SIG Sauer Rose P365: The Best Woman’s Carry Gun?

I think it’s safe to say that SIG’s P365 is a certified hit at this point, and like any successful new release with good reviews and a healthy number of fans, it seems to have spawned its own franchise. 

One of the newest offerings is the female-focused Rose line, which currently consists of a special-edition optics-ready P356-380 Rose and P365XL Comp Rose, both of which have some lovely accents and detailing and come with a few specially chosen accessories.

When SIG asked if I wanted to test out the 380 Rose, I was excited to get my hands on it and see what the folks at SIG and Rose program lead Lena Miculek had come up with. 

I was interested to see if this program was something that would really help women looking at getting into carrying a gun, which is something I’m all about, or if they’d just come up with a pink version of the P365.

(Spoiler: It’s the first one.)

SPECS & FEATURES

• Caliber: .380 AUTO
• Capacity: 10+1
• Overall length: 5.8 inches
• Overall height: 4.2 inches 
• Overall width: 1.1 inches
• Barrel length: 3.1 inches
• Sight Radius: 4.9 inches
• Weight (w/magazine): 15.7 oz

The basic P365-380 Rose is the same size as the 9mm P365 model, with a 3.1-inch barrel, XRAY3 Day/Night sights, and two 10-round capacity magazines.

For those of you unfamiliar with SIG’s micro-compact magazine geometry/wizardry, you get those 10 rounds in a space that, just a few years ago, would have held 6 rounds at best. 10+1 rounds loaded in a gun with a 4.2” overall height is a significant boost in capacity. 

With the Rose version, you get the same proven modular P365 design but with a few aesthetic tweaks, including a rose gold-colored takedown lever, slide release, trigger, backplate, and safety. There’s also some very pretty (and very functional) rose pattern stippling laser-engraved on the grip. 

SIG will also have a Rose edition of the RomeoZero optic the slide is cut for available in case you want all your accessories to match. Hopefully, either SIG or an aftermarket manufacturer will get on a matching pistol light too. 

All in all, I really like the look of the gun. SIG really nailed the tactical/practical aesthetic while adding a few elegant touches that elevate the gun beyond your standard run-of-the-mill black polymer frame with a black metal slide. 

And it's not bubblegum pink or Tiffany blue to indicate it's “for girls”, which I really like.

Aesthetically, this feels more like a gun you’d see some high-class lady assassin wielding in the John Wick franchise or maybe used by one of the MCU Black Widows as a backup gun. 

Elegant and sophisticated, yes, but still functional and practical, instead of looking like part of a “2nd Amendment Barbie” accessory kit.

Beyond the Rose program upgrades to the gun itself, this is really just the same P365-380 that we already know and love. The slide features SIG’s Nitron finish, is cut for an optic, and can, of course, be swapped out for a 9mm slide if you want to change calibers. 

It also has the Rose logo nicely engraved and color-filled on the side, but other than that, the gun itself is just a touched-up version of the existing P365-380, which is great as far as I’m concerned. 

AT THE RANGE

At the range, the gun performed exactly how previous P365-380s I’ve shot have performed: well.

The trigger is a bit long but very smooth, with a crisp, clean break right around 6 lbs. I wish the .380 version had the flat X-series trigger, but that’s mostly just personal preference speaking as the curved trigger is still very good. 

Groups were consistent and easy, thanks to the awesome trigger, even with spicy self-defense loads. Hornady Critical Defense 90gr gave the best group at just under 1.5” at 15 yards, but everything I tested was in the same ballpark.

The recoil was manageable and felt less snappy than some other tiny pocket pistols I’ve shot lately. Some of that is down to the .380 chambering, but even against other .380s, the Rose P365 felt a little easier to control during rapid fire thanks to the aggressive stippling and low bore axis.

My only real complaint was that the magazine followers took a bit to loosen up, but leaving them loaded overnight got the springs to a much more comfortable state. Still, you get a magazine loader in the kit, so not a huge deal, especially when they fed flawlessly right out of the box.

All in all, the performance was as solid as I’ve come to expect from the P365 family. It fed and fired reliably, put rounds where I told it to, and was easy to shoot. It also carries well, and after having it as my main carry gun for almost a month, I’d gladly continue to have it as my primary carry.

At the end of the day, there’s a reason why the P365 is the number one selling carry gun on the market, and aside from the aesthetic upgrades, there’s really not much different here as far as the gun itself goes.

If it ain’t broke, why try and fix it?

The biggest differences come with the overall Rose program and included accessories rather than any major changes to the gun itself. 

WHAT IS SO DIFFERENT ABOUT THE ROSE P365?

The stated goal of the Rose program, as laid out by SIG, is “…to help encourage and inspire women to take on the responsibility of their own personal safety through education, training, and community.”

I have to say, that’s basically my main goal here in the gun world too, so I was immediately drawn to (and wary of) the Rose program when it was announced. At the end of the day, so much of what gets marketed to women is just…pink guns. 

And if that’s your thing, that’s great! Carry what makes you happy and makes you feel safe. 

That said, surely we can do better for women looking to start carrying a gun than just some hot pink Cerakote, right? After all, women who carry make up the fastest-growing segment of the gun-buying market and tend to both spend and train more than men on average when it comes to carrying concealed

In other words, women take carrying a gun seriously, and I’ve felt for a long time that most gun makers aren’t returning that level of interest and investment. Most everything that gets marketed towards women new to carrying a gun, or new to guns in general, has just been a pink version of whatever is already selling well.

SIG Sauer, though? SIG seems determined to do right by the women out there who are either new to gun ownership or at least new to carrying a concealed handgun. 

Let’s start with their choice of collaborator for this whole venture, Lena Miculek.

Lena is an 8-time world champion pro shooter and member of Team SIG. She has used the platform she’s gained as a highly-successful pro shooter to help other women not only get into the sporting side of shooting but to help them carry safely and confidently. 

She regularly teaches classes and holds seminars helping women (and men) to carry firearms safely and to use them effectively in a variety of situations. 

She’s also the daughter of Jerry Miculek and Kay Clark-Miculek, legendary world champion shooters themselves, and has been shooting competitively (and winning) since she was eight years old. The NRA calls her the world’s greatest all-around female shooter, and I think that’s a fair assessment.

The big draw of the Rose program for me, beyond the pretty pistol that doesn’t really put holes in things any better than its standard-edition counterpart, is the included training, accessories, and community put together by Lena to go with it. 

ROSE PROGRAM & ACCESSORIES

In your Rose box, you’ll find the gun (either a P365-380 Rose or P365-XL COMP Rose), two magazines, a mag loader, five all-plastic training rounds for handling and dry-fire practice, and a TSA-friendly special-edition Rose Vaultek Lifepod pistol safe.

It's a very attractive package, but more than that, it's functional. You really do get everything you need to get going right out of the box, and everything is high-quality, as you’d expect from SIG. 

The only thing that’s missing is a holster, but given how deeply personal choosing a carry holster is, especially for women, I think it’s probably better to leave that out of the equation here. 

There’s a host of holster options out there, and while having a basic model to get started might be nice for some, I bet whatever SIG went with would go unused by a large number of customers and just needlessly add to the price. 

You also get a nice little note from Lena herself which opens up access to a series of training videos covering safety, loading, handling, racking the slide, and basic shooting fundamentals, with more on the way. Basically, everything you need to know in order to carry a gun for protection. 

You’ll also have access to the wider Rose Community, a Facebook group of over five thousand Rose owners in an active and welcoming forum that will help you figure out your next steps like finding a concealed carry class, buying the right ammo, training with your gun, and choosing the right carry holster.

Will it replace an in-person concealed carry class? No online video ever will. However, Lena’s easy and approachable teaching is absolutely enough to get anyone started, regardless of their familiarity with firearms. 

One of the biggest problems I hear about when talking to women who want to start carrying is a lack of self-confidence. If they don’t have someone in their life to teach them the basics, they often don’t know where to start and are understandably apprehensive about carrying something that can take a life without first having a good grounding in its proper use. 

This is a large part of why stun guns and pepper/OC spray are mostly marketed towards women, as they’re seen as lower stakes, non-lethal options (despite having mostly the same legal ramifications and penalties if misused), and take less training and familiarity to wield. 

Personally, I think that’s a lazy solution and a bit insulting. 

With the Rose program, the basics are all there in the box (and online), and you have instant access to the ever-growing community to help you learn and develop as a gun owner and shooter. 

GIRL WITH A GUN

As a fairly visible woman in the firearm industry, I have spoken to hundreds if not thousands of other women who all have the same question: “I want to carry a gun to protect myself. Where do I start?”

A year ago, I would have linked them to some helpful articles (some of them mine) or YouTube videos (some of them Lena Miculek’s), giving them a quick rundown of some good carry guns to research, and told them to email me if they have any additional questions. 

Now, my answer might just be, “Check out the SIG Rose program.” There really isn’t a better pre-packaged, off-the-shelf option out there right now. 

You get everything you need (except a holster, which you’ll still have to pick yourself), a good primer on the basics from the greatest female shooter of our time, and a community of other Rose owners who all want to learn and grow as shooters and help others do the same.

Oh, and the gun that you get is guaranteed to be one of the best carry guns, if not the best to have been released in the last decade.

In-person training is still important, but the Rose program is the perfect bridge between opening a box with a handgun in it and being able to take a class feeling confident and safe while using it. And in my experience, that’s a big gap for a lot of people to cross.

With the Rose program, any shooter of any knowledge level will be able to open the box and start learning. And more importantly, will be empowered and inspired to take the next steps in their firearms journey. 

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