To install the frame assembly into another grip module, you insert the frame locking tab at the rear of the assembly into the matching slot inside the rear of the grip module, pull back on the hammer to move the trigger rearward slightly and push the assembly down into the grip module. Reinstall the takedown lever and slide assembly and you've got a "new" pistol.

P250 pistols are fitted with a double-action-only trigger with a pull of approximately six pounds. This not only allows for the same, consistent trigger pull for each shot but provides the traditional simplicity and safety features of the double-action revolver.

I am a big fan of this type of trigger mechanism as I believe simplicity of operation is of the utmost importance on any handgun intended for police service or defensive purposes. Unlike DAO triggers on some pistols, the P250 allows multiple strikes upon a recalcitrant primer in the event of a misfire.

The Siglite sights are another attractive feature. While the sight employs the three-dot system common to most night sights, in daylight I found the two rear dots to be subdued while the front was quite prominent. That made sight alignment and target acquisition in bright light very fast.

All you southpaws out there will be happy to know that the P250 was designed with you in mind. The pistol comes standard with ambidextrous slide catch levers, and the magazine release button can be switched from port to starboard very easily.

The P250 functions in conventional fashion. The slide and barrel are locked together by means of the barrel hood moving up into and bearing against the front edge of the ejection port. Upon firing, slide assembly moves to the rear whereupon an angled cam on the bottom of the barrel moves on a steel shaft in the frame, pulling the barrel down and allowing the slide to continue to the rear, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case.

The recoil spring, located under the barrel, then pulls the slide forward, stripping the next cartridge out of the magazine and chambering it. As the slide/barrel assembly go into battery, the barrel is cammed upwards, locking the two parts together again.

The test sample provided by Sig Sauer was a typical example of the myriad combinations possible with this system. It had a compact grip module topped with a subcompact slide and chambered for the 9mm Parabellum (my favorite cartridge).

I had requested a medium-width grip which, thanks to the small finger rest extension on the magazine base plate, provided an ergonomically pleasing purchase on a pistol. As has become standard on most semiautomatic pistols today, all P250 grip modules feature an accessory rail for mounting lights, laser sights and other types of tactical accessories.

I arrived at Trigger Time Valley with the P250 Compact, my friend Rusty Rawsen, a sufficient supply of 9mm ammunition and the assorted impedimenta of the trade. Our first chore was to run the P250 through the mandatory accuracy testing, firing the pistol from an MTM Predator rest at 50 feet.

All of our groups were beautifully centered, and there were very few bullet impacts outside of the targets' respective 10-rings. This was one of the more accurate out-of-the-box pistols either of us had fired in some time. Before moving on to more enlightening (and entertaining) forms of shooting, we ran five rounds of each of our test loads across my Chrony chronograph to see what type of velocities we were getting from the subcompact's short barrel.