Review of the Taran Tactical Legion P320 X-Five

Two months ago, I did a review of the SIG Legion P320 X-Five.  If you haven’t already, I suggest reading it along with the video I did.  In that review, I indicated that the Legion X-Five was almost perfect – I would be making a few small modifications to make the Legion X-Five meet my requirements for competition.  The biggest thing I wanted to do to my Legion X-Five is have the grip module stippled as the Legion X-Five grip module (much like the “regular” X-Five) isn’t quite “sticky” enough for me.  The more I thought about the Legion X-Five being the ultimate expression of my beloved P320 X-Five, the more I wanted my Legion X-Five to be a step above.  Something you won’t see everyday.  So I wanted to do a bit more than just a stipple job to the grip module. Hmmm….

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview Taran Butler of Taran Tactical Innovations for USPSA Magazine – it’s the July/August 2019 issue of you’re a USPSA member and have access to the online magazine archive.  I’ve been a fan of Taran Tactical Innovations for several years – long before Taran Butler became famous both in and outside the firearms community for training Keanu Reeves for the John Wick Movies.  Here’s a photo of me with Taran Butler taken at the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting:

I was also personally familiar with the work performed by Taran Tactical Innovations – about three years ago I had TTI modify a Benelli M2 for use in 3-Gun:

I’ve been extraordinarily pleased with my TTI M2 and have used it successfully in many 3-Gun matches.  So I thought “how cool would it be to have TTI do some work on my SIG P320 X-Five?”  So I reached out to Taran and pitched the idea to him.  As it turns out, despite the fact it’s not really mentioned on their website, TTI does work on the P320 X-Five – they do what they call their “RTG Package.”  I sent my Legion X-Five off to TTI, and about a month later I had back what I believe is the first TTI Legion P320 X-Five:

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE TTI RTG PACKAGE?

The bigest functional and aesthetic feature of the RTG Package is the stipple job on the grip module.  It’s the same stipple pattern found on my TTI Benelli M2, and I absolutely love it.  It’s as aggressive of a stipple pattern as I’ve ever encountered, and I absolutely love the aesthetic as well.  Thankfully, the tungsten/polymer grip module on the Legion X-Five stipples just as well as a traditional polymer grip.  As I highlight in the below video supplement, there’s a generous area below the beavertail that is not stippled – which is what you want.  On the draw, if my hand doesn’t come in to the beavertail perfectly, the slick area allows my hand to slide into the optimal spot as high up on the beavertail as possible.  A real cottage industry has popped up in recent years surrounding grip stippling of polymer handguns.  Anybody with a soldering iron seems to be jumping into this service market.  I can tell you I’ll never have anyone else but TTI stipple my grip modules going forward – it’s that good.

The second modification done is the bronze colored ion bond coating that’s applied to the barrel.  The process is similar to how DLC coatings are applied to metal.  TTI doesn’t perform this particular process in house – it’s sent out to an expert provider in this field.  Again, having seen this coating applied to the bolt of my Benelli M2, I knew I liked it and wanted it for my X-Five.  The coating on my M2 bolt has held up extremely well, so I’m not concerned about it wearing on my barrel.  I’ve also noted that my shotgun bolt is really easy to keep clean with this coating applied, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy the same benefit on my X-Five barrel.  I think the color looks fantastic – it really sets my X-Five apart from the…pardon the pun…legion of others out there that look just like it.

The final modification performed in the TTI RTG Package is the laser engraving of the TTI logo to both sides of the slide:

Also included with the RTG Package are two TTI +2 aluminum base pads, which work with either 17-round magazines (pictured) or 21-round magazines.  I typically use these on SIG 21 round magazines, which brings my total capacity to 23 rounds.  They’re available in a variety of colors, but the Coyote Bronze is a close match to the ion bond bronze on the barrel.

Here’s a photo of my TTI Legion X-Five with my TTI Beneli M2 – I went red base pads for this photo as I have a red bolt release on my M2:

HOW DOES THIS TTI LEGION X-FIVE COMPARE TO THE TTI GLOCK COMBAT MASTER?

The TTI Glock Combat Master is legendary within the Glock community, with packages designed both for concealed carry/defense as well as pure competition.  Taran Butler himself started his competitive shooting career shooting Glocks and help shape the requirements for what the ultimate competition Glock should be:

The Combat Master package involves extensive functional and cosmetic modifications to a Glock – you can see considerable machining work has been done to the slide on the one pictured above.  I believe the TTI Glock Combat Master package starts at around $1300.00.  In the case of the RTG package for the SIG Legion X-Five, the modifications aren’t nearly as extensive – they don’t have to be.  The Legion X-Five, unlike a Glock, is designed to be a competition firearm right out of the box.  Yes, there are Glocks that are designed for competition use (like the Glock 34) – but Glock doesn’t make a factory model with the competition specific feature set of the SIG Legion X-Five.  As such you pay a lot less for the TTI RTG Package for the X-Five – just $299.00.

If you compare them side by side on the basis of price:

Stock Glock (~$500.00) plus TTI CM Package ($1300.00) = ~$1800.00

SIG Legion X-Five (~$900.00) plus TTI RTG Package($299.00) = ~$1200.00

I’ve fired a Combat Master Glock 34 before – If you have to have a Glock, there’s none better than the TTI Combat Master.  The feature set is very close between the Combat Master Glock and the RTG Legion X-Five.  From a shooting perspective, both will perform quite comparably.  You’re paying roughly $600.00 more for the CM Glock due to all the machine work that goes into the slide.  The Combat Master Trigger Job is also a thing of beauty that is going to be slightly nicer in feel than the stock Legion X-Five trigger.  Of course, the Legion X-Five will have the benefit of the weight coming from the tungsten/polymer grip module.  Like I said, I’ve never been a Glock guy – I’ll take the TTI Legion X-Five all day long.  But it really is just a matter of personal preference.

As I mentioned before, I really like the TTI aesthetic.  When I made up my mind to have TTI do the stipple job, it was a no brainer to have the entire RTG Package done – with the inclusion of a couple of magazine base pads, it really is a great value and makes the Legion X-Five look and feel like a luxuriously high-end custom firearm:

In addition to this written photo review, I’ve also recorded some video footage of the TTI Legion X-Five on the ThruMyLens YouTube Channel: