Detailed article on Sig P320 drop and firing voluntary upgrade program

[MacFromOK]

Ok, but I find it hard to believe that they had no idea it wasn't drop safe.

Agreed. You'd think that would be on every firearm mfr's test list.

 

[OKNewshawk]

Ok, but I find it hard to believe that they had no idea it wasn't drop safe.

Agreed. You'd think that would be on every firearm mfr's test list.

A drop safety test is on every firearm manufacturer's test list. It's this one:
http://www.saami.org/specifications...s/download/Z299-5_ANSI_AbusiveMishandling.pdf
To avoid an inevitable TL;DR, here's the section that's pertinent to your assertion:

5.3. Test Procedure -The firearm or firearms shall be dropped in such a way as to cause them to strike the rubber mat surface in each of the following attitudes:

a) Barrel vertical, muzzle down.
b) Barrel vertical, muzzle up.
c) Barrel horizontal, bottom up.
d) Barrel horizontal, bottom down.
e) Barrel horizontal, left side up.
f) Barrel horizontal, right side up.​

5.3.1. The test shall be conducted with the trigger pull force set at the minimum force specified by the manufacturer.
5.3.2. The test shall be conducted with the magazine, clip or remaining revolver cylinder chambers fully loaded with SAAMI-compliant gun functioning dummy cartridges and locked in place.
5.3.3. The test shall be conducted with firearms of minimum and maximum weight configurations of a given model, including weight variations introduced by accessories cataloged by the manufacturer.

I see no -30° drop test in the SAAMI test list above, nor instructions to drop the firearm onto bare concrete.

BTW, I'm not trying to fanboy here. I'm trying to ensure that you understand exactly what SIG was up against. They were blindsided by a non-standard drop test. I like what TTAG said in the blog post I linked in my last post:

If every degree on the X, Y, and Z axes is a data point, there are over 46 million potential orientations in which to drop a firearm.

 

[MacFromOK]

Good point. Just seems odd that it would go off in that particular angle and not even leave a firing-pin mark on any of the other tests. Or maybe it did, dunno.

Flukes do happen though. Perhaps their luck is worse than mine.