The 226 is a fine weapon. I don't have experience with a wide variety of handguns, but I've put over 5000 rounds through 226's for police training with no problems. In our academy we had the choice of glocks, sigs, S&W's, or berettas. We had a day at the range on each, and then could use whatever we wanted from there on out. 9 out of the 11 of us took sigs. Both of the top shooters in the academy (me being one
) shot sigs. I was very happy when I was hired at a department that uses .40 226's. I can't say a single bad thing about them, once you're trained to instinctively use the decocking lever and get used to the DA/SA trigger.
I have a 239 .40 as a concealed/off duty weapon... again, can't say a bad thing about it.