the package. The safety and slide catch/release were smooth and easy to operate.
Personally, I prefer curved triggers, but I could live with the Rose’s straight trigger. Trigger pull is around 2.3 kg and has a fair amount of creep. It is comparable to my G48. I love my PDP F series trigger, which is much crispier. However, the Rose is designed for everyday carry, therefore a longer pre-travel of the trigger before the break adds to safety.
The Rose compared to a Walther PDP F Series 3.5" and a Glock 48
The Rose slide is cut for optics on the SIG Romeo Zero Elite footprint however I shot it with the iron sights only. They are well visible also in lower light. The front of the frame features SIG’s proprietary rail to install a tactical flashlight so that the weapon can be used in the dark too.
Smaller and lighter handguns will have more recoil or muzzle rise due to the reduced weight and the shorter barrel. I shot the 9mm Rose with the integrated compensator. Compared to my G48 (524 g) and my PDP F series (660 g), which are both bigger and about the same weight as the Rose (560 g), the Rose’s recoil was similar. Despite being smaller, it is not snappier than those two weapons. Adding a tactical flashlight to the barrel adds weight and reduces muzzle rise. The Rose comes with a rail for tactical flashlights. The Rose shoots very accurately on shorter distances. I had nice groups on the 5 and 10 m distance. The shots were a bit more scattered at 15 and 20 m, but the limiting factor must have been the shooters (aka me) and not the gun.
All in all, I really enjoyed shooting the SIG SAUER P365 XL Rose 9mm. It is easy to hold, manipulate and rack, accurate to shoot and aesthetically pleasing to look at. It already comes with some useful accessories and can be pimped with red dot sights and tactical flashlights. Holsters, cleaning kits, earmuffs, shooting glasses, shirts, belts, fanny packs and much more is available for purchase in the rose aesthetics. Especially for women with smaller hands it is the perfect handgun. If you want to try out the Rose yourself, it is available as rental weapon at the Swiss Shooting Range.
Do you want to compare handguns to each other? Then I have something for you: On HandgunHero you can visually compare different handguns regarding size, weight, capacity and more.
More guns for ladies
Pistol: Walther PDP F-Series
Shotgun: Rizzini Venus